Leading cancer researchers from Baltimore, Miami and
New Jersey have organized the first Joint American-Israeli
Conference on Cancer. The meeting, scheduled for March 16
to 18 in Jerusalem, seeks to foster collaboration among
physicians and scientists in the two countries. Close to
200 cancer experts from institutions throughout Israel and
the United States are expected to attend, making it
Israel's largest scientific conference in at least four
years, according to the conference planners.
"We feel that over the past few years, Israel —
pound-for-pound a relative research powerhouse — has
been shortchanged by the lack of convention visitors," said
Joseph D. Rosenblatt, associate director of clinical and
translational research at the University of Miami Sylvester
Comprehensive Cancer Center. Worries about security and
violence in the Middle East are among the factors that have
limited scientific symposia held in Israel," he said. "With
this conference, we want to foster ties and recognize the
contributions that Israelis make to the international
cancer effort and create real opportunities for the
development of new therapeutic, prognostic and diagnostic
approaches, based on interactions between scientists in
this country and in Israel."
Hyam I. Levitsky, professor of oncology, medicine and
urology at the
Johns
Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, said, "There has been a
long history of productive collaborations between American
and Israeli scientists, resulting in significant increases
in our understanding and treatment of cancer. This
conference hopefully will provide new fuel to this fire,
sparking ideas, collaborations and interest among research
fellows in visiting institutions abroad."
Added Robert Korngold, of New Jersey's Cancer Center
at Hackensack University Medical Center, "We want to
demonstrate our support for the Israeli scientists. They've
been somewhat isolated and have not had the opportunity to
interact with the scientific community worldwide. There's
been no conference of this size there in the last four
years."
Nobel laureate Avram Hershko, who won the 2004
chemistry prize, will discuss his research during a dinner
address on March 16 at the Israel Museum. Hershko, a member
of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa,
was honored for his discovery of ubiquitin, a molecule that
helps flag a protein to be broken down. This system is used
in a variety of cell processes including the immune system,
cell division and DNA repair. Errors in the system can lead
to diseases such as cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis.
Scientists at the conference will address research
advances in cancer genetics, cell signaling at the DNA/RNA
level, immune system therapies, "targeted" treatments,
novel approaches to breast cancer and solid tumors, and
stem cell transplantation in the treatment of leukemia. A
mini-symposium will address environmental causes of
cancer.
Israeli scientists made some of the first discoveries
implicating the p53 gene in cancer, now considered the most
commonly mutated cancer-related gene, Levitsky said. They
also contributed to current understanding of bone marrow
transplant and stem cells, he said.
Levitsky and colleagues hope to make the conference an
annual event, alternating between American and Israeli
locations.
Conference sponsors include the Braman Family
Foundation, the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute
and the Israel Cancer Association in Israel and the United
States.
For more information about the conference, go to
www.novel-approaches.net/index.asp or
www.hopkinskimmelcancercenter.org.