Dr. Sterman received his A.B. in European History from
Brown University in 1985, and his M.D. from Cornell University
Medical College in 1989. He then pursued his Internship
and Residency in Internal Medicine at the Hospital of the
University of Pennsylvania from 1989-1992; followed by an
Instructorship in Emergency Medicine also at HUP from 1992-93.
Subsequently, Dr. Sterman received fellowship training in
Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of
Pennsylvania Medical Center from 1993-1997. While a fellow,
he received advanced training in Interventional Bronchoscopy
and Pleuroscopy with Dr. Michael Unger at Pennsylvania Hospital,
and with Dr. Larry Kaiser of the HUP Division of General
Thoracic Surgery. In addition, he was a Postdoctoral Research
Fellow in the Thoracic Oncology Research Laboratory of the
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center under the tutelage
of Dr. Steven Albelda. After spending two years in the Thoracic
Oncology Laboratories working with Drs. Albelda and Kaiser,
he joined the faculty at PENN in 1997 as an Assistant Professor
of Medicine in the Pulmonary Division and was the recipient
of a NIH Clinical Associate Physician Award. Dr. Sterman
is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine,
and Critical Care Medicine.
Dr. Sterman is currently Associate Professor of Medicine
and Associate Professor of Medicine in Surgery, and the
Director of the PENN Interventional Pulmonology Program
and Clinical Director of the Thoracic Oncology Gene Therapy
Program of the Center for Lung Cancer and Related Disorders
of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center. Dr. Sterman
has advanced training in the following techniques: flexible
and rigid bronchoscopy; balloon bronchoplasty, endobronchial
stent placement (metal, hybrid, and silicone), endobronchial
brachytherapy, photodynamic therapy, auto-fluorescence bronchoscopy
(LIFE), transbronchial needle aspiration/biopsy, bronchoscopic
electrosurgery (including APC), endobronchial ultrasound
(radial and convex probe), percutaneous tracheotomy, and
pleuroscopy. His clinical interests are related to the treatment
of thoracic malignancies, specifically as they apply to
the synergy of molecular medicine and novel technologies
in Interventional Pulmonology. His research interests are
in the translation of laboratory discoveries from the bench
to the bedside: conducting human clinical trials of gene
therapy and vaccine therapy for lung cancer, mesothelioma,
and other pleural malignancies.
Dr. Sterman is the lead clinical investigators in the
multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Research Group at Penn
and has been the Principal Investigator of Project 1 (Clinical
Trials Project) for this NCI Program Project Grant since
1998. He is currently the sponsor and Principal Investigator
of the ongoing Ad.IFN-beta gene therapy trial aimed at cancer
patients with mesothelioma and metastatic pleural disease.
In addition, he has led a number of other industry-sponsored
cancer clinical trials, all with extramural funding. He
served as the Principal Investigator at Penn of a series
of Multicenter Phase II Clinical Trials, sponsored by Cell
Genesys, Inc, evaluating patient-specific lung cancer vaccines.
He is currently participating in a multicenter, randomized,
double-blinded Phase III clinical trial of a recombinant
MUC-1 vaccine for Stage III NSCLC patients with stable/responding
disease status post definitive chemoradiotherapy.
More recently, in collaboration with other members of
the clinical trials group from the Thoracic Oncology Research
Laboratory, composed of members from Pulmonary Medicine,
Medical Oncology, and Thoracic Surgery, Dr. Sterman is conducting
a series of trials focused on the concept of genetic immunotherapy
for thoracic malignancies (bronchogenic, carcinoma,mesothelioma,
metastatic pleural disease). The hallmark of this program
is our ongoing Phase I clinical trial of intrapleural adenovirus
mediated human interferon gene transfer for patients with
pleural malignancies. Dr. Sterman and colleagues are developing
trial involving delivery of the interferon-alpha gene via
adenoviral vector, with the goal of combining this experimental
treatment with standard combination chemotherapy, based
upon success in pre-clinical studies.
In addition, Dr. Sterman and colleagues will be initiating
a multicenter Phase I trial of intravenous delivery of a
recombinant, attenuated Listeria monocytogenes bacterial
vector expressing the gene for human Mesothelin, a cell
surface protein expressed on 50% of non-small cell lung
cancers and nearly 100% of mesotheliomas. He is also developing,
with Dr. Steven Albelda, a clinical trial of bronchoscopic
injection of a recombinant, replication competent Vaccinia
viral vector expressing the human GM-CSF gene with patients
with refractory small cell and non-small cell carcinoma
of the lung, which will be enrolling patients in 2008.
Dr. Sterman has also been involved in pioneering clinical
research projects aimed at developing advanced bronchoscopic
techniques to treat diseases such as tracheomalacia, severe
asthma, and emphysema.
Sterman DH, Treat J, Litzky LA, Amin KM, Coonrod L, Knox
L, Recio A, Molnar-Kimber K, Wilson JM, Albelda SM, Kaiser
LR Adenovirus-mediated herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase
gene delivery in patients with localized malignancy: Results
of a phase 1 clinical trial in malignant mesothelioma. Human
Gene Therapy, 1998, 9(7), 1083-1092.
