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As the international community of experts in head-and-neck cancers gathered virtually last week to share new ideas and treatment strategies at the just-ended American Head & Neck Society (AHNS) 10th International Conference on Head and Neck Cancer, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center teams are presented new research on both the basic science supporting new treatments as well as opportunities to improve the early and accurate diagnosis of thyroid cancer and other head/neck malignancies.

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A Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center team reports new data on the promise of combining standard treatment for breast cancer with a particular form of cancer immunotherapy — dendritic-cell (DC) treatment vaccines.

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Two Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center experts were invited to present new insights on treatment of gastroesophageal cancers during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2021. In their talks, both presented July 1, the Roswell Park physician-researchers highlighted easily adoptable methods that may help other clinicians to provide care supporting improved patient outcomes.

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Even as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists continued to draw support for their innovative research proposals, garnering more than $34 million in competitive grants from government agencies and private funders. These recent grants fund efforts to improve outcomes for patients with some of the most challenging cancer types — including triple-negative breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and head and neck cancers — and to advance what we know about the impact of COVID-19 in cancer patients.

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New collaborative research shows that treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has led to a significant improvement in survival and response rates among patients with a particularly aggressive type of kidney cancer: advanced sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma. The study, which was led by a team from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and involved contributors from six centers, is detailed in a presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual annual meeting (abstract 4568).

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Researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center led the largest study to date to suggest an improving trend in pathologic complete response rates over time for U.S. cancer patients of various races. The team's findings, documented in a poster presentation at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology virtual annual meeting (abstract 575), show that African Americans are more likely than patients from any other group to have remaining disease following breast cancer treatment.

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New work from a team at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center will help guide the care of patients with neuroendocrine tumors, or NETs. In a poster presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) virtual Annual Meeting 2021, Abhay Singh, MD, MPH, and colleagues outline their discovery of a potential biomarker to predict which patients are likely to experience blood toxicity side effects from a new targeted radiation treatment, peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT).

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A pain-management protocol designed by Emese Zsiros, MD, PhD, FACOG, to be reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 annual meeting, resulted in a 45% decrease in opioids prescribed to patients undergoing surgery, without significant effect on recovery or satisfaction.

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The Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center/Kaiser Permanente Northern California team behind a new study to be highlighted at the ASCO 2021 virtual annual meeting has found that sufficient vitamin D levels at the time of diagnosis are associated with improved outcomes among people with breast cancer.

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At the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual Annual Meeting, Roswell Park teams will share data and insights on topics ranging from reducing use of opioids to an analysis of trends in response to cancer treatment among patients of different races.

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As part of a unanimous effort on the part of the nation’s 71 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated cancer centers, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is urging the nation’s physicians, parents and young adults to get cancer-preventing human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination back on track.

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A new role as Chief Diversity and Equity Officer for Faculty will give Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center's Elisa M. Rodriguez, PhD, MS, expanded opportunity to apply her deep-rooted commitment to improving the lives of people from underserved communities.

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Following a national search, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has promoted Pawel Kalinski, MD, PhD, to Jacobs Family Endowed Chair of Immunology, Chief of the Division of Translational Immuno-Oncology and Senior Vice President for Team Science.

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A new collaboration between two Western New York cancer research leaders will help oncologists learn whether Black and white cancer patients respond differently to a game-changing immunotherapy treatment, and seeks to improve the safety and effectiveness of these newer drugs in diverse populations.

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Cancer treatment is likely to affect every aspect of a patient’s life — their activities, relationships, eating habits, mental health, physical health and comfort, financial wellbeing. And when financial concerns weigh heavily on an individual who is in treatment for cancer, they can affect the outcome of that treatment. New research from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center provides the first evidence that a cancer patient’s level of financial worry as they begin treatment predicts how likely it is that their treatment will be successful.

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A team of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers has identified a new biomarker that could predict response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) shortly after patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) initiate therapy. This discovery, published today in the journal Nature Communications, is not only an important step forward in lung cancer treatment, but also has implications for other malignancies, according to lead author Fumito Ito, MD, PhD, FACS.

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A research team headed by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center epidemiologist Zhihong Gong, PhD, has been awarded a five-year, $1.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for an investigation into the role that certain genetic molecules play in breast cancer disparities.

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A Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center team led by Christine Ambrosone, PhD, and Song Yao, PhD, has revealed a distinct molecular signature in the tumor tissues of Black patients with breast cancer. The new work, published today in JNCI, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, reports that an elevated number of “exhausted,” nonfunctional T cells appears to be driving tumors in patients of African descent to be more aggressive and hard-to-treat — a finding that also opens the door to treatment interventions that could help to eliminate the striking disparities in survival between Black and white patients with breast cancer.

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In a study published today in the journal Science Advances, a team from Roswell Park details a method to measure the abundance of cancer-related early changes to skin tissue long before the damage becomes visible to the eye.

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— A group of researchers led by Maximillian Merz, MD, Assistant Professor of Oncology with the Myeloma team at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, conducted the first prospective clinical trial investigating spatial heterogeneity in patients with either relapsed/refractory or newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Findings from the study will be presented today at the 62nd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, which is being held virtually.