Annual Report 2014 : Cancer can’t escape our reach
An exchange program brings the best to Brazil
As a youngster growing up in São Paulo, Diogo Bugano Diniz Gomes was fascinated by how things worked and how to fix them when they broke.
Diogo Bugano Diniz Gomes will take the training he’s received at MD Anderson back to Brazil’s Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein. Photo: Eric Kayne
“I grew up wanting to be an engineer,” he says, “but soon I realized that technology is boring if you don’t interact with people.”
So he combined the best of both worlds by choosing medicine as a career.
“As a doctor I still need to know how things work and how to fix them — but in a different way,” he says.
Bugano completed medical school and an internal medicine residency in São Paulo, then entered into an oncology fellowship at the city’s Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein — ranked the No. 1 hospital in South America by business magazine America Economia.
It was during this fellowship that Bugano’s education took a life-altering turn, thanks to a collaboration between the hospital and MD Anderson.
The two institutions had just signed a 10-year agreement in which MD Anderson would help Albert Einstein develop its oncology program into the best in South America. The agreement would provide South American patients with the same high level of care delivered at MD Anderson, while advancing the institution’s mission of ending cancer globally.
As part of the collaboration, an international fellowship was created in which physicians from Albert Einstein could travel to Houston and train at MD Anderson.
Bugano wasted no time. In July 2013, just six months into his fellowship at Albert Einstein, he flew to Houston and became the first international fellow accepted under the terms of the new agreement.
“I’ve admired and respected MD Anderson for years,” he says. “The opportunity to gain experience here is invaluable.”
Bugano is spending two years rotating through all areas of medical oncology at MD Anderson. On Fridays, he treats oncology patients in the outpatient clinic at Harris Health’s Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital — part of MD Anderson’s local outreach initiative to provide cancer care for the underserved. The rest of the week, he conducts clinical research and works with physicians in various MD Anderson clinics.
“All areas of academic medicine are covered in this very comprehensive fellowship,” says Bugano, who will graduate in July and return to Brazil as a Medical Oncology staff physician at Albert Einstein.
The way cancer care is delivered to patients in Brazil is being revolutionized by MD Anderson’s collaboration with Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, says Amy Hay, MD Anderson’s vice president for Global Business Development.
“For the first time in Latin America, patients have access to a multidisciplinary, multispecialty cancer center with outpatient care, advanced treatment technologies and a full range of support services all in one location,” Hay says.
This is a novel approach to cancer management in Latin America, Bugano says.
“In Brazil, all oncologists are general oncologists who treat solid tumors,” he explains. “The same doctor who treats a brain tumor may also treat a gynecologic tumor. Leukemia, myeloma, myelodysplastic syndrome and lymphomas are treated by hematologists.”
In 2014, the institutions expanded their collaborative relationship and Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein became the first clinical extension of MD Anderson in South America, as well as the first international associate member of the MD Anderson Cancer Network® — a select group of hospitals and health systems with access to best practices, education, research and treatment protocols developed at MD Anderson.
Through its partnership with MD Anderson, Albert Einstein is creating multidisciplinary teams of medical professionals who specialize in treating and providing support for specific cancer types. One patient may have a medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, nurse, dietitian, pharmacist and others on his or her treatment team, all specifically trained to treat the patient’s type of cancer.
MD Anderson is also providing Albert Einstein with treatment algorithms (step-by-step, decision tree approaches to assessing and treating various types of cancer), order sets (prepackaged doctors’ orders detailing how to treat a specific diagnosis), faculty and staff education and training, access to clinical trials and research collaborations.
More Stories From Annual Report
Improving survival with a new surgical protocol for ovarian cancer
Triathlete and marathoner Leslie Russell teaches reading to children with dyslexia in the Spring Branch Independent School District. It’s a job she loves in the community where she grew up.
Could proton therapy be the ‘holy grail’ for head and neck cancer treatments?
The good news is death rates continue to decline for the most common types of cancer, including lung, colon, breast and prostate.
Finding the least disruptive solution to get patients back on their feet
Tucked in the elbow crook of Louisiana’s eastern border with Mississippi lies the small town of Independence.
In early-stage breast cancer, a less aggressive approach can be just as effective
When treating women with breast cancer, less is sometimes more.
A childhood cancer survivor’s teenage worries? College and boys
Like many first-time parents, Gerardo and Dilma Camarillo worried when their 9-month-old daughter, Ivana, was running a fever. Pediatricians, friends and family reassured them.
Tiny clues left behind by cancer may help scientists solve its mystery
Tiny, virus-sized particles released by cancer cells may be the next big thing in the world of cancer biology. Exosomes, derived from cells and blood serum of patients, have been shown to detect pancreatic cancer and, possibly, breast cancer, and are also linked to increased cancer progression and tumor growth.
Grants fuel tomorrow’s cancer breakthroughs
A state of Texas program designed to expedite innovations in new cancer treatments has helped MD Anderson recruit several new faculty members during the past year.
Industry collaborations boost the immune system’s cancer-fighting abilities
MD Anderson’s expertise in cancer immunotherapy attracted the interest of four major pharmaceutical companies, which signed three-year collaborative agreements in early 2014 to develop new ways for the immune system to destroy tumors.
Developing a drug to starve cancer cells
The first experimental drug to be produced by MD Anderson’s drug discovery and development institute will kill cancer cells in a new way — by depriving them of the fuel necessary for growth and survival.
The road to recovery, minus the traffic
Marietta Cline is one busy woman. As a doctor with four children who loves to travel and build custom furniture, she’s a go-getter with little time to spare.
A call to action in South Texas
Since its introduction in the 1940s, the Pap test has been successfully detecting abnormal cells in the cervix that, if left untreated, could lead to cancer. In fact, that success has led to a 70% drop in cervical cancer rates in the United States.
The physician assistant will see you now
Jenny Dahl was within a semester of graduating with a nutrition degree when an invitation changed her mind — and her future.
The angelic side of Austin’s devilish taco king
The center that provides veterinary and preclinical research services to support MD Anderson has received new, leading-edge laboratory equipment, thanks to a $20,000 gift from Torchy’s Tacos in Austin.
With elevated risks, these survivors and ‘previvors’ aren’t taking any chances
When doctors told Mariana Torrado she had breast cancer, she didn’t believe them at first.
Solving baby boomers’ problem with hepatitis C
Baby boomers — Americans born between 1945 and 1965 — grew up in one of the wealthiest, most idealistic and physically fit generations in history.
Outreach delivers screening and hope to communities in need
More than 3,500 local women who are low income and uninsured have received free mammograms through an MD Anderson community outreach initiative.
A survivor is saving lives through early detection
It was 1980 when Janelle Hail of Frisco, Texas, discovered a small lump during a self-breast exam. A visit to the doctor resulted in an early breast cancer diagnosis. The then-34-year-old mother of three feared for her life. Today, she attributes her survival to early detection.
