May 9, 2013
Paclitaxel is a drug commonly used to treat breast, ovarian and lung cancer that can cause a progressive loss of dexterity and balance, known as peripheral neuropathy, in some patients. Currently there are no proven methods for predicting, preventing, or treating this common side effect.
Discovery of a predictive biomarker could enable clinicians to identify patients at high risk of neuropathy prior to initiation of treatment.
Working with a cohort of patients derived from the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Carolina Breast Cancer Study database, graduate student Dan Hertz, PharmD, PhD, analyzed genetic and demographic data to establish that paclitaxel-treated patients who carry a certain genotype were more susceptible to neuropathy.
Hertz received a Graduate Education Advancement Board Impact Award from the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in recognition of his work. Each year the Graduate School recognizes graduate students whose research is of exceptional benefit to North Carolina. This year forty-one Impact Awards were given out. Hertz is a graduate student in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics.
Successful prospective testing for the genotype could give clinicians a predictive tool to identify which of the hundreds of patients treated with paclitaxel in North Carolina each year are at increased neuropathy risk, enabling individualization of treatment to maximize effectiveness while minimizing toxicity.
“The continued development of this approach could one day lead to pre-paclitaxel treatment genotyping that guides treatment decision in order to optimize efficacy while limiting toxicity for the hundreds of cancer patients in North Carolina,” said adviser Howard McLeod, PharmD, Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor and director of the UNC Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy.
Hertz received his doctor of pharmacy from the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University in 2008. He was awarded a predoctoral fellowship from the AFPE in 2010 that was renewed in 2011. He also received the Young Philanthropist Award from the Cancer Institute of New Jersey in 2011. Hertz has been first author on five published scientific articles with two more in press.
Hertz is currently a research assistant professor at the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy.
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