News and Media

June 2017, Dr. Emily Bergsland received the Ernest H. Rosenbaum, M.D., Commitment to Patient Care Award for her long-standing dedication to her patients and ongoing efforts to improve care for people with neuroendocrine tumors. The award recognizes clinicians who are deeply committed to the highest quality patient care.

In December 2016, Dr. Thomas Hope received the first NETRF/ERF Nuclear Medicine Pilot Research Grant. The Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation (NETRF) established the grant to explore innovations in nuclear medicine focused on diagnosis and treatment. The Education and Research Foundation for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (ERF) solicited proposals and convened the scientific review panel to select the recipient. Hope’s project is titled “Intra-Arterial Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (I-A PRRT) using 90Y DOTA-TOC.” The primary goals are to evaluate possible liver, bone marrow and kidney toxicity after hepatic arterial injection and to evaluate imaging tumor response three months after treatment. Dr. Hope’s principal co-investigators are Dr. Emily Bergsland and Dr. Nicholas Fidelman.

In 2016, the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation recognized Dr. Eric Nakakura for his projected titled “Development of a Mouse Model of Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Cancer.” His xenograft mouse model will be useful in helping develop and test potential new therapies for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

In 2016, the Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Foundation named Dr. Michael Germanthe NETRF Petersen Investigator for his project titled, “Treating Neuroendocrine Tumors via Synthetic Lethality.” His research aims to analyze how certain pathways interact to control neuroendocrine cell survival and death, and to evaluate synthetic lethal interactions—a gene therapy targeting cancer cells—in a patient-derived xenograft tumor model of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.