Focus: Cancer Center Featured Story 2

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Molecular biologist Christine Mayr, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s (MSK) Sloan Kettering Institute (SKI) is one of the 2016 recipients of the prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s Pioneer Award. Established in 2004, the annual award recognizes and supports individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering and highly innovative approaches with the potential to produce an unusually high impact on biomedical or behavioral research.

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The Association of American Cancer Institutes will present the AACI Distinguished Scientist Award to James P. Allison, PhD, on October 24, during the 2016 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting, in Chicago.

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All 13 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients with BRCA mutations had their tumors shrink significantly when treated with a PARP inhibitor ahead of frontline presurgical chemotherapy in a pilot study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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Today the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network announced Precision Promise, the first large-scale precision medicine trial designed to transform outcomes for patients with pancreatic cancer by tailoring their treatment to their cancer’s unique molecular profile. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center will play a major role in the effort; it has been selected to lead one of the 12 initial clinical trial sites equipped to provide treatment to pancreatic cancer patients under the new initiative. Dr. Sunil Hingorani, an oncologist and pancreas cancer researcher based at Fred Hutch, will serve as principal investigator of the site and lead collaboration with clinical care partners Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and UW Medicine.

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BUFFALO, N.Y. — What are the factors that add up to the best outcomes for patients who have surgery to treat cancer? Looking for a better way to measure quality of care and share best practices in surgical oncology, a team from Roswell Park Cancer Institute developed a quality assessment tool and validated it in a study based on 10 years of prospectively collected data on robot-assisted cystectomies, or surgeries to remove the bladder. The researchers, who shared their findings in a recent issue of the journal Urology, report that centers that carefully track various aspects of care can better predict patient outcomes and improve patient care.

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The Turquoise Trail Harley Owner’s Group will end its second annual “Pink Your Ride — Motorcyclists Increasing Awareness (MIA)” ride at The University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center. The Turquoise Trail Chapter chose to join the Pennsylvania Chapter ride because of the widespread impact breast cancer has in New Mexico and in the United States. They hope to encourage others to join the ride here and elsewhere in the country.

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NCCN has published new patient education materials for Stomach Cancer; these resources are available to download free of charge at NCCN.org/patients.

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Award-winning ESPN journalist Chris Mortensen has been named this year’s NFL Players Association Georgetown Lombardi Award honoree.

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A Yale-led research team has identified a new blocking mechanism that acts like a dimmer switch and inhibits lung tumor cell growth.

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The UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center is one of only 12 academic centers in the U.S. joining a large national precision medicine study that aims to improve survival for pancreatic cancer patients. The trial, called Precision Promise, is a joint effort between the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, cancer research and treatment centers, and the pharmaceutical industry. The goal of Precision Promise is to double survival by 2020.

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SEATTLE – (Sept. 20, 2016) – Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) has opened a new Prostate Cancer Genetics Clinic at their South Lake Union campus in Seattle. The specialty clinic will serve patients with prostate cancer that has spread beyond the prostate (metastatic) and/or who have a family history of the disease or a family history of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, lymphoma or leukemia. These men are more likely to have an inherited and more aggressive form of prostate cancer. Knowing a patient has a particular genetic mutation helps doctors choose the best treatment plan and can open doors for innovative clinical trials.

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A $250,000 grant from the Breast Cancer Research Foundation awarded to a Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey researcher will help further elucidate the inner workings of the p53 gene. The work will examine a drug compound that restores tumor suppressor function, with an aim of providing a foundation for the development of a new type of anti-cancer drug.

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In animal models of human breast cancer, inhibiting a single protein restores sensitivity to tamoxifen, a commonly used drug for treatment of some breast cancers.

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There has been much recent excitement about immunotherapy and the use of genetically engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. Historically, CAR T cell immunotherapy has aimed to boost the immune system by giving immune cells the information they need to better recognize tumor cells as foreign and attack them. New work led by Hans-Guido Wendel, MD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and collaborator Karin Tarte of the University of Rennes, France, illustrates an untapped potential of CAR T cells to act as targeted delivery vehicles that can function as “micro-pharmacies” for precise therapeutic delivery. Reported by an international team of researchers and set to publish online in Cell on September 29, this work both defines a critical lesion that leads to lymphoma development and identifies a potential new treatment modality.

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New research published Sept 29, 2016, in JAMA Oncology shows the HPV vaccine is efficacious in reducing cervical pre-cancers among young women throughout a population. The New Mexico HPV Pap Registry was the data source used in the study. The researchers found that among women who were 15 to 19 years old at the time of a diagnostic cervical biopsy, the incidence rate of cervical abnormalities decreased between 2007 and 2014.

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In a recent study, a Yale Cancer Center team determined that men who received hormonal therapy for prostate cancer had a net harm if they had a prior history of a heart attack.

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The NCCN 11th Annual Congress: Hematologic Malignancies™ returns to New York City September 30 – October 1, 2016; registration is still open at NCCN.org/HEM

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Nanoparticles known as Cornell dots, or C dots, have shown great promise as a therapeutic tool in the detection and treatment of cancer. Now, the ultrasmall particles have shown they can do something even better: kill cancer cells without attaching a cytotoxic drug.

