Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
At a Glance
Recent Scientific Achievements at Lombardi
For over twenty years, researchers at Lombardi have been instrumental in the development of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the first vaccine to prevent cancer approved by the Food and Drug Administration. GlaxoSmithKline currently holds the license to Dr. Richard Schlegel’s technology for the vaccine, which is being developed as Cervarix. Merck sub-licenses this technology and has also developed a vaccine marketed as Gardasil which gained FDA approval in June 2006. The vaccine is the first preventive treatment for any cancer, and prevents infection by HPV which causes nearly all cervical cancers worldwide and is the number two cause of cancer death among women. Dr. Schlegel is also a member of the team which received a $3.5 million award from the Gates Foundation to continue developing a new inexpensive, portable HPV vaccine.
Lombardi initiated some of the first clinical trials to test anticancer vaccines. Dr. John Marshall and colleagues have completed an encouraging Phase 1 trial of the TRICOM vaccine, an experimental therapy manufactured by the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Therion Corp. The vaccine uses a live virus to deliver four genes, which strengthen the immune system and stimulate the production of cancer-fighting T-cells. Phase 2 and 3 trials are ongoing.
 The National Cancer Institute selected Lombardi for a $17 million research and development contract to determine if alternative tobacco products reduce health risks. Led by Dr. Peter Shields, Lombardi researchers will examine all aspects of the increasing number of “safer” tobacco or nicotine delivery systems – products which range from low nicotine cigarettes and cigarettes that heat tobacco instead of burn it, to nicotine mints that are now available, and little bags of tobacco that users place beneath their upper lip and are currently being test marketed in the US. Recently, Congress has been considering legislation that will allow the Food and Drug Administration to have authority over the labeling of these products, and this work will likely provide the scientific foundation for their deliberations.
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