Laura Hutchins named interim director of UAMS cancer center

Laura Hutchins, a hematologist oncologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), has been appointed as interim director for the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute in Little Rock.

The appointment is effective immediately, after Peter Emanuel resigned recently. Emanuel was the institute’s director since 2007. A committee will be formed to complete a national search for a permanent director.

Hutchins is a professor in the College of Medicine Division of Hematology/Oncology, and she was director of the division between 1998 and September 2013. She’s served as clinical research director at the cancer institute since 1998 and has had the Virginia Clinton Kelley Endowed Chair for Clinical Breast Cancer Research since 2007.

The New Jersey native graduated from the UAMS College of Medicine in 1977, and had her internship and residency at UAMS. She also completed a fellowship in the Division of Hematology/Oncology. In 1983, she joined the UAMS faculty and is board certified in internal medicine, hematology, oncology and hospice and palliative medicine.

She’s been a co-investigator for grants from the National Institutes of Health, including those involved in the detection of circulating melanoma cells and using nanotubes to find an eliminate circulating cancer cells. She’s been principal or co-investigator on grants focused on projects such as the development of a South Arkansas Integrated Telehealth Oncology Program and weight management in breast cancer patients. She’s received money from the U.S. Department of Defense, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Foundation, Arkansas Breast Cancer Research Program and American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Hutchins has collaborated with fellow scientist Thomas Kieber-Emmons to research a vaccine designed by UAMS to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer. The vaccine is in a phase two clinical trial and is being used in women who’ve recently been diagnosed with breast cancer to determine if the combination of the vaccine and standard chemotherapy will improve preoperative therapy.

Hutchins has enrolled patients in more than 70 industry-sponsored trials for breast cancer, melanoma and supportive care that have provided new treatment options for Arkansas patients and research data to increase new therapy availability. In 2007, she received a more than $120,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute to take part in the Cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid, which is a virtual information network allowing researchers and doctors to easily share information and increase the progress in cancer research.

Between 2001 and 2004, she served on the Arkansas Breast Cancer Research Program Oversight Committee, and between 2004 and 2012, she was on the state Breast Cancer Control Advisory Board. She was chair of the advisory board between 2007 and 2008.

She’s published more than 200 journal articles, book chapters and abstracts, and presented lectures at courses, symposia and workshops in Arkansas and across the United States. She’s a member of the American College of Physicians, American Society of Hematology, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Association of Cancer Education and the American Medical Association.