The University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center has been working to bring promising therapies from laboratory to patients quicker than ever before. That is the philosophy behind the Phase I Drug Development Program going on now at UM/Sylvester.

“Some of these home grown agents are now in the pre-clinical stage and we are actively working on trying to move them into patient care,” said hematologist-oncologist Jaime Merchan, M.D., M.M.Sc., assistant professor of clinical medicine at UM/Sylvester. “We are currently working with a variety of novel agents and combinations, some of them developed at our institution. Examples of such agents currently being tested in the preclinical setting include oncolytic viruses, which are viruses that kill tumors, fusion antibodies which target angiogenesis and agents targeting tumor metabolism.”

The Center takes a multi-tiered approach to speeding research along, by teaming physicians, scientists, pharmacist Aurea Flores, Pharm.D., nurses, statisticians, research coordinators and technicians. It also creates a dedicated pharmacy, lab space and chemotherapy unit.

Phase I trials are the first human tests of an experimental therapy. They’re designed to determine if a drug is safe and set the proper dosage, but they can also reveal promising results. “It is an important step to transition novel treatments from the bench to the bedside,” said Caio Max S. Rocha Lima, M.D., associate professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Hematology Oncology. “Having a phase I center makes this possible.”

The program is the only academic phase I testing center dedicated to drug development for cancer patients in South Florida. The phase I group is already conducting clinical trials with novel agents to fight cancer. That helps UM/Sylvester physicians and scientists establish important collaborative relationships and offer patients something even more important, choices and hope.

“This program is a real part of what a comprehensive cancer center is all about,” said W. Jarrard Goodwin, M.D., F.A.C.S., director of UM/Sylvester. “It’s going to be at the epicenter of helping us grow, helping us thrive as a cancer center and it will help set us apart from everyone else in South Florida.”