Boumber is pioneering new approaches to treating lung cancer. He is running four clinical trials in lung cancer and is planning to bring many more to New Mexico. “Clinical trials should be a priority,” he says, “because these days, that’s how we advance the field.” Cancer clinical trials are unlike most other clinical trials because they don’t use placebos. Every person in a cancer clinical trial is treated with the standard of care and new treatments are combined with and compared to that standard. People in a cancer clinical trial may receive additional treatment at no additional cost, depending upon the clinical trial.
Cancer clinical trials involve some risk; the treatment, after all, hasn’t received approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But those risks are greatly reduced by the amount of research and testing needed to even begin a clinical trial in people. “We need patients who are kind enough to participate,” Boumber says, “so that we can change the landscape of treatment and perhaps have long-term survivors.”
The people who join a clinical trial may benefit immensely. “The first patient who was treated with immunotherapy in 2000 with advanced melanoma is still alive after receiving one dose,” says Boumber. “That is mind-boggling, but we expect those same things with lung cancer.”
Lung cancer, Boumber explains, can be many different diseases. Small-cell lung cancer affects mostly smokers. “It’s a highly aggressive disease,” Boumber says, “and there were no major breakthroughs until this year.” Non-small cell lung cancer affects smokers and non-smokers, but each group responds differently to different treatments. Boumber plans to bring new clinical trials to UNM Cancer Center soon. The trials include treatments using immunotherapy, targeted therapies and brand new drugs and also include promising treatments for small-cell lung cancer. “Even now the landscape has changed,” Boumber explains. “It’s really based on your personalized medicine profile, your smoking status and other factors.”
To understand why different people with lung cancer respond differently to treatments, Boumber studies the biology of lung cancer in his lab. He and his team discovered and study the ‘musashi’ protein, which plays a large role in lung cancer. Boumber plans to work on several scientific projects with other researchers in New Mexico to learn more about this protein. “We want to understand the biology of lung metastases and what signaling pathways musashi regulates,” he says.
As the lung cancer team co-leader, Boumber also plans to expand the lung cancer programs at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. Bringing the research into clinical trials is a big part of that plan, but working with other healthcare providers throughout the state is also important, he says. In the end, Boumber hopes to shift lung cancer from a deadly disease to a treatable condition. He says, “The goal is to improve outcomes in lung cancer, cure patients and bring hope to patients and their families.”
About Yanis Boumber, MD, PhDYanis Boumber, MD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. He co-leads the Lung/Aerodigestive multidisciplinary team at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Boumber joined the UNM Cancer Center from Fox Chase Comprehensive Cancer Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was an Assistant Professor in the Molecular Therapeutics Research Program. Originally from Russia, he received his medical degree from Rostov State Medical University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, and holds a doctorate in Cancer Biology and Molecular Biology from University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center. He completed his Residency at Good Samaritan Hospital, affiliated with Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, and completed Fellowship training in Hematology/Oncology at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is an expert in lung cancer metastasis, epigenetics and innovative trials in lung cancer, including immunotherapy, targeted therapy and EGFR and ALK targeted next generation agents.
About the UNM Comprehensive Cancer CenterThe University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center is the Official Cancer Center of New Mexico and the only National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center in a 400-mile radius. One of the premier cancer centers nationwide, the UNM CCC has 128 board-certified oncology physicians, forming New Mexico’s largest cancer care team. It treats about 60 percent of adults and virtually all the children in New Mexico diagnosed with cancer — more than 10,000 people— from every county in the state in more than 135,000 clinic visits each year. Through its partnership with the New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance, an “exemplary national model for cancer health care delivery,” the UNM CCC offers access to more than 160 clinical trials to New Mexicans in every part of the state. Annual research funding of more than $72 million supports the UNM CCC’s 132 cancer scientists. Working with partners at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories, Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, and New Mexico State University, they have developed new diagnostics and drugs for leukemia, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, liver and pancreatic cancer, brain cancer, and melanoma; garnered 33 new patents and 117 patents pending; and launched 13 new biotechnology companies since 2010. Learn more at cancer.unm.edu.
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