Charles Loprinzi, MD

2009-2010 BCRF Project:
Co-Investigator: Debra L. Barton, RN, PhD, AOCN, Associate Professor, Mayo Clinic, Rochester

Fatigue is a common and debilitating problem for cancer survivors. Fatigue often exists during treatment, but can persist long after treatment is over. There is only one proven treatment for this symptom to date, namely, exercise. In order to develop new treatments, there is a better need to understand the cause of fatigue. The project to evaluate American ginseng for cancer-related fatigue and to collect blood and saliva to better understand the physiology of this fatigue, is progressing on schedule. Twenty-eight different community institutions from across the US have put the study through all the approval processes and have started to enroll participants. There are currently 120 people on study (towards a goal of 200), and over 50 of those have provided blood and saliva. The people contributing specimens are those not currently receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

The Mayo Clinic researchers are enrolling 10 to 20 people per month. They are storing these specimens in a very cold freezer and, due to their very quick accrual, are getting ready to send their first batch of blood to UCLA for cytokine analysis (markers of inflammation) and saliva samples to Germany to do cortisol analysis (a marker of physiologic stress). They have increased minority recruitment in order to explore whether there are differences in biology of fatigue in people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. The researchers are on schedule to finish accrual to this study by the fall of 2010.

Mid-Year Progress Report:
The study, to evaluate the utility of American ginseng for cancer related fatigue and to collect blood and saliva to better understand the physiology of this fatigue, is proceeding on schedule. Thirty-three community institutions from across the United States have put the study through all the approval processes and have started to enroll participants. There are currently 205 people on study, with over 100 of those who have provided blood and saliva samples. The people contributing specimens are those not concurrently receiving chemotherapy or radiation therapy.

Dr. Loprinzi and Barton and their group have been enrolling over 10 people a month. They have sent one batch of saliva samples to Germany and one batch of plasma samples to UCLA for analysis. They are receiving the results from the laboratory analyses of these samples and putting them into a statistical database. Due to good accrual, they will send out another batch of specimens for analysis soon, and they expect to be on schedule to finish accrual to the study by the end of 2010.

Bio:
Dr. Loprinzi is currently a Professor of Oncology at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN where he has completed tours of duty as the chair of the Division of Medical Oncology and the Vice-Chair of the Department of Oncology. He presently is the Director of the NCCTG Cancer Control Program and a Co-Director of the Mayo Cancer Center Prevention and Control Program.

Dr. Loprinzi has served as the principal investigator of the North Central Cancer Treatment Group, CCOP Research base for over a decade. As such, he has run an active cancer control program directed toward both cancer prevention efforts and symptom control efforts. He has conducted multiple placebo-controlled trials which have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Lancet. He has published over 250 articles and book chapters, over 60 of which have been published it the Journal of Clinical Oncology. In addition, Dr. Loprinzi serves as the founding editor for the Art of Oncology section of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

His work in this area has lead to him receiving two awards from the Susan B Komen Foundation, the Komen Foundation Brinker award in 2002 and the 2005 Komen Foundation Professor of Survivorship. In the Fall of 2005, he was awarded the 2006 Clinical Research Award by the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC). In the Fall of 2006, he was awarded the North American Menopausal Society (NAMS) Vasomotor Symptoms Research Award.

Lastly, Dr Loprinzi is one of two chief editors for a book geared toward the lay public, entitled Mayo Clinic Guide to Women's Cancers.