About Us
Speeches
State-of-the-Institution Address
Each fall, M. D. Anderson President John Mendelsohn, M.D., presents a state-of-the-institution address to all employees and volunteers in which he shares his thoughts on where the institution stands and where it’s headed in the future.
Other Speeches
27th Annual Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement
in Cancer Research
September 14, 2004
John Mendelsohn, M.D.
I am deeply honored to accept this award and I want to thank the selection committee for recognizing in this way the importance and the impact on cancer of research on anti-receptor/anti-tyrosine kinase therapy.
When I was in Scotland on a Fulbright grant, I wrote in my diary that I wanted to devote my life to using science to improve medical care. That was after 2 years in Dr. James D. Watson’s laboratory at Harvard College in the then newly named field of molecular biology. Subsequently I benefited from research training under John Paul at the University of Glasgow, Byron Waksman at Harvard Medical School, Norman P. Salzman at the NIH and Stuart Kornfeld at Washington University. To each of them I owe a debt — they taught me how to think clearly in research and stimulated my lifelong interest in the control and regulation of cell proliferation.
My research on monoclonal antibodies that inhibit EGF receptors has benefited from collaborations with a large number of investigators:
First, with Gordon Sato and our colleagues and postdocs at UCSD. There, beginning in 1981, we produced the first cancer therapy designed to specifically target the activity of an oncogene, namely the tyrosine kinase activity of EGF receptors.
Second, with the NCI. They generously funded R01s, P01s and National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group grants to my laboratory over a period of 15 years, beginning after — but not before — we published our demonstration of the effects of anti-EGF receptor mAb 225 on EGF receptor tyrosine kinase activity and on cell proliferation.
Third, with Hybritech, the first biotech company in San Diego. They licensed mAb 225 from UCSD, performed the necessary scale-up, formulation and toxicology studies, and sponsored a risky Phase I trial with 111In-labeled mAb 225, which for the first time tested the safety, feasibility, and targeting capacity of an anti-receptor/anti-tyrosine kinase therapy.
Fourth, with colleagues and trainees in my laboratories at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Together, we worked out mechanisms of action and demonstrated the potentiation of chemotherapy and radiotherapy by EGF receptor blockade.
Fifth, with ImClone Systems. ImClone licensed the human-chimeric form of the antibody, C225, from the University of California and invested in preclinical and clinical research and facilities for large scale production of mAbs. This focused effort led to FDA approval of C225 (cetuximab) for the treatment of refractory, advanced colorectal cancer in 2004. Bristol-Myers Squibb has played an important collaborative and leadership role for 3 years, and continues to do so.
Today collaboration has evolved into worldwide studies at many cancer centers, attempting to identify the appropriate patients who are likely to benefit from therapy with C225 and the right combination therapy for achieving maximal anti-tumor activity.
And, along with collaboration, there has been competition — healthy competition — from a dozen pharmaceutical and biotech companies, each with their own versions of an EGF receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor. The published evidence suggests that different, although closely related, mechanisms may account for the activities of these inhibitors. It is safe to predict that more than one anti-EGF receptor therapy will find long term use for treating cancer.
I am grateful for many things: for having the opportunity to play a role in this 20-plus year saga that has involved working and collaborating with outstanding basic, translational, and clinical researchers; for steadfast support for our vision from the NCI, the three academic institutions in which I have served on the faculty, and three biotech/pharmaceutical companies; and for the willingness of many thousands of patients to participate in trials to investigate the efficacy of this targeted approach to cancer therapy.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the encouragement and wise counsel of my wife Anne, a scientist in her own right, who has been at my side throughout the many ups — and some downs, too — as mAb 225 moved from an hypothesis to a therapy for patients with cancer.
Reports
Executive Leadership Responds to Wall Street Journal Article 'Cash before Chemo'
Leadership shares its thoughts and perspective on health care coverage issues raised in the April 28, 2008, article regarding the underinsured and uninsured. More...
NCI Cancer Center Directors’ Working Group
“Accelerating Successes Against Cancer”
John Mendelsohn, M.D., chaired the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Center Directors’ Working Group that was asked by the NCI director to complete a report that provides a blueprint on how the cancer centers can contribute to achieving the following goals:
- Reduce the burden of cancer through research in the areas of prevention, detection, treatment and survivorship, and create a strategy for success.
- Identify ways in which NCI-designated cancer centers can enhance collaboration with each other and with other stakeholders in the pursuit of our shared mission.
- Suggest initiatives that will enable the cancer centers to extend their research beyond their local communities and to provide leadership in the wide dissemination of best practices in cancer care and prevention.
- Create a realistic vision of the potential for future successes and identifying the roadblocks that must be dealt with.
View full report (pdf)