For optimal viewing of the AACI Update click here.
News from the Association of American Cancer InstitutesMarch 2010


Clinical Research Initiative Progress Report Available Online
2010 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting Program Planning Underway
Annual Capitol Hill Day Set for May
AACI Backs President’s Proposed $1 Billion NIH Funding Increase

Awards & Honors
Grants & Gifts
Leadership Transitions
Research Highlights
Other News


The AACI is dedicated to promoting the common interests of the nation’s leading academic cancer centers that are focused on the eradication of cancer through a comprehensive and multidisciplinary program of cancer research, treatment, patient care, prevention, education, and community outreach.
AACI Update is an e-newsletter for the cancer center directors and key contacts at AACI member institutions and individuals interested in the cancer center-related activities of AACI. AACI Update reports on the progress of AACI initiatives and other AACI endeavors that benefit the cancer community and highlights important news and events at AACI member institutions.

AACI encourages member institutions to submit cancer center highlights to AACI Update. News briefs are linked to complete stories posted on individual cancer center websites. Please e-mail materials to aaciupdate@aaci-cancer.org. AACI reserves the right to decide whether or not materials are appropriate for inclusion.

Update, please send an e-mail to aaciupdate@aaci-cancer.org with your name, title, address, telephone and fax numbers asking to be added to the AACI’s distribution list.

To unsubscribe from AACI Update, please send an e-mail to aaciupdate@aaci-cancer.org with your name, title, and unsubscribe in the subject line to be removed from AACI’s distribution list.


Mailing address:
3708 Fifth Avenue
Medical Arts Building, Suite 503
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Headlines

Clinical Research Initiative Progress Report Available Online
The AACI Clinical Research Initiative (AACI CRI), established in 2009, has published its first progress report. The document provides updates about the initiative’s three Special Interest Groups-- NCI Clinical Trials Reporting Program, Metrics, and Budgeting and Contracts-- as well as information regarding the new AACI CRI Discussion Forum.

The forum and progress report can be accessed by clicking on “Clinical Research Initiative Discussion Forum” at the CRI front page, housed on the AACI website, at the following address: www.aaci-cancer.org/in_clinical_new.asp more...

2010 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting Program Planning Underway
Planning has begun for the 2010 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting in Chicago, October 3-5. The 2010 Annual Meeting program committee, chaired by Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Director Stanton L. Gerson, MD, is charged with identifying topics and speakers for this yearly assembly of approximately 275 senior leaders from the nation’s cancer centers. As in previous years, AACI will seek Continuing Medical Education accreditation for the program. more...

Annual Capitol Hill Day Set for May

 AACI will co-host a Capitol Hill Day on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and Friends of Cancer Research (FOCR). Titled “Innovation and Hope through Cancer Research- Progress in the New Decade”, the event will provide an opportunity for cancer centers to showcase their work and to illustrate how the federal investment in research sustains progress in the fight against cancer.

To register for Hill Day, please visit: www.aaci-cancer.org/2010_hilldayreg.asp. If you have any questions or requests, please contact Monica Cooney at the AACI office by phone: (412) 802-6774 or e-mail: monica@aaci-cancer.org. more...

