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Contributions To Cancer Research
Throughout his career, Dr. Salem has contributed to various research studies involving a large variety of cancers, eventually resulting in new insights into treatment.
One of the most important contributions of Dr. Salem to cancer research is the description of a disease which is unique to the Middle East and the Mediterranean countries. This disease is a cancer of the lymphatic and the immune systems of the small intestine. It was initially called "Mediterranean Abdominal Lymphoma". Now, the disease is referred to as "Immunoproliferative Small Intestinal Disease".
This disease is unique for the following reasons:
- It is totally confined to a specific geographical region of the world.
- It is the only lymphoma in man which is associated with a tumor marker (the alpha heavy chain protein).
- This kind of cancer is the result of a chronic infection that afflicts the small intestine.
- This disease goes through a benign phase before it becomes malignant and that this benign phase is reversible. This major and historical observation contributed to the growth and proliferation of the new discipline, Chemoprevention.
Because of these observations, Dr. Salem has received awards and medals from many American and European cancer institutes. Also, Dr. Salem has written the chapter on gastrointestinal lymphomas in the textbook of Sleisenger, M., and Fordtran J. on Gastrointestinal Diseases, Volume 2, Fifth Edition. He has written the chapter on "The Treatment of Malignant Neoplasms of the Mucosa-associated Lympho Tissues (MALT), in the second edition of the book entitled, "The Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas" by Dr. Ian Magrath of the National Cancer Institute.
Research on the Nature of Lymphomas in the Middle East
Dr. Salem and his team were the first to describe the types and patterns of lymphomas (cancer of the lymph nodes and lymphatic tissues) which prevail in the Middle East. They showed that lymphoma, as it exists in the Middle East, differs significantly, from lymphoma in the West. Most of his work was done at the American  University of Beirut and was published in the journal, Cancer.
In the mid- and late-1970's, both at M.D. Anderson and the American University of Beirut, Dr. Salem conducted research on the chemotherapy drug Cisplatinum, which is one of the most commonly used drugs in the treatment of cancer. This drug was extremely toxic to the kidneys when given as an acute intravenous bolus injection. Dr. Salem, along with other researchers, found that when the drug was fractionated over a period of days, it became much less toxic and its therapeutic efficacy even increased. Because of this work, Cisplatinum is now safe and an extremely useful drug in the treatment of many forms of cancer. The work has been published in numerous cancer journals.
Research on Soft Tissue Sarcomas
From 1987 to 1991, Dr. Salem worked in the soft tissue sarcoma program at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He was the first to discover that Interferon, a biological agent, is effective in the treatment, not only of soft tissue sarcomas, but also, of bone sarcomas. Dr. Salem was instrumental in changing the philosophy of therapy in sarcomas and he was one of the first researchers to recommend systemic chemotherapy as an initial treatment for high grade sarcomas.
Dr. Salem has been Director of the Cancer Research Program at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital since 1991, where he overseas protocols to treat all types of cancers. Also, he coordinates a wide-ranging community cancer program and protocols for all types of cancer.
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