Lawrence D. Piro, M.D.
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Board of Councilors' Corner
A Clinician's View
By Eva Emerson
As someone working on the front lines in the battle against cancer,
oncologist Lawrence Piro understands the power of science to save lives.
When Piro, a physician specializing in blood cancers, first began his
practice, there were very few good cancer drugs available, he said.
That was in spite of the enormous leaps molecular biologists were then
making in the lab.
“We just didn’t know enough about how to make use of the discoveries
then,” said Piro, a member of the USC College Board of Councilors whose
daughter is now a senior at the School of Cinema-TV.
Aiming to shorten the lag time between advances made at the lab bench
and those used in the clinic, Piro decided early on to devote his
career to both caring for patients and the clinical development of new
therapies for those battling cancer.
Since joining the College Board in 2004, he has become an articulate
advocate for the College’s new Molecular & Computational Biology
(MCB) Building, providing a clinician’s perspective on the importance
of the interdisciplinary biomedical research pursued by its occupants.
He and his wife, Judy, have also supported the MCB Building directly —
their names can be found on one of the plaques affixed to the
building’s donor wall.
“Basic scientists, like those at the College, create the fundamental
building blocks that drive medical breakthroughs. Without their work,
there’s nothing going forward,” said Piro, president of The Angeles
Clinic and Research Institute in Santa Monica, Calif.
His career highlights include leading the clinical trials for a new
leukemia drug that led to complete remission in 90 percent of patients.
More recently, he did clinical trials on the first immunotherapy for
cancer. The antibody-based therapy, Rituxan, represents a new approach
to attacking cancer cells, and has revolutionized the treatment of
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Piro expects next-generation cancer treatments will come out of
collaborations not only between physicians and scientists, but also by
bringing together scientists from different fields.
As an example, Piro cites the development of PET scans, which doctors
use on a daily basis to non-invasively visualize tumors in patients.
PET scanners track the body’s use of sugar, in the form of glucose, and
show differences in the rate of glucose metabolism across tissues.
Biologists discovered that cancer cells use more glucose than healthy
cells. But that was just a first step. Mathematicians were required to
quantify and characterize the differences in the metabolic rate.
Statisticians helped determine the probability that detecting a change
in that rate would correctly indicate a cancer cell. And computer
scientists helped design a way to visualize the difference in metabolic
rates in a non-invasive way.
“This development was done by scientists working collaboratively over a
long time,” Piro said. But what if all of these specialists were housed
in the same building?
That’s what’s now happening in the MCB Building.
“The kind of collaboration that led to PET can happen more quickly,
with a facility like the MCB Building,” he said. “This will help us
move more quickly toward individualized cancer therapy where every
patient receives treatment that is customized to their body conditions
and their own tumor characteristics.”
He added, “When this is achieved treatment will not only be more effective but far less toxic.”
Piro thinks that scientists at USC are uniquely situated to make key
advances in cancer and the understanding and treatment of other complex
diseases.
“When people ask, ‘Why USC?’ I talk about a number of things, but most
important is USC’s visionary leadership, which has encouraged
scientists to look beyond their own field,” Piro said. “USC is a young
125. The age and history of the university and its programs provide
tradition and stability, while its visionary leadership encourages the
type of youthful thinking that inspires creativity.”
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