Predictors of survival in 211 patients with stage IV pulmonary and gastroenteropancreatic mIBG positive neuroendocrine tumors treated with I-131 mIBG.

We are studying the use of immune therapies to treat various cancers, including gastrointestinal, breast, and lung cancers and melanoma. These therapies include vaccines based on dendritic cells developed in our laboratory as well as vaccines based on peptides, viral vectors, and DNA plasmids. Our group is also a national leader in the development and use of laboratory assays for demonstrating immunologic responses to cancer vaccines. Finally, we are developing immunotherapies based on adoptive transfer of tumor and viral antigen-specific T cells.

Our current clinical trials include phase I and II studies of immunotherapy for: patients with metastatic malignancies expressing CEA, pancreatic cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer, and leukemias following HSCT. My clinical area of expertise is in gastrointestinal oncology, in particular, the treatment of hepatic malignancies, and malignant melanoma.

Key words: dendritic cells, immunotherapy, vaccines, T cells, gastrointestinal oncology, melanoma, hepatoma

1. Anatomic/functional oncologic Imaging: SPECT/CT, PET/CT, novel PET radiotracers
   
   2. Radiotheranostics, Radionuclide therapy of cancer, Radiation Therapy Planning
   
   3. Imaging biomarkers for guiding treatment strategies
   
   4. Multicenter clinical trial development (NCI National Clinical Trials Network)

Expertise:

1. Diagnostic and Prognostic Utility of Cardiovascular Nuclear Medicine in  Heart Disease.
2. The Role of Cardiac PET/CT  in Cardiac Sarcoidosis and Ischemic Heart Disease.
3. The Role of Nuclear Cardiology in Diagnosis and Management of Amyloidosis.
4. Left Ventricular Dyssynchrony Evaluation by GSPECT.

I am a Professor of Radiology (Nuclear Medicine) and Internal Medicine at Duke University Medical Center. I also serve as the Medical Director of Nuclear Cardiology at Duke Health System with Duke Heart Center. I received my medical doctorate from the Federal Fluminense University in Brazil. I subsequently completed a Cardiology Fellowship at Antonio Pedro University Hospital in Brazil and a second Fellowship in the Medicine/Cardiovascular division at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. I continued my education with a fellowship in Nuclear Cardiology at the Methodist Hospital Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and finally in Nuclear Medicine in the Department of Radiology at Duke University Medical Center. I have lectured extensively internationally and have published 130+ publications in peer reviewed scientific professional journals. I am a founding member of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology, Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Fellow of the American College of Nuclear Medicine and Fellow of the American Heart Association. My clinical and Research interests include the role of cardiac imaging in predicting outcomes and guiding therapy. I have developed one of the largest Nuclear Cardiology Data Bases in the US. More recently my primarily research interest also includes the use of New Radiopharmaceuticals for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Oncologic Diseases (Theranostics). I have led a Team for the implementation of Diagnosis and Treatment of Neuroendocrine Tumors which became a Center of Reference for this Disease Diagnosis and Treatment with PRRT. serving as the PI for Expanded Access for Therapeutic Use of 177-Lu-DOTAO-Tyr3-Octreotide (Advanced Accelerator Applications SA – AAA) –Compationate Use – “177 Lu-Dotatate for Midgut Neuroendocrine Tumors and 177 Lu-Dotatate for GPENET’. Clinical Trials.Gov.