AACI Backs President’s Proposed $1 Billion NIH Funding Increase
President Obama has released his FY2011 budget which includes a $1 billion increase to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget for an expansion of support for biomedical research. This funding boost would make the NIH budget $32.1 billion, representing a 3.2% increase. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) would receive an additional $161 million, or 3.16% more, for a total of $5.26 billion. more...
News from the Centers
Awards & Honors
Baylin Recognized for Genetics Research
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Stephen B. Baylin, MD, has been awarded the 14th Alfred G. Knudson Award in Cancer Genetics from the National Cancer Institute. The Knudson award is named for Dr. Alfred Knudson, who revolutionized the understanding of the genetic basis for cancer, and recognizes a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the field of cancer genetics. more...
VICC Again Earns CEO Cancer Gold Standard
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have been re-accredited in the CEO Cancer Gold Standard from the CEO Roundtable on Cancer. The CEO Roundtable on Cancer was founded in 2001 when former President George H. W. Bush challenged a group of executives to “do something bold and venturesome about cancer within your own corporate families.” more...
Prostate Cancer Team Named Top Clinical Accrual Site
Knight Cancer Institute
Brian Druker, MD, and OHSU’s Knight Cancer Leadership congratulate their Prostate Cancer Research team for being the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium’s (PCCTC) top clinical trials accrual site for 2009. The PCCTC is a national clinical research group sponsored by the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Department of Defense. It is a major multi-institutional clinical research endeavor consisting of 13 academic institutions specializing in cutting-edge prostate cancer research with a single coordinating center located at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. While the Knight Prostate team has consistently been near the top for accruals in this group, this the first time they have been named top accrual site for the consortium. more...
Grants & Gifts
Scientist Receives $8 Million Lung and Liver Cancer Research Grant
Masonic Cancer Center
University of Minnesota Masonic Cancer Center tobacco researcher Jian-Min Yuan, MD, PhD, has been awarded an $8 million research grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The grant will be disbursed over five years and used by Yuan to continue epidemiological cancer research involving 81,500 middle-aged and older Chinese men and women enrolled in the cities of Shanghai, China and Singapore respectively. The goal of the research is to identify environmental and genetic factors that put people at risk for cancer. more...
Purdue-Indiana University Collaboration Receives $1 Million Grant
Indiana University Simon Cancer Center
Purdue’s Oncological Sciences Center and the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center will share a five-year, $1 million grant from the Walther Cancer Foundation to exchange medical fellows, engineers and scientists for advancing cancer research. The Walther Oncology Physical Sciences & Engineering Research Embedding Program will be launched through the IU-Purdue Cancer Care Engineering project to create opportunities for postdoctoral fellows to train in clinics and for medical fellows to work in Purdue laboratories as interdisciplinary cancer research teams. Purdue engineers, chemists and physicists have global expertise in the development of diagnostics, imaging techniques and systems engineering and would benefit from the perspective of a clinical setting. At the same time, the IU Simon Cancer Center is an international leader in applying technologies in a clinical patient setting. more...
Markey Gets Challenge Grant to Support SLIT2 Research
Lucille P. Markey Cancer Center
Researchers at the University of Kentucky’s Markey Cancer Center are investigating the ability of a protein called SLIT2 to maintain healthy levels of a type of stem cell, called hematopoietic stem cells. These cells, found in bone marrow, give rise to every type of blood cell in the body. The research, led by Dr. Gary Van Zant, professor of internal medicine in the UK College of Medicine, has broad implications in a number of areas in medicine. However, its most immediate application could be in helping cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. more...
Duncan Members Receive $11.5 Million in Inaugural State Cancer Prevention Grants
The Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center
Researchers from the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine received 12 individual grants totaling $11.5 million in the first round of projects awarded through the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. CPRIT was established by a 2007 state constitutional amendment that committed $3 billion to fund groundbreaking cancer research prevention programs and services in Texas over the next ten years. more...
Arizona Researcher Receives Nearly $1 Million for Colon Cancer Prevention Study
Arizona Cancer Center
Arizona Cancer Center scientist Jesse Martinez, PhD, has been awarded a $993,584 grant from the National Cancer Institute to research chemoprevention of colon cancer. The four-year grant will enable him to study the mechanisms of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), an acid found in bile that may play a role in preventing colon cancer. Colorectal cancer is third most common cancer in both men and women and accounts for almost nine percent of all cancer deaths in America. more...
Leadership Transitions
Winship Announces New Director of Clinical Trials
Winship Cancer Institute
Kathleen Rodger has been appointed director of the Clinical Trials Office at the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Rodger joins Emory from the James Graham Brown Cancer Center at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. more...
Hussain to Direct U-M Clinical Research Program
University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center
After a national search, the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center has appointed Maha Hussain, MD, FACP, as the center’s new associate director of clinical research. Hussain will oversee the development of clinical research within each of the Cancer Center research programs. In addition, she will oversee all of the shared resources that support clinical research at the Cancer Center, including the Clinical Trials Office, Protocol Review Committee, and Data Safety and Monitoring Committee. more...
Gelman Named Chair, Department of Genetics, at Roswell Park
