Terence Herman

• MD
• CEO at University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

The aim of our study is to document our cases of choroidal melanoma treated with low dose rate (LDR) brachytherapy and to correlate the dosimetry and radiobiology with clinical effects and oncologic outcomes. Data from 157 patients treated from 2014 to 2018 with LDR brachytherapy were used for this investigation. Treatments used a collaborative ocu...

High-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) is branded with hematogenous metastasis, relapses, and dismal long-term survival. Intensification of consolidation therapy with tandem/triple autologous stem cell (SC) rescue (with bone marrow [BM]/peripheral blood [PB] CD34+ selection) after myeloablative chemotherapy has improved long-term survival. However, the be...

Introduction: Neuroblastoma (NB) is the prime cancer of infancy, and accounts for 9% of pediatric cancer deaths. While children diagnosed with clinically stable NB experience a complete cure, those with high-risk disease (HR-NB) do not recover, despite intensive therapeutic strategies. Development of novel and effective targeted therapies is neede...

p>Neuroblastoma is the most common cancer in infants and accounts for 9.1% of childhood cancer-related deaths. Despite the current standard of care (SOC), drug-resistant neuroblastoma significantly compromises patient survival. Hence it is critical to identify new and less toxic therapeutic approaches for better patient outcomes. Tumor necrosis fac...

Purpose: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is the most challenging and aggressive subtype of breast cancer with limited treatment options because of tumor heterogeneity, lack of druggable targets and therapy resistance. TNBCs are characterized by overexpression of growth factor receptors such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), vascular...

Neuroblastoma (NB) is the most common cancer of infancy and accounts for nearly one tenth of pediatric cancer deaths. This mortality rate has been attributed to the > 50% frequency of relapse despite intensive, multimodal clinical therapy in patients with progressive NB. Given the disease’s heterogeneity and developed resistance, attaining a cure a...

Neuroblastoma (NB) deriving from neural crest cells is the most common extra-cranial solid cancer at infancy. NB originates within the peripheral sympathetic ganglia in adrenal medulla and along the midline of the body. Clinically, NB exhibits significant heterogeneity stretching from spontaneous regression to rapid progression to therapy resistanc...

Tumor suppressor ARID1A, a subunit of the chromatin remodeling complex SWI/SNF, regulates cell cycle progression, interacts with the tumor suppressor TP53, and prevents genomic instability. In addition, ARID1A has been shown to foster resistance to cancer therapy. By promoting non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), ARID1A enhances DNA repair. Consequen...

The upsurge of marine-derived therapeutics for cancer treatment is evident, with many drugs in clinical use and in clinical trials. Seaweeds harbor large amounts of polyphenols and their anti-cancer benefit is linear to their anti-oxidant activity. Our studies identified three superlative anti-cancer seaweed polyphenol drug candidates (SW-PD). We i...

Most high-risk neuroblastomas that initially respond to therapy will ultimately relapse. Currently, no curative treatment is available. Acquired genetic/molecular rearrangement in therapy-resistant cells contributes to tumor relapse. Recently, we identified significant RD3 loss in progressive disease (PD) and defined its association with advanced d...

The majority of high-risk neuroblastoma that initially responds to therapy will ultimately relapse. Acquired genetic/molecular rearrangement contributes to tumor relapse and currently, no salvage treatment regimens are known to be curative. Our studies identified the loss of retinal-degeneration-protein-3 (RD3) in progressive disease (PD) and its a...

The upsurge of marine-derived therapeutics for cancer treatment is evident, with many drugs in clinical use and in clinical trials. Seaweeds harbor large amounts of polyphenols and their anti-cancer benefit is linear to their anti-oxidant activity. Our studies identified three superlative anti-cancer seaweed polyphenol drug candidates (SW-PD). We i...

The upsurge of marine-derived therapeutics for cancer treatment is evident, with many drugs in clinical use and in clinical trials. Seaweeds harbor large amounts of polyphenols and their anti-cancer benefit is linear to their anti-oxidant activity. Our studies identified three superlative anti-cancer seaweed polyphenol drug candidates (SW-PD). We i...

