Florida Matters; Florida Stories: Innovation: Moffitt Cancer Center

But. Florida is a state of limbo. Also. Who says you have to bundle up with the swash your way through the ice and snow in the dead of winter. But in a state where the can do attitude has even explore the depths of space. A legendary lifestyle is icing on the cake. New ideas and new ways of doing things are all about. People. As a state of innovation. Florida shines. This was a terrific opportunity to take melanoma research to the next level and there are very very few places in the world where you can do that. And the combination of resources people patient population was it was irresistible. So after 13 years of melanoma research in California. Dr. Jeffrey Werber was drawn to the Moffitt Cancer Center at the University of South Florida. Buzzing Moffitt is an institution that has a lot of innovative

clinical trials. We have basic scientists like Esteban sillies and like Jim you lay to meet your Gorilla bitch all of whom have innovative ideas to arrived in the lab. And my job is to be the guy who sort of recognizes them and tries to translate them into trials. Afternoon. Hi how are you doing. Good well you look great. OK now there are some interesting new things coming along there is a new trial for those with your kind of tumor clinical trials with patients that will ultimately lead to better treatments and cures. And that mutation is present those patients tend to respond to a pill that strangely enough is used for leukemia. It's called the cool Leave Act and we have a clinical trial where we're evaluating it in those. Tumors of origin or like yours in the mucous membranes who have a return of the tumor. That can't be removed surgically. We would give them going back. With more than 200 ongoing clinical trials and the latest cutting edge

care. Moffat is ranked as one of America's best hospitals for the treatment of cancer. All the doctors I tell you don't watch melanoma. And if I had to stay in Jacksonville or finding a I. Might not even be here today. Who knows. But I love this place. It's a place backed by thirty eight hundred physicians scientists and staff innovation is under way behind every door. In the Dalton lab for example. Researchers are studying the levels of different proteins that regulate the DNA repair mechanisms in multiple melanoma cells and tissues. After earning his Ph.D. in San Diego. Portuguese native Vasco Olivero headed to Florida. I came to my office because of the fact that it offers any basic research. Scientists the opportunity of linking your basic findings to the

evolution of the particular disease and the way that disease can be treated in the future so in other words it has offered me the possibility of. Getting into clinical trials evaluating what works what doesn't work and and basically allowing me to see any results in patients as opposed to testing things in a test tube and in cell lines. We're talking about patients for the first time cell and that's what has become really attractive about Moffat. The push for personalized medicine. The fact that it is the only Comprehensive Cancer Center here in Florida beginning with tumor samples removed from every patient who comes here personalized medicine. Is a new approach to the diagnosis and treatment of all forms of cancer. Moffat's initiative called Total Cancer Care means the right treatment can be matched to the right patient through genetic signatures.

Frozen uncatalogued in Merrick WILLOX tissue bank countless thousands of human samples ready for gene profile. In my opinion is that a lot of kind of focus and most of the research at United States and in war the Scimitar hey anything I got they can have. If it's going to help somebody else they can have anything they can offer me I'm not going to need anymore anyway and they're welcome to it. I think it's a wonderful thing. Total cancer care requires total commitment. So more than 20 years ago a fledgling Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. Saw the future in information technology. To do this properly to get the job done to actually cure cancer. It would rely heavily on the I.T. environment so they made it they made the primary investment of support for their I.T. infrastructure. I'll just you know understand that the research

can't happen unless they have cutting edge tools. That's what makes us different is the fact that our development I research everything you look at is backed up by cutting edge I.T. equipment. Knowing the hard drives in the network operations center may hold the answer. Mark fleeting is filled with pride. I mean I'm not an arse. I'm not a jock so I'm not a researcher I'm one of those people. But every little bit I do helps cure cancer. And if you ever have a bad day that's how much I tell my staff that if you have a bad day just go to the third floor. Suddenly your day's not that bad after all. To further develop Moffat's approach to personalized cancer care. New public and private partnerships are being had just keyword innovation new ideas in the lab come to the clinic. Old ideas old drugs with new uses which then could come to the clinic. So that's what our research center is all about and that I think is a typical

Moffitt phenomena. The Moffitt Cancer Center standing tall on a peninsula. Where all things seem possible.