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) announced the appointment of Irwin Gelman, PhD, as Chair, Department of Genetics. Dr. Gelman has been with RPCI since 2003. His research focuses on therapies to target prostate cancer, and his work has appeared in more than 50 journals and periodicals. more...
Research Highlights
Racial Disparities Persist in the Diagnosis of Cancer
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
The incidence of advanced breast cancer diagnosis among black women remained 30 percent to 90 percent higher compared to white women between 1992 and 2004, according to new findings by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In addition, the disparity in the incidence of advance colorectal cancer actually widened over this time period as rates fell among whites but increased slightly among blacks. more...
Illuminating Protein Networks In One Step
University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center
A new assay capable of examining hundreds of proteins at once and enabling new experiments that could dramatically change our understanding of cancer and other diseases has been invented by a team of University of Chicago scientists. "The proteins are the actual machines that are doing everything in the cell, but nobody’s been able to examine them in depth because it’s been too complicated. Now, we can begin to do that with this new method," said Richard B. Jones, senior author and assistant professor at the University of Chicago’s Ben May Department for Cancer Research and the Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology. more...
Researchers Find Genetic Link to Leukemias with an Unknown Origin
Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Although leukemia is one of the best studied cancers, the cause of some types is still poorly understood. Now, a newly found mutation in acute myeloid leukemia patients could account for half of the remaining cases of adult acute leukemia with an unknown origin. “The molecular biology of leukemia has been studied for the last 20 years and we thought we had found most of the common genes for leukemia,” comments senior author Craig B. Thompson, MD, director of the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Findings of the study are described in the journal Cancer Cell. more...
Attitudes About Lung Cancer May Hinder Prevention
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
A new survey has found that African-Americans are more likely than whites to hold mistaken and fatalistic beliefs about lung cancer, as well as being more reluctant to consult a doctor about possible symptoms of the disease, according to researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and their collaborators. These attitudes among blacks may help explain the puzzling racial disparities in lung cancer treatment outcomes that have been documented over the past 25 years, and highlight the need for clearer, more direct public health messages directed at African-Americans, say the scientists. Christopher Lathan, MD, MPH, an oncologist in the Division of Population Sciences at Dana-Farber, is the first author of the report in the journal Cancer. more...
Masonic Launches Clinical Trials Aimed at Helping Smokers Kick the Habit
Masonic Cancer Center
Tobacco researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center are launching two clinical trials to test novel medications aimed at helping people quit smoking. One of the trials involves a vaccine against nicotine. In the other trial, researchers are joining forces with Mayo Clinic Cancer Center to test a combination of smoking cessation medications. The nicotine vaccine clinical trial involves a phase 3 research study to test a vaccine known as NicVAX that is being developed by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals. Dorothy Hatsukami, PhD, associate director of cancer prevention and control for the Masonic Cancer Center and director of the Tobacco Use Research Center, is the principal investigator at the University of Minnesota site. more...
Soy-Almond vs. Soy: Bettering A Bread To Beat Prostate Cancer
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -
Researchers at The Ohio State University are testing proprietary recipes for soy-almond bread and soy bread for their potential to prevent and treat prostate cancer, the second most common form of cancer in men, affecting one in every six. In a collaborative study between The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James and Richard J. Solove Research Institute and Ohio State’s Department of Food Science and Technology, researchers are studying the health benefits provided by the new soy-almond bread as compared to previous soy bread recipes without almonds. more...
Cells Can Read Damaged DNA Without Missing a Beat
Winship Cancer Institute
Scientists have shown that cells’ DNA-reading machinery can skim through certain kinds of damaged DNA without skipping any letters in the genetic "text." The studies, performed in bacteria, suggest a new mechanism that can allow bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics. The results were published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The senior author is Paul Doetsch, PhD, professor of biochemistry and radiation oncology at Emory University School of Medicine and associate director for basic research at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. more...
Prolactin Blocks Oncogene Associated with Poor Prognosis in Breast Cancer
Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson
Researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have found a mechanism by which a hormone responsible for milk production blocks an oncogene that makes breast cancer more aggressive. Publishing in the journal Cancer Research, the researchers discovered that prolactin, a pituitary hormone that normally stimulates breast development and milk production, in fact reduces levels of an oncogene called BCL6. The BCL6 protein has previously been shown to play a role in poorly differentiated breast cancer, which carries a poorer prognosis. more...
Fluorescent Probes Light Up Cancerous Tumors
Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center
Building on his Nobel Prize-winning work creating fluorescent proteins that light up the inner workings of cells, a team of researchers led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Roger Tsien, PhD, professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center has developed biological probes that can stick to and light up tumors in mice. The scientists were able to spot and remove more cancerous tissue in mice injected with the fluorescent probes than in those mice without the fluorescent probes, upping survival five-fold. The findings are the latest steps in research aimed at helping surgeons see the outlines of cancerous tumors in real time, and promise to open new doors to using molecular tools in the operating room. more...
