In the Cancer and COVID-19 CME event hosted by Penn Medicine and featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci, Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine and J Larry Jameson, MD, PhD, Dean of the Perelman School of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania review topics of the Cancer and COVID-19 CME at Penn Medicine. They explain how Penn Medicine navigated the coronavirus pandemic through their multi-disciplinary approach to medicine.
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Twitter @PennMDForum Dr. Vonderheide’s physician profile Dr. Jameson’s physician profile
good evening. I'm Larry Jamison, Dina the Perlman School of Medicine. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm delighted that we've got such a large audience that's interested in science and how science can inform our approaches to the coronavirus and ultimately translate some of that learning into the field of cancer. I want to spend a couple of minutes talking about the pin medicine Approach Cove in 19, and I'll give you a highlights of the Fantastic Abramson Cancer Center E. I have a few thank you's first Robert Vander Hide, Cancer Center director and his outstanding team for putting this program together and second, all of you for joining us. And third, I want to acknowledge our special guests. Tony Fountain I was going to say that I knew Tony before he was famous, but then I realized that Tony has always been even before Covad, 19, where he's helped inform the public and provided clear thinking and guidelines. He helped us with swine flu, Ebola, and if you go back in time, he pioneered our approach to HIV AIDS. I'm privileged to work with him as an editor on Harrison's principles of internal medicine, and I'm grateful he could join us, you'll hear more about him. Later on. In March, Pin Medicine stood up a new center, the study coronaviruses. Fortunately, we had a number of faculty with expertise in this area, and they've developed some very important advances that are helping us in this fight. Some of the basic science approaches Tau mRNA vaccines and DNA vaccines. They set up AH, high throughput screening of drugs that are already FDA approved that might have activity against the coronavirus and clinical trials on the clinical song. It was important that we decrease our activity early on in March and April so that we could spare PPE and so that we could make sure that we had a safe environment for frontline healthcare workers and our patients. But I'm pleased to say that we completely rework our clinical work environment to create a safe environment so that we can come back the full clinical activity. And this is really important because so many diseases that you'll hear about tonight don't wait for Kobe to go away. We need to coexist with Kobe. 19. We need to take care of patients with other clinical needs, including cancer. The Abramson cancer center that you'll hear much about tonight has recently received a score of Exceptional from the C I. This is their highest score. It's the third time in a row when we've been reviewed that we've received that score. It speaks to the excellence of the clinical and research faculty. We've also since 2017 had 10 FDA approved drugs and devices that are based on cancer problems. You know about the cart immunotherapy as one example. But others target specific kinds of leukemia or create new approaches to medical imaging. And yet others are surgical like tours. Trans Orel robotic surgery that create unique access for head and neck cancer. The Abramson Cancer Center isn't resting on its laurels. Despite thes 10 FDA approvals recently, they've used gene editing using CRISPR cas nine to modify immune cells to help fight cancer. This is an incredible breakthrough, and the first use of CRISPR cas nine. In clinical trials in this country, a number of other aspects of the cancer center you'll be familiar with Bastar Center for B. R. C. A. Is the center that goes from genetics and genetic counseling to clinical trials and clinical care and very impressive is their outreach and communication to inform patients about the risks and treatment options. The Roberts Proton Center has the most advanced technology in the world, creating multi modality motile approaches to cancer. And lastly, I want to highlight our approach to disparities in health care. And just note the fact that black patients have access to our cancer clinical trials at a percentage that is equal to or even higher than the percentage in our community. So this is a remarkable example of outreach and access to the advanced care of the Abramson Cancer Center. Lastly, I want to thank our donors who last year contributed $60 million to the Abramson Cancer Center, including support for the Bastard Center and the Thal Meyer Cardio Oncology program. This enables our faculty to create, to move more quickly and to fight cancer. It's now my privilege to introduce formally are Incredible Cancer Center director Robert Vanderheiden, who serves as the John Glick director of the Abramson Cancer Center. Bob, I turned the video over to you. Well, thank you very much, Larry, and we so much appreciate your strong support of the Abramson Cancer Center, and we are all so grateful to be here tonight, together with all of you more than 3700 registrations for the CMI course tuning in to learn about the critical issues of Cove in 19 in our cancer patient population. As one of the oldest and largest NC, I designated comprehensive cancer centers in this country. It is our pleasure to host you tonight, and I say that on behalf of myself in all the faculty co directors. So the agenda tonight is power packed. Let me just give you a quick overview. We're going to begin with an introduction from one of the faculty co directors, Dr Aggarwal, followed by a keynote address from Dr Anthony Fauci, whom Dr Agora will introduce after a Q and A with Dr Fauci. We will then hear the results from a covert 19 trial here at Penn just reported and published today, which will be presented by the authors publicly for the first time. It's a randomized study of hydroxy Clara Quinn. Five additional lectures on cancer and co vid will ensue, and then a very important case conference on discussion will finish our program. We hope you have time to join us for the whole event, and we thank you for being here and for your participation