The majority of high-risk neuroblastoma that initially responds to therapy will ultimately relapse. Acquired genetic/molecular rearrangement contributes to tumor relapse and currently, no salvage treatment regimens are known to be curative. Our studies identified the loss of retinal-degeneration-protein-3 (RD3) in progressive disease (PD) and its a...

e22515 Background: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are heterogeneous solid tumors of mesenchymal cell origin, often difficult to manage. Local recurrence of extremity STS with surgery alone ranges from 5-20% with amputation ; 40% with wide excision. Neoadjuvant therapies are used to improve surgical outcomes. There is currently no recognized optimal neo...

This work evaluated the difference in dosimetry of high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy treatments between plans using advanced multichannel applicators and simplified base versions. Eighteen HDR patients treated using Interstitial Ring CT/MR Applicator Set (Elekta Brachytherapy, Netherlands) (TRN) (21 plans), CapriTM Applicator Set (Varian Medical S...

Background MYCN amplification directly correlates with the clinical course of neuroblastoma and poor patient survival, and serves as the most critical negative prognostic marker. Although fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) remains the gold standard for clinical diagnosis of MYCN status in neuroblastoma, its limitations warrant the identifica...

The primary occurrence of mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) of the conjunctiva is extremely rare, aggressive, and easily mistaken for squamous cell carcinoma. With fewer than 50 cases reported in the literature, there is no consensus on the most effective treatment. Radiation is an alternative to enucleation or orbital exenteration with the potential...

MYCN amplification directly correlates with the clinical course of neuroblastoma (NB) and poor patient survival, and serves as the most critical negative prognostic marker. Although FISH remains the gold standard for clinical diagnosis of MYCN status in NB, its limitations warrant the identification of rapid, reliable, less technically challenging,...

Recently, we defined the novel tumor evolution stabilization role of Retinal degeneration protein 3 (RD3), regulating the metastatic state of neuroblastoma (NB) cells in vitro and their metastatic potential in vivo. Our earlier studies in various tumor models recognized the role of therapy resistant residual cells in tumor recurrence and relapse. H...

Male breast cancer (MBC) accounts for approximately 1% of all breast cancers, limiting the data characterizing clinicopathologic features and treatment outcomes in patients with MBC. This paucity of data has led to most of our treatment guidance being extrapolated from patients with female breast cancer (FBC). From 1998 to 2012, data were captured...

Human antigen (Hu) R is an RNA-binding protein whose overexpression in human cancer correlates with aggressive disease, drug resistance, and poor prognosis. HuR inhibition has profound anticancer activity. Pharmacologic inhibitors can overcome the limitations of genetic inhibition. In this study, we examined the antitumor activity of CMLD-2, a smal...

The Hippo pathway is an evolutionarily conserved signaling pathway that regulates proliferation and apoptosis to control organ size during developmental growth. Yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1), the terminal effector of the Hippo pathway, is a transcriptional co-activator and a potent growth promoter that has emerged as a critical oncogene. Overexpr...

The 195-amino-acid-long human Retinal Degeneration Protein 3 (RD3) is critical in the regulation of guanylate cyclase (GC) signaling and photoreceptor cell survival. Recently, we identified significant loss of RD3 in high-risk neuroblastoma and the influential role of RD3 in tumor progression. However, the functional characterization of RD3 in tumo...

Therapy resistant pancreatic cancer (PC) cells play a crucial role in tumor relapse, recurrence, and metastasis. Recently, we showed the anti-PC potential of an array of seaweed polyphenols and identified efficient drug deliverables. Herein, we investigated the benefit of one such deliverable, Hormophysa triquerta polyphenol (HT-EA), in regulating...

N-MYC amplification is restricted to ~30% of the high-risk neuroblastoma (NB), while the remaining 70% is N-MYC non-amplified (N-MYC-NA), yet still has a poor outcome with only 37% 5 Year OS and a miserable 9% 10Y OS. Recently, we demonstrated, Retinal Degeneration Protein 3 (RD3) regulates metastatic state of NB cells and its loss associates with...

e15761 Background: Although the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in achieving resectability in locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) has been 20-31%, many cases remain unresectable. The aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of adding chemo radiotherapy (CRT) to achieve resectability in LAPC that remained unresectable after NA...

HuR is an mRNA-binding protein whose overexpression in cancer cells has been associated with poor prognosis and resistance to therapy. While reports on HuR overexpression contributing to chemoresistance exist, limited information is available on HuR and radioresistance especially in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). In this study we investigate...

p>Recently we recognized the transcriptional/translational loss of Retinal degeneration Protein 3 (RD3) in high-risk progressive neuroblastoma (HR-NB) and defined its novel tumor evolution stabilization function. Studies have shown that RD3 competitively binds to guanylate cyclases (GCs) and maintains GC expression, stability, as well as restores G...