Molnar-Kimber KL, Sterman DH, Chang M, Elbash M, Elshami
A, Roberts JR, Treat J, Wilson JM, Kaiser LR, Albelda SM.
Humoral and cellular immune responses induced by adenoviral-based
gene therapy for localized malignancy: Results of a phase
1 clinical trial for malignant mesothelioma. Human Gene
Therapy, 9: 2121-2133, 1998.
Benard, F., Sterman, D.H., Smith, R.J., Kaiser, L.R., Albelda,
S.M., Alavi, A. Metabolic imaging of malignant pleural mesothelioma
with fluorine-18-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography.
Chest, 114: 713-722, 1998.
Sterman, D.H., Kaiser, L.R., Albelda, S.M. Advances in the
treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma.Chest, 116:
504-520, 1999.
Seijo, L. and Sterman, D. Interventional Pulmonology. The
New England Journal of Medicine, 344: 740-749, 2001.
Albelda SM, Wiewrodt R, Sterman DH. Gene Therapy for Lung
Neoplasms. Clinics in Chest Medicine, 23(1), 265-277, 2002.
Pecora AL, Rizvi N, Cohen GI, Meropol NJ, Sterman D, Marshall
JL, Goldberg S, Gross P, O'Neil JD, Groene WS, Roberts MS,
Rabin H, Bamat MK, Lorence RM. Phase I trial of intravenous
administration of PV701, an oncolytic virus, in patients
with advanced solid cancers. J Clin Oncol. 2002 May 1;20(9):2251-66.
Nemunaitis J, Sterman D, Jablons D, Smith JW 2nd, Fox B,
Maples P, Hamilton S, Borellini F, Lin A, Morali S, Hege
K. Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor gene-modified
autologous tumor vaccines in non-small-cell lung cancer.
J Natl Cancer Inst. 2004 Feb 18;96(4):326-31.
Musani AI, Haas AR, Seijo L, Wilby M, Sterman DH. Outpatient
management of malignant pleural effusions with small-bore,
tunneled pleural catheters. Respiration. 2004 Nov-Dec;71(6):559-66.
Sterman DH, Albelda SM. Advances in the diagnosis, evaluation,
and management of malignant pleural mesothelioma. Respirology.
2005 Jun;10(3):266-83.
Kruklitis RJ, Sterman DH. Endobronchial gene therapy.
Semin Respir Crit Care Med. 2004 Aug;25(4):433-42.
Sterman DH. Gene therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma.
Hematol Oncol Clin North Am. 2005 Dec;19(6):1147-73, viii.
Nemunaitis J, Jahan T, Ross H, Sterman D, Richards D, Fox
B, Jablons D, Aimi J, Lin A, Hege K. Phase 1/2 trial of
autologous tumor mixed with an allogeneic GVAX vaccine in
advanced-stage non-small-cell lung cancer. Cancer Gene Ther.
2006 Jun;13(6):555-62.
Seymour CW, Krimsky WS, Sager J, Kruklitis RJ, Lund ME,
Musani AI, Sterman DH. Transbronchial needle injection:
a systematic review of a new diagnostic and therapeutic
paradigm. Respiration. 2006;73(1):78-89.
Sterman DH, Gillespie CT, Carroll RG, Coughlin CM, Lord
EM, Sun J, Haas A, Recio A, Kaiser LR, Coukos G, June CH,
Albelda SM, Vonderheide RH. Interferon beta adenoviral gene
therapy in a patient with ovarian cancer.Nat Clin Pract
Oncol. 2006 Nov;3(11):633-9.
Wood DE, McKenna RJ Jr, Yusen RD, Sterman DH, Ost DE, Springmeyer
SC, Gonzalez HX, Mulligan MS, Gildea T, Houck WV, Machuzak
M, Mehta AC.A multicenter trial of an intrabronchial valve
for treatment of severe emphysema. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg.
2007 Jan;133(1):65-73.
Vachani A, Sterman DH, Albelda SM. Cytokine gene therapy
for malignant pleural mesothelioma. J Thorac Oncol. 2007
Apr;2(4):265-7.
Sterman DH, Recio A, Carroll RG, Gillespie CT, Haas A,
Vachani A, Kapoor V, Sun J, Hodinka R, Brown JL, Corbley
MJ, Parr M, Ho M, Pastan I, Machuzak M, Benedict W, Zhang
XQ, Lord EM, Litzky LA, Heitjan DF, June CH, Kaiser LR,
Vonderheide RH, Albelda SM. A phase I clinical trial of
single-dose intrapleural IFN-beta gene transfer for malignant
pleural mesothelioma and metastatic pleural effusions: high
rate of antitumor immune responses. Clin Cancer Res. 2007
Aug 1;13(15 Pt 1):4456-66.
