David Loeb, M.D., Ph.D.
Phone: (410) 955-8751
Interests:
- -Bone Marrow transplantation
- -Treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcomas in children and young adults
Titles
Associate Professor of Oncology and Pediatrics
Director, Musculoskeletal Tumor Program
Co-Director, Sarcoma Center
Schools/Degrees
M.D., Columbia University, New York
Ph.D., Pathology, Columbia University, New York
Training
Resident in Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Fellow in Hematology/Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Certifications
Pediatrics Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Clinical Interests
-Treatment of bone and soft tissue sarcomas in children and young adults -Bone Marrow transplantation
Dr. Loeb is currently the Director of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Program. This program provides comprehensive, multi-disciplinary care to children and adults with bone and soft tissue tumors. Dr. Loeb is also the institutional principle investigator with SARC, the Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration, a multi-institutional consortium of sarcoma centers focused on early phase clinical trials for sarcoma patients. Dr. Loeb is also an active member of the pediatric bone marrow transplantation team, with a particular interest in providing novel high dose therapies to sarcoma patients of all ages.
Dr. Loeb is the principle investigator on two institutional clinical trials for osteosarcoma patients using a drug called Quadramet. Quadramet is a targeted radiopharmaceutical agent that is designed to deliver radiation to osteosarcoma lesions while sparing surrounding normal tissue. One of these studies is a dose finding study, with a goal of identifying a dose of Quadramet that will allow this agent to be incorporated into a novel chemo-radiotherapy treatment protocol for patients with osteosarcoma metastatic to bone at diagnosis. The other study uses a very high dose of Quadramet for the treatment of patients with high risk osteosarcoma. Because the sole significant toxicity of this therapy is myelosuppression, autologous peripheral blood stem cell support is utilized to allow treatment with higher doses of radiation.
In addition to these studies, Dr. Loeb is also involved in a new clinical trial evaluating tandem autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation using a novel preparative regimen including an oral chemotherapy drug, temozolomide, for patients with high risk solid tumors, including Ewing sarcoma. In the laboratory, Dr. Loeb is actively engaged in research aimed at identifying and characterizing Ewing sarcoma stem cells.
Research Summary
Dr. Loeb is the principle investigator on two institutional clinical trials for osteosarcoma patients using a drug called Quadramet. Quadramet is a targeted radiopharmaceutical agent that is designed to deliver radiation to osteosarcoma lesions while sparing surrounding normal tissue. One of these studies is a dose finding study, with a goal of identifying a dose of Quadramet that will allow this agent to be incorporated into a novel chemo-radiotherapy treatment protocol for patients with osteosarcoma metastatic to bone at diagnosis. The other study uses a very high dose of Quadramet for the treatment of patients with high risk osteosarcoma. Because the sole significant toxicity of this therapy is myelosuppression, autologous peripheral blood stem cell support is utilized to allow treatment with higher doses of radiation. Dr. Loeb is also involved in a new clinical trial evaluating tandem autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation using a novel preparative regimen including an oral chemotherapy drug, temozolomide, for patients with high risk solid tumors, including Ewing sarcoma. In additional to clinical research, Dr. Loeb has an active laboratory research effort focused on the role of a gene called WT1 in the development of a variety of cancer types. Recently published results demonstrate that WT1 is involved in a variety of soft tissue and bone sarcomas, and high WT1 levels are associated with shortened survival of patients with metastatic osteosarcoma. The function of WT1 is to regulate the activity of other genes, and Dr. Loeb’s laboratory has recently identified several new targets of this regulatory activity that are involved in the proliferation of cancer cells and in their resistance to chemotherapy. A newer project in the laboratory is aimed at identifying and characterizing Ewing sarcoma stem cells. Cancer stem cells are thought to be inherently resistant to chemotherapy and are thought to cause most cases of refractory or relapsed disease. A thorough understanding of the biology of these important cells will allow the development of therapies targeted at this critical component of most tumors.
Journal Citations
Loeb, DM, Summers, JL, Burwell, EB, Korz, D, Friedman, AD, and Sukumar, S. An Isoform of the Wilms’ Tumor Suppressor Gene Potentiates Granulocytic Differentiation. Leukemia, 17:965-71, 2003.
Strouse, JJ, Spevak, M, Mack, AK, Arceci, RJ, Small, D, and Loeb, DM. Significant Reponses to Platinum-Based Chemotherapy in Renal Medullary Carcinoma. Ped Blood Cancer 44:407-11, 2005.
Simpson, LA, Burwell, EA, Thompson, KA, Shahnaz, S, Chen, AR, and Loeb, DM. The Anti-Apoptotic Gene A1/Bfl-1 is a WT1 Target Gene that Mediates Differentiation and Resistance to Chemotherapy. Blood, 107:4695-702, 2006.
Loeb, DM. WT1 Influences Apoptosis Through Transcriptional Regulation of Bcl-2 Family Members. Cell Cycle, 5:1249-53, 2006.
Burwell, EA, Simpson, LA, Thompson, KA, and Loeb, DM. Isoforms of the Wilms’ Tumor Suppressor Gene (WT1) Have Distinct Effects on Mammary Epithelial Cells. Oncogene, 11 December 2006; doi:10.1038/sj.onc.1210127.
Savage, WJ, DeRusso, PA, Resar, LM, Chen, AR, Higman, MA, Loeb, DM, Jones, RJ, and Brodsky, RA. Treatment of Hepatitis-associated Aplastic Anemia with High Dose Cyclophosphamide. Ped Blood Cancer, in press.
Kim, SY, Dabb, AA, Glenn, DJ, Snyder, KM, Chuk, MK, and Loeb, DM. Intravenous pentamidine is effective as second line pneumocystis pneumonia prophylaxis in pediatric oncology patients. Ped Blood Cancer, in press.
