The Center for HIV-Related Malignancies at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is the main treatment center for patients with AIDS-associated malignancies in Western New York. Under the direction of Dr. Zale Bernstein, the Center has had a rapid increase in patient referrals during the past two years. This, combined with Dr. Bernstein's commitment to protocol development and implementation has resulted in outstanding accrual of patients to both Institute and multi-institutional clinical trials, on par and in some instances exceeding accrual to protocols at more nationally prominent centers. In addition, two phase I clinical trials with biologic response modifiers have been completed within the past year. An extensive laboratory program of lymphocyte biology has been developed by Dr. Michael Caligiuri at RPCI that focuses on cytokine and cytokine receptor expression, as well as the characterization of human lymphomagenesis in the severe combined immune deficient mouse. This work has been translated into a number of Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, one of which has been completed by Dr. Bernstein in AIDS malignancy and is now being developed by the CALGB for a Phase II cooperative study. The Institute also has outstanding expertise in Flow Cytometry, a core facility that has been vital to the clinical and laboratory work of Drs. Bernstein and Caligiuri, respectively. With excellent patient accrual to clinical protocols in AIDS malignancies, strong data management and protocol support, and a continual source of laboratory based ideas for immune modulation using biologic modifiers for therapy of immune deficiency, RPCI has assembled a strong team of investigators who are likely to provide unique laboratory resources for correlative studies, substantial innovation in the design of clinical trials and patient accrual for rapid completion of such trials within the AIDS Malignancies Clinical Trials Consortium.