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In a review of guideline-concordant treatment modalities for women with early stage breast cancer, mastectomy and reconstruction had the highest rate of complications and complication-related costs, regardless of age.

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Currently, excess body weight contributes to as many as 1 in 5 cancer-related deaths. Obesity is associated with increased risk of at least eight types of cancer. The American Society of Clinical Oncology has identified obesity as a health risk that is “quickly overtaking tobacco as the leading preventable cause of cancer.”

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Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) has opened a new Prostate Cancer Genetics Clinic at their South Lake Union campus in Seattle. The specialty clinic will serve patients with prostate cancer that has spread beyond the prostate (metastatic) and/or who have a family history of the disease or a family history of breast cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, lymphoma or leukemia. These men are more likely to have an inherited and more aggressive form of prostate cancer. Knowing a patient has a particular genetic mutation helps doctors choose the best treatment plan and can open doors for innovative clinical trials.

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A supplemental “boost” of radiation improves local control and provides an incremental benefit in decreasing breast cancer recurrence for patients with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ (DCIS) who receive whole breast radiation therapy radiation (WBRT) following lumpectomy, according to research presented today at the 58th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).

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A Yale Cancer Center team completed a multi-institutional analysis of treatment options for patients with newly diagnosed EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with brain metastases to determine the best option for treatment.

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The association between provider case volume and outcomes has long been suggested in cancer care. A Yale Cancer Center team has completed a review of outcomes for patients with locally advanced squamous cell head and neck cancers treated with intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) and found a distinct association between higher-volume treatment centers and improved overall survival.

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A new study led by Anurag Singh, MD, of Roswell Park Cancer Institute and presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) 2016 Annual Meeting suggests that a single high-intensity SBRT dose can be as effective as three slightly lower doses of radiation.

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Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey researchers in the Precision Medicine Program aim to validate a new genomic sequencing approach that may help identify a sub-set of triple-negative breast cancers. The work is supported by a grant from the Val Skinner Foundation.

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The ninth annual Helping to Enhance Research in Oncology event will honor those who take part in cancer clinical trials. The event will also raise awareness for the importance of cancer clinical trials and will offer education sessions about clinical trials that are free and open to the public. The New Mexico Cancer Care Alliance is sponsoring the event.

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New NCCN Guidelines for Myeloproliferative Neoplasms focus on the treatment of Myelofibrosis, a rare bone marrow cancer; the new recommendations are the most comprehensive treatment guidance available to U.S. clinicians today.

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A database study examining surgical removal of the prostate gland (radical prostatectomy) or a form of radiation therapy known as IMRT to treat prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body (metastatic) shows an association between each of these treatments and improved overall survival.

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In a recent study, a Yale Cancer Center team revealed that the addition of chemotherapy to postoperative treatment for adults with medulloblastoma improves survival.

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Adaptimmune Therapeutics and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced today they have entered into a multi-year strategic alliance designed to expedite the development of novel adoptive T-cell therapies for multiple types of cancer.

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Immunotherapy is a big change for head and neck cancer and there seems to be no doubt that there is activity for immunotherapies with pembrolizumab as well as nivolumab [Opdivo]” said Burtness, professor of Medicine at Yale Cancer Center.

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In a recent study, a Yale Cancer Center team compared the performance of the four available PD-L1 assay tests. They found that one of the assays failed to reveal comparable levels of PD-L1, a tumor-promoting protein, while three others revealed comparable levels.

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UC San Francisco scientists have engineered human immune cells that can precisely locate diseased cells anywhere in the body and execute a wide range of customizable responses, including the delivery of drugs or other therapeutic payloads directly to tumors or other unhealthy tissues. In experiments with mice, these immune cells, called synNotch T cells, efficiently homed in on tumors and released a specialized antibody therapy, eradicating the cancer without attacking normal cells.

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Drs. Jesse Bloom and Frederick “Erick” Matsen, evolutionary researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, were named Faculty Scholars today by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Simons Foundation. This honor comes with five years of unrestricted philanthropic support for these two scientists, both of whom focus on developing methods for understanding evolution, especially the evolution of pathogens and immune resistance.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of the Duke Cancer Institute as well as a look at its current initiatives.

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With skin cancer emerging as one of the world’s most prevalent forms of cancer, researchers are using every tool at their disposal to fight this disease. The tool of choice for Sally Dickinson, PhD? Broccoli.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center as well as a look at its current initiatives.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center as well as a look at its current initiatives.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of the University of New Mexico Cancer Center as well as a look at its current initiatives.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of the Cancer Therapy & Research Center as well as a look at its current initiatives.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey as well as a look at its current initiatives.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of the Siteman Cancer Center as well as a look at its current initiatives.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center as well as a look at its current initiatives.

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Among the research institutions the National Cancer Institute funds across the United States, it currently designates 68 as Cancer Centers. Largely based in research universities, these facilities are home to many of the NCI-supported scientists who conduct a wide range of intense, laboratory research into cancer’s origins and development. This profile provides some history of Abramson Cancer Center as well as a look at its current initiatives.