Zimmern Wang, MD
Professor
Director, Otolaryngology Center for Innovative Technology

Research Interests:
1R01CA097966-02; NCI of NIH Spectroscopic imaging and diagnosis of neoplasia. The goals of this study are to validate newly developed light scattering imaging and tri-model spectroscopic techniques for early diagnosis of cancers

1R03CA112670-01; Biofilm chemoprevention of head/neck skin cancer. The goals of this study to test a new, topical and less-toxic strategy by polymer film delivered Celecoxib for prevention or early treatment of head/neck cancers

1R21DE016021-01A1; Laser assisted Celecoxib treatment of oral leukoplakia. The goals of this study to determine if a combination of laser vascular targeting technique and a COX-2 inhibitor will improve treatment efficacy while reducing toxicity for oral cancer chemoprevention

1R01DC006617-01A1; NIH of NIDCD Voice-preserving treatment of laryngeal papilloma. The goals of this study are to determine if a combined treatment of pulsed dye laser and Celecoxib will reduce the trauma to vocal cords and prevent papilloma from recurring

1R21DC006853001A1; NIDCD of NIH Laser atraumatic treatment of ectasias on vocal cords. The goals of this study are to test safety and clinical benefit of a new and less-invasive. Alternative for treatment of ectasias and other small vascular lesions on vocal cords

1R21CA106399-01A1; NCI of NIH Imaging evaluation of cancer chemoprevention. The goals of this study are to develop a new method for monitoring and prediction of treatment efficacy of cancer chemoprevention, with new optic imaging of nuclear alteration during treatment

1R01CA119879-01; NCI of NIH New chemopreventive strategy for skin cancer. The goals of this study are to determine if a combined pulsed dye laser and Celecoxib will improve the treatment efficacy while reducing side-effect for skin cancer

NIDCR of NIH New agent and optic evaluation of oral cancer chemoprevention
The goals of this study are to test a new and non-toxic agent and non-invasive imaging method for development of new chemoprevention strategy

Robotic Applications in Otolaryngology: (with Dr. Grillone) Our group has helped Dr. Grillone to complete a R21 NIH grant proposal, and already submited it to NIH in 2004. This study will used new robotic technique and we expect it will significantly improve surgery precision and manipulation. Particularly, it will have great impact on clinical teaching (by controlling two seperated systems by teacher and junior surgeon) and “remote” surgery. (submitted to NIH)

Office-based CO2 laser therapy of laryngeal papilloma: (with Dr. Devaiah) Since May 1 of 2004, our group has conducted a series of animal studies in vitro and vivo model, to test a a newly-developed flexible CO2 laser fiber delivery system (made at Omniguide Communications, Mass). With our encouraging findigns. Our findings have been presented at Triological Meeting of 2005 by Dr. Devaiah, and , and alread accepted by Laryngoscope. We also submitted a R21 grant proposal to NIH, to request a support for our clinical trial to test this system for larygneal papilloma and other head/neck diseases. By using thei flexible endoscope and under non-general anesthesia at office, it is very likely that this new system will be an ideal alternative, to traditional rigid system for CO2 laser surgery. (submitted to NIH)

Publications:
Wang Z, Polavaram R, Davis HL, Gooey J, Shapshay SM: Laser assisted topical
“biofilm” chemoprevention of oral cancer. Cancer Let 215: 29-34, 2004.

Driver M, Upadhyay UD, Shapshay SM, Wang Z: Cancer chemoprevention with laser assisted low-
dose retinoic aid. Laryngoscope 115, 283-6, 2005.

Wang Z.The Role of COX-2 in Oral Cancer Development, and Chemoprevention/ Treatment of Oral Cancer by Selective COX-2 Inhibitors. Curr Pharm Des 11(14):1771-7, 2005.

Devaiah AK, Dasai U, Wang Z, Shapira G, Weisberg O, Torres DS, Shapshay SM., Surgical utility of a new CO2 laser fiber. Laryngoscope 2005. (accepted)

Wang Z, Devaiah AK, Dasai U, Shapira G, Weisberg O, Torres DS, Shapshay SM., Fiber-guided CO2 laser surgery in animal model. Laser Surg Med 2005. (submitted)