Dr. Peter B. Schiff: Recalling a Student's Integral Role in Historic Research

As an Einstein doctoral student, Dr. Peter B. Schiff discovered how a molecule from the bark of the Pacific yew tree could kill cancer cells. During medical school and his internship, he helped design the phase I clinical trial that tested how that compound, called Taxol, responded in humans. Today, Dr. Schiff, a radiation oncologist and physician-scientist, treats patients with combined modality protocols that use Taxol with radiation therapy to eradicate tumors.

Dr. Peter Schiff, Class of 1984"It's an effective treatment for several kinds of cancer," said Dr. Schiff, vice-chair of the department of radiation oncology at NYU Langone Medical Center. "It blocks cell mitosis and makes the cells more sensitive to radiation."

Dr. Schiff's involvement with Taxol, one of medicine's most widely used anti-tumor drugs, began at Einstein one Monday morning in 1976 at Dr. Susan Horwitz' weekly laboratory meeting. Interested in cell biology and molecular pharmacology, he'd begun working in her lab while studying for his doctorate. That day, Dr. Horwitz discussed several compounds that the National Cancer Institute reported were promising as tumor suppressants in rodents.

Among them was Taxol. Still hunting for a topic for his Ph.D. thesis, Dr. Schiff was fascinated by Taxol's unique chemical structure and expressed interest. At the time, he was investigating the behavior of microtubules – the proteins that are part of a cell's cytoskeleton and play a critical role in cell division.

So Dr. Horwitz obtained a tiny vial of Taxol. She became the study's principal investigator and mentored Schiff as he discovered that the microtubules, which are necessary for normal cell replication, become stabilized in the presence of Taxol, halting further cell growth. In 1979, he was lead author, and Dr. Horwitz was senior author, in a paper for Nature, detailing Taxol's promise. The following year, they published a paper on Taxol in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"Peter was fortunate that the drug was interesting, and I was fortunate that he was smart and could figure out what was going on," said Dr. Horwitz, the Rose Falkenstein Professor of Cancer Research and co-chair of molecular pharmacology.

Dr. Horwitz also served as a sounding board for Dr. Schiff as he neared completion of his Ph.D., and contemplated whether to devote his career to basic science, or work to translate his research findings into patient care. He chose medical school at Einstein, graduating in 1984.

Dr. Susan Horwitz, mentor to Dr. SchiffIn medical school, he continued his Taxol research through Dr. Peter Wiernik's course on medical oncology, during which he wrote the phase I clinical trial for Taxol. During his internship and residency at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, he joined a research team conducting a phase I trial on Taxol, co-authoring a paper on its results.

Dr. Schiff's fascination with Taxol continued at Columbia University Medical Center in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In the lab, he found that Taxol sensitized tumor cells to radiation. He then used that observation to design a clinical trial using Taxol and radiation for patients with locally advanced breast cancer. His results led to clinical trials around the world. Taxol is now used with radiation to treat lung cancer, esophageal cancer, head-and-neck cancer, and cervical cancer.

Among his current work is participation in a cooperative research project involving Taxol and related drugs that includes medical faculty from the metropolitan region, including Dr. Mark Einstein, associate professor in Einstein's department of obstetrics & gynecology and women's health. The research reconnects Dr. Schiff to Einstein, and reminds him of his early days in Dr. Horwitz' lab.

"She took us all under her wing and we became part of her extended family," recalled Dr. Schiff, noting dinners he and fellow grad students enjoyed at Dr. Horwitz' Larchmont home. "She's a very serious scientist who made sure we understood what we were doing and how to present our findings. We developed into independent investigators, prepared to make additional contributions in biomedical research."