Research Summary
Dr. Ball is an endocrinologist who is involved in clinical trials and pre-clinical laboratory studies in thyroid cancer. His clinical trials have included protocols for advanced radioiodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer and medullary thyroid cancer. These studies are performed in collaboration with research staff in the upper aero-digestive group in the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Ball is associate protocol chair and a member of the Board of Directors of the International Thyroid Oncology Group (ITOG). He's developed national trials through this cooperative group. A focus of these clinical trials is the role of multikinase inhibitors, and inhibitors of the RAS-RAF-MAPK and PI3K pathways.
In pre-clinical research, Dr. Ball collaborates with Dr. Nelkin, Dr. Agrawal and others in the cancer biology division of the Kimmel Cancer Center. The principal areas of this research include pathogenesis and mechanisms of treatment resistance in medullary thyroid cancer, and pathogenesis and immune-directed therapy of anaplastic thyroid cancer. Recent studies have also focused on targeting the RAS-RAF-MAPK and PI3K pathways in differentiated thyroid cancer. This work is supported by the NIH and American Cancer Society.
Selected Publications
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Agrawal N, Jiao Y, Sausen M, Leary R, Bettegowda C, Roberts N, Bhan S, Ho AS, Khan Z, Bishop J, Westra WH, Wood LD, Hruban RH, Tufano RP, Robinson B, Dralle H, Toledo SPA, Toledo RA, Morris LGT, Ghossein R, Fagin JA, Chan TA, Velculescu VA, Vogelstein B, Kinzler KW, PapadopoulosN, Nelkin BD, and Ball DW. Exomic sequencing of medullary thyroid cancer reveals dominant and mutually exclusive oncogenic mutations in RET and RAS. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 98:E364-9, 2013.
Wilky BA, Rudek MA, Ahmed S, Laheru DA, Cosgrove D, Donehower RC, Nelkin B, Ball DW, Doyle LA, Chen H, Ye X, Azad N. A Phase I trial of vertical inhibition of IGF signaling using cixutumumab, an anti-IGF1-R antibody, and selumetinib, a MEK 1/2 inhibitor, in patients with advanced solid tumors, British Journal of Cancer, 2014, in press.
Jin N, Jiang T, Rosen DN, Nelkin BD, Ball DW . Synergistic action of a RAF inhibitor and dual PI-3 Kinase / mTOR inhibitor in thyroid cancer. Clin Can Res 17:6482-9, 2011.
Elisei R, Schlumberger M, Mueller S, Schoffski P, Brose M, Shah M, Licitra L, Jarzab B, Medvedev V, Kreissl M, Niederle B, Cohen E, Wirth L, Ali H, Hessel C, Yaron Y, Ball D Nelkin B, Sherman S. Cabozantinib in Progressive Medullary Thyroid Cancer. J Clin Oncol, 31:3639-46, 2013.
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