Professor Dr. Philip Salem: A New Approach for the Treatment of Advanced Refractory Cancer

The new approach to the treatment of advanced refractory cancer is a program that was developed at Salem Oncology Center. It is a personalized multimodality therapy with the combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors, chemotherapy, and targeted treatment.

Patients with advanced disease who have exhausted standard and conventional therapy or patients with cancer diagnosis with no available standard treatment were treated with this program (ICTriplex). Therapy was tailored to the individual patient and to the specific cancer he or she has. The overall response rate was 88% with 50% of patients achieving a complete remission, and 36% achieving a partial remission.

This treatment was found to be very effective and should be considered for the treatment of such patients.

Professor Philip Salem President, Salem Oncology Center Houston, TX, USA

Dr. Philip A. Salem, physician, researcher, educator and international statesman in cancer medicine, serves as Director Emeritus of Cancer Research at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston and is the President of Salem Oncology Centre. Prior to his appointment at St. Luke’s, Dr. Salem served on the faculty of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center as a professor of cancer medicine and research. In March 2010, St. Luke’s announced the establishment of a cancer research chair in his name to honor his contributions to cancer medicine and as “a lasting tribute to his leadership and vision in the field of oncology”. In 2017, Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center established the “Philip Salem Annual Oncology Lecture”, an additional tribute to his contributions.

Dr. Salem is the recipient of many awards from all over the world for his contributions to cancer research. In the early 1970’s he was one of the first researchers to demonstrate that a chronic infection in the intestine may eventually lead to the development of cancer. His work on Immunoproliferative Small Intestinal Disease (a form of intestinal cancer), and the relationship between infection and the development of intestinal cancer has become a classic in modern medicine.

He is an active member of the top three cancer organizations in the world: American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO). In the last 15 years, he was selected annually in the editions of America’s Top Doctors by Castle Connolly. Because of his stature and impact on cancer research, he was invited to serve on the editorial boards of several prestigious cancer research journals.

Besides his contributions to medicine, Dr. Salem has made major contributions to America. In the early 1990’s he served on a healthcare advisory committee to the White House. In 1994 he received the Republican Senatorial Medal of Freedom, and in 1998 he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his “exceptional humanitarian efforts and outstanding contributions to American science”. In 2006 he was honored as ‘The Scientist of the Year’ by the National Italian Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Culture, and he was decorated in a special ceremony held in Rome, Italy.

Dr. Salem is a Renaissance intellectual and writer. He is the author of many editorials on Lebanon and he has published extensively on Arab affairs. In the year 2000, he was awarded the Khalil Gibran International Award by the Arabic Heritage League in Sydney, Australia. In May 2000 he was selected the ‘Arab American of the Year’ by the Arab Community Centre for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn, Michigan. On July 1, 2010 The Lebanese American University in Lebanon bestowed upon him an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters for his “contributions to medicine, Arabic literature and philosophy”. For the same reasons, another Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters was bestowed up him by the Notre Dame University of Lebanon on July 12, 2013