Cancer foundation $450K will let Goel continue research
By Martin Desmarais
Goel BRONX, N.Y. — Everybody enjoys getting an award, but for Dr. Sanjay Goel his recent honor from the American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Foundation, and the $450,000 that goes along with it, means only one thing — that patients may someday soon get a chance to benefit from the medical research he is doing.
Goel is a medical oncologist and researcher at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx. He is specifically working to test a drug for treating colorectal cancer, a drug that is not approved for use yet but Goel has high hopes for.
This past summer Goel was presented with The American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Foundation's Advanced Clinical Research Award for his patient-oriented approach to colorectal cancer research. He received the award at the 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago in June.
The foundation grants and awards provide research funding and career-developing support backing its commitment to supporting both clinicians and research in oncology practice. Goel was one of three recipients of the Advanced Clinical Research Award, which is presented annually to physicians who have five to 10 years of experience and are full-time faculty members in a clinical setting at an academic medical center. Each winner receives a three-year award totaling $450,000 to support original research that is currently not funded.
Goel received the award for his research project entitled, "A Novel Pharmacogenomic Based Therapeutic Approach for Patients with KRAS Mutant Metastatic Colorectal Cancer (mCRC) Using an Oncolytic Reovirus." Colorectal cancer is responsible for 50,000 deaths annually, with the median survival of patients with the metastatic disease only 24 months.
As Goel describes his work, he is looking to validate a drug from Canadian company Oncolytics Biotech Inc. called Reolysin because his research has shown that it can fight cancer in patients that other, more common colorectal cancer drugs do not work on.
According to Goel, in colorectal cancer patients 40 percent have been found to have a mutant gene called KRAS, which when present stops the two main available colorectal cancer drugs from working. Goel has spent the last two years trying to figure out, as he puts it: What happens to these patients?
Goel is not satisfied with the answer that they are out of luck and his research has backed the use of what is called a reovirus in the treatment of colorectal cancer patients with the KRAS mutation. Reovirus is an acronym for Respiratory Enteric Orphan virus, which is generally believed to inhabit the respiratory and bowel systems in humans. Reovirus is found naturally in sewage and water supplies. The disease has no symptoms and has been shown to kill cancer.
Goel plans to use his $450,000 in award money to run clinical trials and do more work on proving the reovirus and Reolysin is a valid option to treating to colorectal cancer and needs to be approved for patient use. "Right now, if a patient has a mutation he or she is losing out on an opportunity to have another line of therapy," he said. "That is why I feel there is a big unmet medical need.
"It is a good option and it is worth approaching," he added. "It is one of the few options that one can use to treat these patients and unless it is tested we will never know."
And for him the award money from The American Society of Clinical Oncology Cancer Foundation is a life-saver in his quest to continue his research on reovirus. "It has been a tremendous help," he said. "What this means is I can continue working on this • I can expand on this • It is a big boost."
Goel's Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine is equally enthused about his recognition and the funding to continue this work.
"I am delighted that the American Society of Clinical Oncology Foundation has recognized and decided to support the innovative talent of one of our most promising young clinical investigators for work that expands the treatment options for patients with colorectal cancer," Roman Perez-Soler, chairman of medical oncology at New York-based Montefiore and director of the division of medical oncology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, said in a statement.
Montefiore, which provides over 85,000 inpatient stays annually through four hospitals and serves the nearly 2 million residents of the Bronx, New York, and nearby Westchester County, is the university hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine. It provides clinical education and training programs, including clerkships for 750 Einstein medical students and graduate medical education for 1,000 residents and fellows. Montefiore and Einstein are focused on advancing clinical research to accelerate the pace at which new discoveries become the treatments and therapies that benefit patients, according to the organization. They feature centers focusing on cancer care, cardiovascular services, pediatrics, transplantation and neurosciences. Montefiore and Einstein are among 38 academic medical centers nationwide to be awarded a prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Award by the National Institutes of Health.
Goel has been at Montefiore and Einstein for eight years.
He received his medical degree from Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, where he also completed an internship. He came to the United States in 1996 and served his residency in internal medicine at the State University of New York Health Sciences Center and completed fellowships in hematology and oncology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center at Denver, and the Montefiore/Albert Einstein program.
Goel is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and oncology.
According to Goel, he has always been interested in pharmacology and drug development and working at the intersection of academia and patient care. He has an admitted passion for research and lab work. "I find academic medicine very rewarding," he said.
Though Goel does treat patients at Montefiore, he said he never envisioned himself running his own private practice because he wants to be able to treat patients but also do research.
The opportunity to do lab work on colorectal cancer early in his professional career exposed him to a field which he describes as having "so much going on" and helped steer him into an emphasis in oncology.
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