• Associate Professor
  Cancer Biology Program
  University of Hawaii Cancer Center
• Assistant Professor
  John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa
  
• Director for PET Research
  The Queen's Medical Center

Degrees

• MD
  University of Pittsburgh
• Internal Medicine
  John A. Burns School of Medicine
  University of Hawaii at Manoa
• Nuclear Medicine and Nuclear Cardiology
  University of Washington, Seattle
  

Research Focus

With a research interest in diagnostic oncology, Dr. Kwee is focused on the development and evaluation of small-molecule radiopharmaceutical tracers for cancer diagnosis, staging, treatment planning, and measurement of response to therapy. His interest in studying the relationship between tumor biology and tracer metabolism is based on an emerging paradigm of customizing therapy using information on tumor metabolic phenotype elucidated by molecular imaging techniques such as PET. Many of the novel molecular therapeutic agents currently being evaluated in clinical trials are particularly amenable to this "theragnostic" paradigm.

Dr. Kwee is the principal investigator of two NCI funded clinical trials (NCT00928252 and NCT00928174) evaluating the investigational oncologic tracer 18F-fluoromethylcholine for assessing tumor response to chemotherapy or hormonal therapy in advanced metastatic prostate cancer. His research activity also includes pre-clinical imaging for breast, brain and liver tumors. Recent work has also involved the analysis of free circulating DNA in serum/plasma as potential cancer biomarkers, employing PET imaging as a means to annotate and identify the potential sources of tumor DNA. Another research-relevant interest is biomedical ethics.

Publications

• Kwee SA, Thibault G, Stack R, Coel M, Furusato B, Sesterhenn I. Use of Step-Section Histopathology to Evaluate 18F-Fluorocholine PET Sextant Localization of Prostate Cancer. Molecular Imaging 2008. Jan-Feb;7(1): 12-20.
• Kwee SA, Coel MN, Ly BH.18F-choline PET/CT Imaging of RECIST Measurable Lesions in Androgen Insensitive Prostate Cancer. Annals of Nuclear Medicine. 2009 Aug; 23(6): 541-548
• Lin D, Suwantarat N, Kwee S, Miyashiro M. Cushing's Syndrome Caused by an ACTH-producing Large Cell Neuroendocrine Carcinoma of the Gallbladder. World J Gastrointest Oncol. 2010 Jan; 2(1): 56-58.
• Kwee SA, Coel MN. Detection of Synchronous Primary Breast and Prostate Cancer by F-18 fluorocholine PET/CT. Clinical Nuclear Medicine. 2010 Feb; 35(2): 100-102.

Publication list via PubMed

Active Grants

• S. Kwee, Principal Investigator
  NIH, NCI, R21CA139687
  "Treatment Effects on Tumor 18F-Choline Metabolism in Advanced Prostate Cancer"
  July 2009 – June 2011
• S. Kwee, Principal Investigator
  Queen Emma Foundation QERF5588
  Developmental Award
  "Cell-Free Nucleic Acids in Metastatic Cancer"
  January 2010-January 2011
• S. Kwee, Principal Investigator
  CDMR, New Investigator Award PC040130
  "Cancer Localization in the Prostate with 18F-Fluorocholine Positron Emission Tomography"
  July 2004 – July 2009