Purpose:To determine from retrospective study the most appropriate technique for targeting small borderline operable pancreatic cancer surrounding blood vessels by evaluating the dosimetry and normal tissue sparing achievable using Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) and Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT). Methods:Treatment plans from...

Purpose: To evaluate the use of radiotherapy (RT) in older patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Patients and methods: The National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) is a comprehensive national database that captures approximately 70% of newly diagnosed cancer patients in the United States. Data for patients meeting the criteria of nonmetast...

Glutathione S-transferase alpha 4 (GSTA4) is a phase II detoxifying enzyme that metabolizes electrophiles and carcinogens including 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE), an endogenous carcinogen that contributes to colorectal carcinogenesis. In this study, we investigated GSTA4 expression and regulation in murine primary colonic epithelial cells, microbiome...

Background: Circulating miRNAs have momentous clinical relevance as prognostic biomarkers and in the progression of solid tumors. Recognizing novel candidates of neuroblastoma-specific circulating miRNAs would allow us to identify potential prognostic biomarkers that could predict the switch from favorable to high-risk metastatic neuroblastoma (HR...

Therapy-resistant pancreatic cancer (PC) cells play a crucial role in tumor relapse, recurrence, and metastasis. Recently, we showed the anti-PC potential of an array of seaweed polyphenols and identified efficient drug deliverables. Herein, we investigated the benefit of one such deliverable, Hormophysa triquerta polyphenol (HT-EA), in regulating...

Introduction: Therapy-associated onset of stemness-maintenance in surviving tumor-cells dictates tumor relapse/recurrence. Recently, we recognized the anti-pancreatic cancer (PC) potential of seaweed polyphenol manifolds and narrowed down three superior drug-deliverables that could serve as adjuvants and benefit PC cure. Utilizing the PC- cancer s...

Clinical outcomes for high-risk neuroblastoma patients remains poor, with only 40–50% 5-Year overall survival (OS) and <10% long-term survival. The ongoing acquisition of genetic/molecular rearrangements in undifferentiated neural crest cells may endorse neuroblastoma progression. This study recognized the loss of Retinal Degeneration protein 3, RD...

Clinical outcomes for high-risk neuroblastoma patients remains poor, with only 40-50% 5-Year overall survival (OS) and <10% long-term survival. The ongoing acquisition of genetic/molecular rearrangements in undifferentiated neural crest cells may endorse neuroblastoma progression. This study recognized the loss of Retinal Degeneration protein 3, RD...

Objective: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) facilitates highly conformal dose distributions to a targe tumor volume. Accurate tumor localization is extremely important, and lung tumors pose a unique challenge due to respiratory motion. Patients are required to fast before PET/CT but not before CT simulation and daily treatment, introduci...

Proceedings: AACR 106th Annual Meeting 2015; April 18-22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA MetastamiRs have momentous clinical relevance and have been correlated with disease progression in many tumors. In this study, we identified neuroblastoma metastamiRs exploiting unique mouse models of favorable and high-risk metastatic human neuroblastoma. Further, we...

High-risk neuroblastoma (HR-NB) presented with hematogenous metastasis is one of the most difficult cancers to cure with poor patient survival. Aggressive tumors contain populations of rapidly proliferating clonogens that exhibit stem cell properties, cancer stem cells (CSCs). Conceptually, CSCs that evade intensive multimodal therapy dictates tumo...

Background: Determining the driving factors and molecular flow-through that define the switch from favorable to aggressive high-risk disease is critical to the betterment of neuroblastoma cure. Methods: In this study, we examined the cytogenetic and tumorigenic physiognomies of distinct population of metastatic site- derived aggressive cells (MS...

Background: MetastamiRs have momentous clinical relevance and have been correlated with disease progression in many tumors. In this study, we identified neuroblastoma metastamiRs exploiting unique mouse models of favorable and high-risk metastatic human neuroblastoma. Further, we related their deregulation to the modulation of target proteins and e...