Researchers Discover Regulating Mechanism of Key Transcription Factor
University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center
In many cancers, scientists have discovered that key gene regulators which normally control cell growth have either been turned off or mutated. That change in the regular pattern then allows unrestricted cell production and the creation of tumors. Sylvester researchers have discovered exactly how one critical regulator affects a transcription factor that is consistently turned on in most cancers. The findings of Edward W. Harhaj, PhD, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology and member of the Viral Oncology Program at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and Noula Shembade, PhD, research assistant professor of microbiology and immunology, have been published in the February 26 issue of the prestigious journal Science. more...
Exercise, Tea May Ease Breast Cancer Depression
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
Breast cancer patients who exercise and drink tea on a regular basis may be less likely to suffer from depression than other patients, according to a new study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s Xiao Ou Shu, MD, PhD. more...
Dental Researcher Finds Switch That Turns on the Spread of Cancer
Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center
Reporting in Nature Cell Biology, researchers describe the discovery of a specific protein called disabled-2 (Dab2) that switches on the process that releases cancer cells from the original tumor and allows the cells to spread and develop into new tumors in other parts of the body. The process called epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferientiation (EMT) has been known to play a role in releasing cells (epithelial cells) on the surface of the solid tumor and transforming them into transient mesenchymal cell: cells with the ability to start to grow a new tumor. more...
Drug for Advanced Kidney Cancer Shrinks Tumors Prior to Surgery
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
More than 57,000 Americans face a diagnosis of kidney cancer each year. Now patients with advanced disease may soon have another treatment option. Physicians who conducted a pilot study at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center found that therapy before surgery with the drug sorafenib can reduce the size of large tumors and could be safely undertaken administered without adding significantly to the risks of surgery. Their results were published in the Feb. 16, 2010 online issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. more...
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and University of Kansas Advance Novel Drug to Clinic in 13 Months
University of Kansas Cancer Center
In only 13 months, a team of researchers and drug developers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center, Ontario Cancer Institute, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), and Beckloff Associates Inc. have advanced a promising new therapy for leukemia into a Phase I clinical trial. Through their unique partnership in LLS’s Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP), LLS provided $1.5 million in funding to The University of Kansas Cancer Center to translate a project by Aaron Schimmer, FRCPC, MD, PhD, of the Ontario Cancer Institute, where the trial is currently open. more...
Inflammation Marker Related to Obesity is Elevated in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer
Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson
The levels of an inflammatory chemokine were significantly elevated in patients with pancreatic cancer who were extremely obese, according to research conducted by scientists at the Jefferson Pancreatic, Biliary and Related Cancers Center. They presented their data at the 5th Annual Academic Surgical Congress, held in San Antonio. more...
Dana-Farber, Sanford-Burnham Institute License Flu-Targeting Antibodies
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have signed a license agreement with Genentech, a wholly owned member of the Roche group, and Roche, that grants the companies exclusive rights to manufacture, develop, and market human monoclonal antibodies to treat and protect against group 1 influenza viruses. more...
Inositol, Found in High-Fiber Foods, Blocks Major Cancer Pathway
University of Colorado Cancer Center
Why do people who eat high-fiber diets typically have lower incidence of certain cancers? Researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center may have an explanation after discovering that a nutrient called inositol hexaphosphate (IP-6) blocks a pathway some cancer cells use to multiply, recruit blood vessels and keep from dying. more...
UAB Researchers Link Calorie Intake to Cell Lifespan, Cancer Development
UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) have discovered that restricting consumption of glucose, the most common dietary sugar, can extend the life of healthy human-lung cells and speed the death of precancerous human-lung cells, reducing cancer’s spread and growth rate. more...
Finances Linked To Depression In Stage Zero Breast Cancer
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center -
A new study suggests that women who have fewer financial resources may need added social and psychological support to cope with the fear, anxiety and depression that can accompany a diagnosis of an early stage of breast cancer called ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). more...
Genesis of Children’s Brain Tumor Rests with Gene Math1
The Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center
The role that the master gene Math1 plays in making a critical population of cells called granule neurons in the cerebellum also points to its involvement in the development of a common childhood brain tumor called medulloblastoma. This finding helps explain the continuous proliferation or reproduction of the tumor cells, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report in a recent issue of the journal Science. more...
Chicago Cancer Genome Project Studies Genetics of 1,000 Tumors
University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center
No two tumors are alike, but analyzing the genetics of cancers from different parts of the body may reveal surprising details useful for treatment and prevention. That process is already gaining traction at the University of Chicago’s Institute for Genomics and Systems Biology (IGSB), where researchers are one year into a three-year project to collect and analyze the genetic sequence and variations of every gene expressed by 1,000 tumors. "The long-term goal," said IGSB Director Kevin White, James and Karen Frank Family Professor in human genetics and ecology and evolution," is to translate genomic discoveries into useful diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies. This should improve patient care." more...
