Published January 22, 2015
Dr. Paul W. Sylvester, Pfizer Endowed Professor of Pharmacology and Director of Graduate
Studies and Research in the University of Louisiana at Monroe School of Pharmacy,
was invited to chair a session and present a talk on his work related to the anticancer
effects of tocotrienols—a rare form of vitamin E—at the Health Sciences Innovation
Conference and Trade Show in Mumbai, India, January 15-17.
The conference was sponsored by the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and
the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
The goal of the conference was to draw major Indian pharma, biotech, hospital, and
academic leaders to the conference to foster productive interactions with medical
researchers from the United States in order to develop new collaborative and funding
opportunities, to recruit international students and establish strategic global partnerships.
Sylvester’s talk was titled “Targeting c-Met mediated epithelial mesenchymal transition
in the treatment of breast cancer,” which discussed how tocotrienol therapy may provide
significant benefit in the treatment of highly invasive and metastatic forms of breast
cancer.
According to Sylvester, traditional cancer chemotherapeutic agents typically exhibit
non-selective activity and often produce low response rates and severe toxic side
effects in patients. Thus, there is currently great interest in developing novel therapeutic
agents that target signaling molecules involved in the growth, survival, and progression
of malignant cells with high specificity.
Experimental evidence was provided demonstrating that tocotrienol treatment was effective
in suppressing the growth of malignant breast cancer.
Sylvester has spent many years researching the relationship between nutrition and
breast cancer growth and development, and the effects of tocotrienols.
In 2011, Sylvester was part of a research team which earned a patent for their discovery
of anti-cancer prototype compounds, which are found in the waxy substance on fresh
tobacco leaves, and which show potential for controlling metastic breast and prostate
cancers, and in 2014, Sylvester was part of the team which earned ULM’s first-ever
dual U.S. and international patent.
Sylvester received his B.S. from Western Michigan University, Ph.D. from Michigan
State University, and completed his Postdoctoral Training at Roswell Park Cancer Institute
in Buffalo, NY.
He has taught at ULM for over 16 years.
