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Beginning with the first association between NYCC and Yale School of Medicine in 1990, a
fount of information has poured forth to contribute to improvements in the investigation
and clinical treatment of diseases of the cardiovascular system. The first association was
a project that involved the investigation of the use of extra-corporeal photochemistry
(ECP), known as photopheresis, developed in the early 1980’s,
by Dr. Richard L.
Edelson, now Professor and Chairman of Dermatology at Yale and
Director, Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center. The study was titled, Photopheresis for the Therapy of Progressive Systemic Scleroderma: A disease affecting the
Cardiovascular System. Impressive statistical evidence, gathered in that study, justified
currently ongoing Phase III clinical trials.
A second project involved the use of photopheresis to control the rejection of
transplanted hearts. This study was so successful that it led to photopheresis being
utilized in more than 150 cardiac treatment centers around the world where heart
transplants are performed. A paper published in 1998 in The New England Journal of
Medicine described how this new treatment protocol is more effective than conventional
immunosuppression in preventing episodes of cardiac rejection. More importantly, further
coronary artery disease in these transplanted hearts is markedly reduced.
A third project was a retrospective statistical study of sixty patients who had been
treated with photopheresis for the treatment of cutaneous t-cell lymphoma, a common type
of lymphoma. These patients, ranging in age from 55 to 80 were statistically compared to a
group of patients who had not been treated with photopheresis. Evidence of disease
including angina and myocardial infarction was looked for in these patients. Although
statistics suggested that one in eight of these persons would have been expected to show
evidence of cardiovascular disease, there were no such incidents present in the
photopheresis treated group.
The current association between Yale School of Medicine and NYCC is a study whose title is
- Transimmunization: a new paradigm for Heart Transplantation and its Implications for the
Treatment of Cardiac Disease. In this study, monocytes in the peripheral blood of ECP
patients are shown to be resistant to the cell death caused by exposure to the drug
8-methoxypsoralen and ultraviolet A light. These cells are in turn activated by the forces
encountered during ECP to differentiate into dendritic cells. Dendritic cells, in addition
to possessing the ability to provoke immune responses, may allow for their control. It is
conceivable that at some point, these cells may even give us the ability to vaccinate
against certain types of cardiovascular disease.
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To learn more about NYCC projects call us at (201) 569-8180, fax us at (201)
568-5571
or write to us at: 82 North Summit Street, Tenafly, NJ 07670.
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