R. Daniel Beauchamp, MD, former chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was a renowned surgeon-scientist, making important cancer research discoveries throughout his career that advanced colorectal cancer treatment and laid critical groundwork for future investigations.
Recently, his family, former colleagues, mentees and other members of the VUMC community gathered for a symposium in his honor highlighting research conducted by the Medical Center’s surgeon-scientists, fellows, residents and medical students. Beauchamp, who served as chair of the section for 17 years, died in November 2022.
Beauchamp Research Day honors his legacy and celebrates the achievements of others he inspired, collaborated with or advised as a physician who not only served his patients at the bedside but also pursued translational research to guide improved treatment for cancer patients.
As he viewed the more than 100 research posters displayed in the Langford Auditorium lobby highlighting a wealth of investigations during the event, Seth Karp, MD, H. William Scott Jr. Professor of Surgery and chair of the Section of Surgical Sciences, said Beauchamp’s legacy had been well honored by the symposium.
“I’m just overwhelmed with all the posters and all the enthusiasm,” Karp said. “This is exactly what we were hoping for. I’m really happy that some of the other non-section departments also participated. We saw some great ortho and ENT projects. I know Dan’s looking down, and I think he’s smiling.
“Having this day for every level of people in our system — the medical students, residents, fellows and even the junior attendings — this is our DNA. This is what we’re all about. We want to encourage investigation to take care of not just the patient that we’re taking care of today but the patient we’re going to take care of tomorrow, and the patient that everybody else is going to take care of tomorrow. This is the pipeline you need to develop to do that.”
Karp announced at the symposium that the Beauchamp Research Day now has an endowment in perpetuity due to the generosity of many of Beauchamp’s colleagues and friends in attendance.
Naji Abumrad, MD, adjunct professor of Surgery, was a longtime friend of Beauchamp, and he was also impressed by the quality and depth of the research presented at the symposium. He recalled when his lab and the lab of Hal Moses, MD, where Beauchamp worked as a fellow when he first came to VUMC, were nearby. In those early years, they ate their lunchtime sandwiches together, leaning against a hallway wall as they discussed their research.
“When I started, there’d be two or three of these research posters — now, 100?” said Abumrad. “Dan was a phenomenal surgeon-scientist. He’d be the happiest man alive because of this.”
Jen Jen Yeh, MD, professor of Surgery and Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was the symposium’s keynote speaker. She detailed research in identifying molecular subtypes of pancreatic cancer through genomic analysis of tumors. By better defining pancreatic cancer subtypes and assessing their responsiveness to therapies, treatments can be personalized, so that the most effective treatments are chosen, as is done with other cancers.
Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease with a five-year survival rate of just 12.8%, according to the National Cancer Institute. Despite being a relatively rare cancer, it is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. There are currently few therapeutic options.
Yeh’s team identified two pancreatic tumor subtypes, classical and basal-like. Her lab has shown basal-like tumors demonstrate a much poorer response rate to common, first-line therapies than classical subtype tumors. However, a study just published by Yeh and her UNC colleagues in the journal Cancer Discovery shows that only patients with basal-like tumors derive significant benefit from epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors.
Yeh discussed tumor and tumor microenvironment classifiers developed by her team and UNC collaborators to quickly identify tumor components and subtypes. One classifier is now in use in clinical trials to identify the tumor subtype from a pancreatic biopsy to quickly select the best therapy.
“I hope I’ve shown that over time that you actually can bring things from the bedside to the bench and back to the bedside,” Yeh said. “There are many directions that your research can go, and we’ve been lucky enough that all of those different branch points have converged into an opportunity to bring our findings back to the clinic. And that’s our ultimate goal. We’re always looking for new approaches and new ways to treat pancreatic cancer.”
Yeh also discussed a novel iontophoretic drug delivery method that has demonstrated tumor regression in mouse models. Iontophoretic drug delivery uses an electrical field to deliver drugs to their target. One of the difficulties in treating pancreatic cancer is effectively and safely delivering targeted therapy to the tumor, and this could prove to be an improvement over standard intravenous delivery.
Clinical trials of the iontophoretic drug delivery device are expected to begin in 2026, Yeh said. She acknowledged challenges in developing a commercially viable iontophoretic drug delivery device, including the need for venture capital funding, as work to improve treatment for pancreatic cancer continues.
