Dr. Robert S. Kerbel is a Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics and Lab Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto, Senior Scientist, Molecular and Cellular Biology Research at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Research Institute, and a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Tumor Biology, Angiogenesis and Antiangiogenic Therapy.  His research mainly focuses on translational studies of antiangiogenic therapy for the treatment of advanced metastatic disease.  Dr. Kerbel is also pioneering a concept known as ‘metronomic’ chemotherapy, where chemotherapy is given at close regular intervals at low doses with no prolonged drug-free breaks.  Current investigations in the Kerbel laboratory involve combining this type of chemotherapy regimen with a targeted antiangiogenic drug such as bevacizumab (Avastin) in the treatment of advanced disease.  To this end, his group has developed a number of new mouse models of advanced disease in immune deficient mice involving tumor cell lines including breast, ovarian, hepatocellular carcinoma and malignant melanoma.  These studies have led to the development of models of spontaneous brain metastases and their use to study the biology and treatment of such lesions.  Dr. Kerbel’s group is at the forefront of studying circulating cellular and molecular surrogate biomarkers in peripheral blood for antiangiogenic drugs and/or metronomic low-dose chemotherapy which can help determine the optimal biologic dose to be used for such treatments.  Dr. Kerbel will be presenting his recent findings regarding a novel therapeutic strategy for advanced ovarian cancer involving daily low-dose (metronomic) oral topotecan in combination with a biologic antiangiogenic drug called pazopanib in Symposium III:  Models of Ovarian Cancer for Mechanistic and Therapeutic Studies.