The overall survival rates of many pediatric cancers continue to improve with each decade due to new advances in therapy. As this trend continues, the focus and importance of minimizing acute and long-term toxicity associated with treatment is paramount. While significant research regarding many of the late responses of normal tissues associated wi...

Background: Identifying the drug-deliverables that target autophagy is crucial to finding a cure for pancreatic cancer (PC), as activated autophagy is associated with poor patient outcomes. Our recent studies recognized the anti-PC potential of an antioxidant-rich collection of seaweed polyphenols and identified potential compounds for the treatmen...

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA Based on clinical evidence, hyperthermia treatment (HT) in combination with radiation (IR) achieves superior local control for recurrent chest wall breast cancer (BCa). The effect of HT combined with IR is due partly to its independent cytotoxic effects, and partly to its radios...

Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA High risk disease in infants with neuroblastoma significantly contributes to the pediatric cancer death. We investigated the molecular reprogramming in neuroblastoma cells that drives favorable neuroblastoma to aggressive disease. For this, multi-site aggressive tumors from anim...

Circulating miRNAs has momentous clinical relevance and has been correlated with disease progression in many solid tumors. In this study, we investigated the circulating miRNAs' variations exploiting unique mouse models of non-metastatic favorable and high-risk, aggressive human neuroblastoma. Conditioned serum samples from animals bearing favorabl...

Ascertaining the driving factors and molecular flow through that confiscate favorable to aggressive high-risk disease has momentous importance in neuroblastoma cure. Herein, we investigated the cytogenetic and tumorigenic/metastatic physiognomies of distinct population of highly malignant (NBP4) cells established from multi-site aggressive tumors a...

Background This study aims to compare dosimetrically and radiobiologically 3D conformal, intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), RapidArc (RA) volumetric modulated arc therapy and proton therapy techniques for early-stage glottic cancer.Methods Ten patients were retrospectively selected. Photon treatment planning was performed using Eclipse E...

Radiation Research Society SIT award winner

Radiation Research Society SIT award winner

The purpose of this study was to assess quantitatively elongation of mobile targets in cone‐beam CT (CBCT) imaging by measurement and modeling. A mathematical model was derived that predicts the measured lengths of mobile targets and its dependence on target size and motion patterns in CBCT imaging. Three tissue‐equivalent targets of differing size...

Ascertaining the ionizing radiation (IR)-induced bystander response and its preceding molecular regulation would increase our understanding of the mechanism of acute and delayed radiobiological effects. Recent evidence clearly prompted that radiation-induced nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) would play a key role in bystander responses in nontargeted...

Recently, we have shown that the neem leaf extract (NLE) rich in Nimbolide and Azadirachtin exerted radiosensitization and alleviates tumor progression in varied solid tumor models. Accordingly, in this study, we investigated its potential in the regulation of radiation (IR)-induced stemness in surviving breast cancer (BCa) cells. Human breast aden...

Ascertaining radiation-induced bystander response in non-targeted tumor cells, particularly on variables pertaining to resistance, relapse and tumor progression, may escort significant clinical implications. Accordingly, in this study, we investigated the radiation induced alterations in factors that drive the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (...

Prognosis of patients with late stage BCa still remains poor, mostly due to development of chemoradioresistance followed by tumor recurrence. Cancer stem cells (CSCs), with higher drug efflux capability, and other stem cell-like properties were proposed to be responsible for resistance, relapse and progression of BCa. We have shown that EF24 allevi...

Objective: Initial surgical resection is the most curative therapy approach for pancreatic cancer. Many patients are not resectable due to locally advanced tumor. For such patients, the optimal approach is unclear. Chemotherapy with and without standard fractionation radiation has been studied in multiple trials with conflicting results, and contin...

THIS STUDY WAS PERFORMED TO EVALUATE DOSIMETRIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CURRENT INTENSITY MODULATED RADIATION THERAPY (IMRT) DELIVERY MODES: Step-and-shoot (SS), sliding window (SW), and volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT). Plans for 15 prostate cancer patients with 10 MV photon beams using each IMRT mode were generated. Patients had three planning...

Recently, we demonstrated that radiation (IR) instigates the occurrence of a NFκB-TNFα feedback cycle which sustains persistent NFκB activation in neuroblastoma (NB) cells and favors survival advantage and clonal expansion. Further, we reported that curcumin targets IR-induced survival signaling and NFκB dependent hTERT mediated clonal expansion in...

Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC Tumor recurrences continue to remain high in neuroblastoma (NB), and a substantial fraction of those develop metastatic disease with only 10% survival in systemic recurrences. Efficient and improved therapeutic strategy can be developed through targeted drug delivery appro...

Pancreatic cancer remains the fourth leading cause of cancer death with an unacceptable survival that has remained relatively unchanged over the past 25 years. The presence of occult or clinical metastases at the time of diagnosis together with the lack of effective chemotherapies pose a dire need for designing new and targeted therapeutic delivera...

Low dose γ-radiation (LDIR) has been used as curative/adjuvant/ palliative treatment modality for a variety of medical conditions. However, LDIR has been casually linked to NFκB activation and inflammation. Here, we investigated the kinetics of cyto/chemokines and their influence on inflammation in normal tissues after LDIR. C57BL/6 mice exposed to...

Purpose: To evaluate dosimetric accuracy of a multiple-diode array detector (MapCHECK2 ) for high-dose-rate (HDR) brachytherapy Ir-192 source using two-dimensional dose distributions measured with MapCHECK2, EBT2 Gafchromic films, and TG-43 calculations. Materials and methods: Plans with different patterns of dwell positions and times were deliv...

Purpose: To evaluate treatment plans generated by Step-and-Shoot (SS), Sliding Window (SW) and Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) in order to assess the differences in dose volume histograms of planning target volume (PTV) and organs at risk (OAR), conformity indices, radiobiological evaluations, normal tissue dose, and plan quality for prost...

Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains the fourth leading cause of cancer death with an unacceptable survival that has remained relatively unchanged over the past 25 years. The presence of occult or clinical metastases at the time of diagnosis together with the lack of effective chemotherapies pose a dire need for designing new and targeted therapeutic del...

Real time QPCR amplification charts for (A) BCl2 , (B) EGFR , (C) PDGFA , (4) VEGFA , (5) AKT , (6) hTERT , (7) kRAS and (8) FGFA in in MiaPaCa-2, Panc-1, BxPC-3 and Panc-3.27 cells treated with 100 mg/ml of dichloromethane (DD-DCM, SA-DCM, SM-DCM, PT-DCM, HT-DCM) and ethyl acetate (DD-EA, SA-EA, SM-EA, PT-EA, HT-EA) seaweed...

Weightage inhibition factor (WFinhibition) for molecular endpoints measured in pancreatic cancer (MiaPaCa-2, Panc-1, BxPC-3 and Panc-3.27) cell-lines exposed to dichloromethane (DD-DCM, SA-DCM, SM-DCM, PT-DCM, HT-DCM) and ethyl acetate (DD-EA, SA-EA, SM-EA, PT-EA, HT-EA) fractions. Earmarking of weightage inhibition factor was based on the relative...

Ascertaining function-specific orchestration of NFκB in response to radiation may reveal a molecular blue-print that dictates induced relapse and metastasis of the neuroblastoma. We recently demonstrated that sustained activation of NFκB caused by ionizing radiation (IR)-initiated TNFα-NFκB feedback signaling leads to radioresistance and recurrence...

Background Heterogeneously distributed hypoxic areas are a characteristic property of locally advanced breast cancers (BCa) and generally associated with therapeutic resistance, metastases, and poor patient survival. About 50% of locally advanced BCa, where radiotherapy is less effective are suggested to be due to hypoxic regions. In this study, we...

Our earlier studies indicated that ionizing radiation (IR) induces NF-κB-dependent clonal expansion of therapy resistant tumor cells. Herein, we investigated whether mitigation of NF-κB-dependent telomerase activation by EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor can enhance IR-induced celling killing. SCC-4 and SCC-9 cells exposed to IR with or without Peliti...

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most deadly cancers with a five year survival rate of less than six percent. The poor prognosis can be attributed to the fact that more than three fourth of the patients have metastasis at the time of diagnosis. In view of the increasing evidence that sulfated polysaccharides attenuate tumor invasion, we attempted to...

This study compares the dosimetric differences in HDR brachytherapy treatment plans calculated with Nucletron's PLATO and Oncentra MasterPlan treatment planning systems (TPS). Ten patients (1 T1b, 1 T2a, 6 T2b, 2 T4) having cervical carcinoma, median age of 43.5 years (range, 34-79 years) treated with tandem and ring applicator in our institution w...