by Chip Mabry

Dr. Robert Elliott

Unknown to most Baton Rouge residents, one of the most renowned breast cancer centers in the world is located at the Summit Hospital campus off O'Neal Lane. Dr. Robert Elliott, a native of Greenville, Miss., and a University of Mississippi Medical School graduate, founded the Elliott-Head Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Center (Baton Rouge) in 1972. The center's research focus has been to find ways to boost the body's natural immune system to fight cancer. Immunotherapy artificially stimulates the immune system to better fight off disease or infection.

Starting in the mid-1970's Elliott observed that some of his patients were able to resist relatively aggressive forms of cancer, while others whose cancer was less aggressive didn't fair as well. "It became obvious to me that the host for the cancer was very important," he says. "People who had better general immunity seemed to do a little better with their cancer."

Elliott later teamed up with an immunologist to conduct research to determine host immunity by looking at antigens — foreign bodies such as virus, bacteria, pollen or other materials that the body fights by creating antibodies. He found that patients with strong immunity to their own tumor antigens indeed survived longer than those with weaker immunity.

In the late 1980s New York native Dr. Jonathan Head joined the center as director of research. Dr. Head is a Ph.D. tumor biologist and has been instrumental in many of the advances made at the center. Head says "We saw results immediately with some of this research. We've had great success with some late term patients and we knew we had to fund the research ourselves."

Immunotherapy for cancer is still considered experimental, and is not used in clinical practice except in some cases of melanoma and renal cell cancer. In clinical oncology in the United States, tumor immunology is considered research and is not a part of routine cancer therapy. Elliott says "Routine cancer therapy consists of the 'Big Three': surgery; chemotherapy; and radiation; all three of which damage host immunity. Unfortunately, host immunity is ignored in cancer treatment, especially in breast cancer. Oncologists treat the disease and ignore the immunity of the host harboring the disease."

The Elliott-Head center is unlike many other breast cancer clinics in that it offers a chemotherapy suite, bone density screening, radiology and infrared imaging on site. A certified oncology nurse and an anesthesiologist who specializes in pain management are also on staff. Dr. Mary Elliott, wife of Dr. Elliott, specializes in primary breast healthcare, teaches self examinations and monitors chemotherapy patients. A chemist and physician, she produces the center's biological response modifier drug, which has provided dramatic results for some critically ill patients.

Dr. Elliott and Dr. Head both promote the least invasive treatment possible to treat breast cancer. "This clinic is unique in that the same people who do the mammogram also read it, provide patient care and perform many of the procedures, so there isn't a lot of fractionalized care. One result of fractionalized care can be over treatment of a patient. That is less likely here," says Head. "There are only a handful of centers like this across the country."

"We are state-of-the-art in early detection, diagnosis and treatment," says Elliott. "Women come here from across the country for treatment. When we do a mammogram, women know before they leave what the results are. If there is a problem, they know it on that visit, not two or three weeks later."

Elliott and Head have patented vaccines for both breast cancer and prostate cancer to help boost the patient's immunity to their own cancer. This treatment is used in conjunction with other treatments, such as chemotherapy, to improve a patient's chances for long-term survival. "This provides some hope for patients who have had conventional therapy that has proven ineffective," Elliott says.

Elliott's passion for his work is evident in everything he does. He approaches breast cancer as a war, and every day is another battle. "It's a devastating disease. I've seen too many beautiful women die from it, and I know there's a better way to treat it," Elliott says. "My goal is to help people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer."

Elliott has poured hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money into the breast cancer research. He has devoted thousands of hours to studying the disease and gets up every morning with a burning desire to eradicate it.

Elliott and Head's research has been lauded by hospitals in Europe. In November of last year the Norwegian Parliament officially commended Dr. Elliott and Dr. Head for their "revolutionary" research and hailed it as a "major breakthrough" in the fight against cancer.

Elliott has teamed with the Norwegian Radium Hospital, the largest cancer treatment and research facility in all of northern Europe, to share research and further cancer vaccine research. The Norwegian Parliament also called upon then U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson, to officially establish the Joint U.S.-Norwegian Cancer Vaccine Program built around the revolutionary vaccine work of Dr. Robert Elliott.

Elliott embodies a man possessed to change the world for the better. He just wishes the American medical community would catch on a little faster. He says "We encourage them (medical establishment) to pursue this area of cancer treatment with vigor so that immunotherapy will truly become a routine fourth modality of cancer treatment. This will allow our patients to be afforded another modality of treatment that can make other treatments more tolerable, which will improve quality of life, increase overall survival, and, possibly lead to individual cures."