November 1, 2007
Lenny Zakim Lecture and fair show promise of integrative therapies
Judah Folkman, MD
Supporters of acupuncture, massage, nutritional supplements, and other integrative (or complementary) therapies as adjuncts to traditional cancer care have long endured skepticism from the medical and lay community. Tuesday afternoon, they received a refreshing jolt of inspiration from a powerful source: anti-angiogenesis pioneer Judah Folkman, MD.
Addressing a standing-room-only crowd in the Jimmy Fund Auditorium, Folkman recalled the doubters he encountered when, as a young Harvard Medical School researcher at Children's Hospital Boston (CHB), he first reported in a 1971 New England Journal of Medicine paper that cancerous tumors could be kept from growing beyond microscopic size if their ability to recruit and develop new blood vessels a process known as angiogenesis — was halted.
"I was overjoyed that the hypothesis was published, and thought the field would take off, but that first year there were three papers published on the subject: two by our group, and another one critical of our first paper," said Folkman, prompting laughter from staff, patients, and family members in the audience. "Nobody at Harvard believed in this, and it took a decade to catch on. Today, there are 70-100 papers per week being published [in medical journals] on angiogenesis." There are also more than a million patients using FDA-approved angiogenesis inhibitors, including Avastin.
Folkman, director of vascular biology at CHB and professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School, was the keynote speaker at Tuesday's eighth annual Lenny Zakim Lecture. Presented by the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies at Dana-Farber and supported by an educational grant from Genentech BioOncology, his riveting talk was followed up by an integrative therapies fair. Attendees could meet with center practitioners and "try out" different treatments including massage, meditation, music therapy, and Reiki, in which a therapist lays hands on various part of a patient's body to improve the individual's well-being.
The two-part event honors the memory of the center's namesake, Lenny Zakim, who as a multiple myeloma patient at DFCI embraced such services — and advocated for their availability to all patients — as a way of taking an active part in his own care. Today hundreds of patients are able to do the same at the center, which recently moved into new clinical quarters in space formerly occupied by Human Resources on Dana 1A.
"I'm happy to have something safe I can do beyond standard therapy," says Rona Crystal, an ovarian cancer patient who has bi-weekly acupuncture and Reiki treatments at the Zakim Center, as well as nutritional consults. "I feel like I'm making my immune system stronger, and that's a big help in fighting this disease."
'Bursting forth'
While past "Lenny Lecture" speakers had more direct ties to the growing field of integrative medicine, there were exciting connections that could be made through the findings touched upon by Folkman. He discussed, for instance, research suggesting that ovarian tumors grow rapidly in one part of the abdomen but remain "tiny tumors the size of pinheads" in another due to natural angiogenesis inhibitors impacting the latter region. The ability of the body to produce such inhibitors may be enhanced by moderate daily aerobic exercise. Also, certain foods such as curry (curcumin) contain substances that inhibit angiogenesis.
"The combination of the right amount of physical activity and nutrition, which is what we emphasize in the Zakim Center, could really hold the key," says David Rosenthal, MD, medical director of the center since its 2000 inception and its co-clinical director. "If the herb in curry helps, what other herbs can help inhibit angiogenesis levels in the body? If exercise can increase inhibitors, what amount and type is best? This is what researchers at Dana-Farber and elsewhere are working to figure out."
Carolyn Hayes, PhD, RN, co-clinical director of the Zakim Center, was similarly enthused. "There was a definite parallel track between Dr. Folkman's scientific endeavors and what we're trying to do with integrative therapies," she said. "His work had a slow time gaining acceptance, but people came to understand it and it just burst forth. Seeing all these people here discovering what we have to offer makes me believe that we're now bursting as well."
— Saul Wisnia
saul_wisnia@dfci.harvard.edu
