Marty Grebel: Helping to Fund a Promising Cancer Treatment
Marty Grebel’s daughter, Debbie, has had breast cancer twice. To beat cancer and have it return might discourage the most hopeful of families, but the two Madison residents are optimistic that a formal research project Debbie is part of at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York will be a game-changer for cancer.
The study has closed Phase 2, which called for 75 patients (Debbie is one), and is awaiting its funding for Phase 3.
“In order to keep the research going in the interim, they’re trying to raise some funds,” Marty says. “They’re not stopping. This is too promising.”
The study is looking into copper chelation, or lowering the amount of copper in the blood, as a cancer treatment. Everyone has some copper in his or her blood, which is normal and necessary and has nothing to do with getting cancer, Marty explains.
The treatment was originally designed for a genetic disorder called Wilson’s disease, whose sufferers have too much copper in their blood. But researchers discovered that, for cancer patients who have reached NED status (no evidence of disease), that lowering the normal amount of copper in the blood of these patients blocks stray cancer cells—cancer cells that may have been missed by other treatments, like chemo and radiation—from developing a blood supply (called angiogenesis) and consequently becoming full-fledged tumors. The process also appears to have minimal side effects. So far the study can only speak to breast cancer cells, but scientists are hopeful that it can apply to all types of cancer.
The copper chelation medication goes by the name TM, but its full name is tetrathiomolybdate.
“In simple English, it takes some of the copper out of your body and has very few side effects,” Marty says. “It does tend to lower people’s white blood cell count, but if that happens and it gets too low, doctors will adjust the medication. Patients can go off of TM for a few days and get right back on without any apparent disruption to the copper chelation treatment. One woman had to go off for a month, but she was okay.”
So far, Marty says, doctors see TM working in two ways for NED cancer patients: “It changes what they call the microevironment around any stray cancer cells, but it also breaks the chain of events that allows a cancer cell to develop a blood supply. Cancers are very bloody; if they can’t develop a blood supply, the cells either remain dormant or die. So this works in two ways: at the site where the cancer cell is, and in the bone marrow in the chain of events that leads to angiogenesis. These are all of the things they’re working on; they’re not just going by the fact that it works. They want to know exactly why it works, how it works, and how to make it work better. And that’s partly why I’m trying to help them.”
A Profile of the Enemy
There are a few types of breast cancer based on three biological tumor markers: ER (estrogen), PR (progesterone), and the HER2 gene (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2). Women can be triple positive (show markers for all three), but two-thirds of women with breast cancer are diagnosed as ER positive and/or PR positive, and HER2 negative, according to the American Cancer Society. This means the tumor growth of most women who get breast cancer are fueled by the hormones estrogen and progesterone, but the HER2 gene does not play a part. Other women are the opposite: ER and PR negative, and HER2 positive.
The hormone-negative tumors are harder to treat because the level of hormones in a woman’s body can be lowered with medicines such as Tamoxifen, which blocks estrogen production. And for women who are HER2 positive, a medicine called Herceptin can address that factor.
But for women with triple negative breast cancer, in which none of these three common markers play a role in the patient’s tumor growth, treatment is more difficult.
Debbie had triple negative breast cancer, and Marty says this study can help patients like her.
“Triple negative breast cancer patients are, in some ways, the main target of the study,” he says.
In order to qualify, Debbie had to get a PET scan, brain scan, and blood work to check for evidence of cancer activity once her regular treatment had ended, and she needed to show no evidence of disease.
“The reason they use that particular term (‘NED’) as opposed to ‘cured’ for cancer, is that people like my daughter, and many other people who get to NED stage, often have individual cancer cells that have escaped treatment, and if they become full-blown tumors, your prognosis goes down considerably. The study started with people who are already very high risk like my daughter, people with stage 3 and stage 4 breast cancer, but they had somehow managed to get to the point where there was no evidence of disease. One woman’s cancer, for example, had already spread to her liver, but the tumor was small enough that it could be removed surgically, and then she passed the NED qualification. That was eight years ago, and she’s still alive and well.”
Marty says the study has been going on for eight years, and the average period during which participants have not had a recurrence is about 5 ½ years. There are 75 people total in the study, and 63 have not had a recurrence despite being at very high risk, according to Marty.
“Of the 12 people who have had a recurrence, they all have one thing in common: The medication didn’t work for them,” he says. “Even that negative information is almost like what they call ‘proof of concept’ because [we’re seeing that] if you do lower the copper levels, you don’t get a recurrence; if you can’t lower the copper levels, there’s a much higher risk of recurrence.”
The Brains Behind the Study
The head researcher of the copper chelation study is Dr. Linda Vahdat, whose official title is director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at Weill Cornell Medical College. Marty has invited her to speak in Madison on Sunday, April 3, at the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society, 297 Boston Post Road, Madison. He hopes to raise funds if attendees who come to hear her speak on the research and her findings wish to donate.
“I arranged it, and she was very happy to come in order to help with the funding and to just spread the information around. This is vital information, and it’s important that people know about it.”
This study offers potential to other cancers, too.
Marty says, “Since it works on every type of breast cancer tumor, Dr. Vahdat says she can’t say anything for sure because they aren’t currently doing research on other types of cancers, but in all probability, if this holds up, it should work for every type of solid tumor. So whether it’s colon cancer or lung cancer, as long as the patient can get to NED, they’ll have to research that.”
He adds, “The odds that [the success of the study so far] is a statistical anomaly are virtually zero, because these are all high-risk people who are starting out.”
Fundraising for Family
Marty has already been fundraising for some time.
“Before this talk was arranged, was we sent out emails to several hundred people asking them to contribute to the fund,” he says. “Someone mentioned the idea to have a fundraising event. I said, ‘If I’m going to have a fundraising event, I’m going to see if Dr. Vahdat would be willing to speak at it,’ and she agreed immediately. So contributions have already gone in, but more is better.”
Both Marty and Debbie are clinical psychologists in New London but live in Madison. Marty and his wife, Irma, who is a clinical social worker, are originally from Manhattan and moved to Madison 46 years ago. Their son, Joseph, lives in California and is also a psychologist.
“It runs in the family,” Marty says with a chuckle. “I’m 73 years old, and I want to keep working as long as I can. This works for me, and as long as this works for me I have no plan to retire. We’re a large office. I started it alone 45 years ago, and now 11 people work in our practice, including my daughter.”
Debbie has two children, Isabella and Alexander.
“When my daughter first got cancer, Isabella was 13 and got very involved in raising funds.” Marty says, stopping to compose himself. “She and her friends were cheerleaders and did carwashes, walked the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society, and sold cookies and pastries to raise funds for general cancer research.”
Marty concludes, “The thing that I guess I’m trying to get across to people is that this really does look like a fundamental breakthrough, and it’s not chemo. It’s reducing the risk of cancer metastases [cancer spreading from its original site to distant organs] profoundly in people with breast cancer. It’s a whole different strategy, and it seems to be working. I’ve talked to other oncologists and doctors—because I’m not an oncologist or a physician—and they also see how incredibly promising this is.”
To nominate someone for Person of the Week, email Melissa Johnson at m.johnson@zip06.com.
Dr. Linda Vahdat will speak about her copper chelation research study on Sunday, April 3 at the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society, 297 Boston Post Road, Madison. Attendance is free, and donations are not required. Marty Grebel asks that any attendees RSVP to him at imgrebel@comcast.net so he can get a headcount.
To learn more about the study, visit bit.ly/coppercancer. Contact Marty Grebel at imgrebel@comcast.net for information about the upcoming talk or donating to the ongoing research.