Day :
- Cancer Therapy | Cancer Imaging | Nuclear Medicine | Radiology Imaging | Proton Theray Nuclear Medicine | Paediatric Oncology | Computer Assisted Tomography | Ultrasound Imaging | Musculoskeletal
Session Introduction
Mosa Alhamami
University of Toronto, Canada
Title: Manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of breast cancer cells

Biography:
Abstract:
There has been continued interest in engineering MRI contrast agents (CAs) and evaluating their diagnostic efficacy to overcome issues associated with clinically-approved CAs such as Gd-DTPA. Of particular interest are intracellular CAs that can provide sensitive identification of labelled cells, opening the possibility of directly detecting early changes driving cancers at the cellular level before vasculature has been fully formed. To further explore the capabilities of intracellular CAs in T1-weighted MRI of breast cancer, this work aimed at (1) demonstrating the potential of MnCl2-enhanced MRI to detect and characterize early small breast tumors in vivo (2) investigating the potential of manganese-porphyrin-enhanced MRI for sensitive detection of multiple clinical subtypes of breast cancer cells (3) utilizing quantitative MRI to demonstrate the role the balance between hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity plays in developing CAs for effective T1-weighted MRI of cancer. This work has shown that MnCl2, unlike Gd-DTPA, provided enhancement of the entire tumor mass, depicting both tumor borders and interior morphology. At the early stage of tumor growth, MnCl2 also enabled cancer subtype-dependent differential enhancement and characterization. Moreover, this work demonstrated the superior T1 enhancement capabilities of manganese porphyrins over Gd-DTPA of multiple clinical subtypes of breast cancer cells at 3.0T. Also, using quantitative MRI, the more hydrophobic manganese porphyrin, MnTPPS3NH2, is shown to be a more sensitive T1 CA than MnTPPS4 for cellular imaging of breast cancers. Such sensitive cellular detection can potentially lead to lowering the dose needed to achieve positive enhancement and merits further future in vivo investigation
Carlos Zepeda-Velázquez
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research,Canada
Title: The discovery and evaluation of OICR-9429: A small molecule antagonist of the Wdr5-Mll interaction

Biography:
Abstract:
At a fundamental level, gene expression is regulated by epigenetic histone modifications. Histone methyltransferases catalyze the transfer of the methyl group from S adenosylmethionine to specific lysine residues on histones. Mixed lineage leukemia 1 (MLL1) is a methyltransferase that methylates lysine 4 on histone H3 (H3K4me3) and is an important regulator of the haemopoietic system. Dysregulation of MLL1 is often associated with acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemias, making it an attractive therapeutic target. WD40 repeat protein 5 (WDR5) is a component of the multiprotein MLL1 complex that is essential for its methyltransferase activity, and disruption of the WDR5/MLL1 interaction may therefore present a viable therapeutic option for the treatment of MLL-dependent leukemias. Employing structure-based design principles and cheminformatic tools, compounds that bind to WDR5 with low nanomolar affinities were synthesized. Of the various small molecules assessed, OICR-9429 demonstrated the most potent activity with KD values of 51 nM (Biacore), 64 nM (FP) and 52 nM (ITC). OICR9429 also disrupts the interaction of WDR5 with MLL1 and RbBP5 in cells with IC50 values below 1 µM
Romina Geraldine D’Souza
Christian Medical College Hospital, India
Title: Can we tell? MRI parameters to predict occult lymph node metastasis in oral cavity malignancies

Biography:
Dr Romina Geraldine D’Souza, she had completed my MD Radiology from Father Muller Medical college Mangalore, India, Diplomate of the National Board in Radiology and currently doing a fellowship in Crossectional radiology in Christian Medical College, Vellore India and FRCR 2
Abstract:
Mohammed Naeem
King Abdullah Specialized Children’s Hospital, Saudi Arabia
Title: Approach to wide aspects of end of life care in children

Biography:
Mohammed Naeem MD, FAAP, FCCP has vast interests and experience in care and development of children and adolescents. His passion gears towards constructing and implementing scientific models to improve systems targeting primary, secondary and tertiary care. His ideology takes a positive direction through his in-depth analyses and vision and further to explore multiple ways that would help understand the complex pathological phenomenon and planning to design and implement strategies to overcome these. His particular interest and expertise involves population of children and adolescents requiring intensive care. He had been utilizing his vast experience of research, clinical care, patient safety and strategic planning to ambitiously achieve his goals. Through multiple levels of participation in care and strategic planning relevant to diverse patient population, he had been very successful to make his contributions and judgments being heard and taken in considerations
Abstract:
Yoshiaki Omura
New York Medical College, USA
Title: How to safely & effectively treat hopeless advanced cancer patients
