About
Dr. Edenfield received his medical degree from the University of Miami in Florida, after which he entered active duty military service in the U.S. Army. He completed his internal medicine residency and fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center with additional fellowship training in hematologic malignancy at Johns Hopkins University. His military obligation was completed as the Chief of Hematology and Oncology at Womack Army Medical Center in 2003. He then joined the Cancer Centers of the Carolinas which has subsequently become the Prisma Health Cancer Institute. He has been active in program development serving as the founding medical director of the Palliative Care Service. For the last seven years, he has served as the Medical Director of ITOR, guiding the program to 18 first in human clinical trials, developing a robust annotated biorepository, and initiating the Rare Tumor Center which has over 1.3 million dollars in philanthropic and grant funding. He has been co-investigator on a number of seed grant projects with faculty from Clemson University and actively mentors a student in the biomedical engineering department. He is also an associate professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.
How their research is transforming health care
Patients with rare cancers are uniquely disadvantaged by the current clinical trial system as there simply are not enough patients to conduct large randomized trials. Recognizing this issue led Dr. Edenfield to develop the Rare Tumor program at Prisma Health. This program standardizes the evaluation of all patients who meet the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of a rare cancer. All patients have tumor mutational analysis performed by next generation sequencing as well as biomarker assessments which might predict sensitivity to immunotherapy with checkpoint inhibitors. Two years ago, ITOR opened an immunotherapy protocol for such patients and have now treated over 50 patients. This was the first immunotherapy program for patients with rare cancers. There have been several excellent responses to therapy. His other research interest includes the use of the biorepository at ITOR to develop new predictive and prognostic biomarker assays. This has led to collaborations with multiple partners to include academic institutions, disease foundations, and industry. News and media relating to Dr. Edenfield's research The Greenville News - GHS launches Rare Tumor Center with gift from ex-board chairman.
Health research keywords
Rare Cancer, Biomarker development, Drug Development