Histone Modifications Can Predict Patient Prognosis and Treatment Response In Some Pancreatic Cancers
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, UCLA
Specific chemical modifications to proteins called histones, which are found in the nucleus of cells and act as spools around which DNA is wound, can be used to predict prognosis and response to treatment in subsets patients with pancreatic cancer, a study by researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found. more...
Chemical Tags Likely to Affect Metabolism, Cancer Development
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
New research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that the addition or removal of a certain type of chemical tag – called an acetyl group – onto metabolic enzymes plays a key role in how cellular metabolism is regulated. The finding, which appeared in the February 19 issue of the journal Science, gives researchers vital clues to understand how normal cells respond to nutrient changes and how the process by which normal cells turn cancerous, and could one day lead to new drugs that starve cancer cells into submission. more...
Older Female Cancer Survivors Have Added Health Issues Compared to Their Counterparts
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University
A recently published study from Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences found 245 older married women who survived cancer had more health problems as compared to a sample of 245 married women without cancer. The article, "Health and Well-Being in Older Married Female Cancer Survivors," was published as part of a special supplement of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, along with other articles that resulted from a conference at CWRU on geriatric oncology, said Aloen Townsend, the lead researcher and associate professor of social work. more...
Researchers Publish Promising Findings for Advanced Cervical Cancer
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University
Researchers at the Ireland Cancer Center of University Hospitals (UH) Case Medical Center, have published new findings that may lead to a new standard of care for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer. Published in the February issue of Clinical Cancer Research, the phase one study found that a new chemotherapy medicine, Triapine, was well tolerated in combination with standard-of-care cisplatin chemotherapy and radiation treatment in women with cervical cancer. This regimen provided both significant reduction in cancer disease and cancer control. more...
Researchers Create Drug to Keep Tumor Growth Switched Off
Rebecca and John Moores UCSD Cancer Center
A novel – and rapid – anti-cancer drug development strategy has resulted in a new drug that stops kidney and pancreatic tumors from growing in mice. Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, have found a drug that binds to a molecular “switch” found in cancer cells and cancer-associated blood vessels to keep it in the “off” position. The new approach employs scaffold-based chemistry combined with supercomputer technology, allowing for rapid screening and development of drugs that are more selective for the tumor. more...
Scientists Develop Personalized Blood Tests for Cancer Using Whole Genome Sequence
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have used data from the whole genome sequencing of cancer patients to develop individualized blood tests they believe can help physicians tailor patients’ treatments. The genome-based blood tests, believed to be the first of their kind, may be used to monitor tumor levels after therapy and determine cancer recurrence. "We believe this is the first application of newer generations of whole-genome sequencing that could be clinically useful for cancer patients," says Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, associate professor of oncology and co-director of the cancer biology program at Johns Hopkins. "Using this approach, we can develop biomarkers for potentially any cancer patient." more...
Light Therapy for Smoking Cessation Trial is Open
Fox Chase Cancer Center
Researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center are recruiting volunteers for the first-ever trial that tests whether light therapy can lessen the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal and help smokers quit. According to the National Cancer Institute, smoking is a leading cause of cancer and of death from cancer. New methods for quitting smoking are needed, which is why Fox Chase has opened the LIFT (Light Intervention for Tobacco Treatment) trial. Light therapy is very effective for treating a number of different problems, including depressed mood, sleep disturbances, cognitive difficulties, increased appetite, and difficulty concentrating. more...
Mobile Mammography Unit will Serve the Women in Arkansas
Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute
UAMS Launches MammoVan Mobile Mammography Unit A new tool in the fight against breast cancer was unveiled by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). The MammoVan, a mobile mammography unit, will regularly travel to 26 Arkansas counties that lack FDA-approved certified mammography facilities, providing digital screening mammograms and breast care education. The three-room mobile unit is outfitted with the most advanced digital mammography equipment and will be staffed by a certified mammography technologist and a technical assistant. more...
Other News
Trump To Shave Head and Mustache in Honor of Cancer Patients
Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Dr. Donald L. Trump, President and CEO of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), America’s first cancer center, will have his head shaved by a Roswell Park cancer patient on March 3, 2010 to honor the Institute’s 26,292 patients, and to encourage others to participate in the “Goin’ Bald for Bucks” program. Dr. Trump has dedicated his career to the fight against cancer. On March 3, at 10 am at Roswell Park, he’ll make a different, and very visible, contribution to the cause when he shaves his mustache—a fixture on his face since medical school—and his entire head. more...
Advanced Cancer Therapeutics Funds Brown Cancer Center Scientist to Speed Identification of Clinical Candidates
James Graham Brown Cancer Center
Advanced Cancer Therapeutics (ACT), a for-profit private company dedicated to bringing new anti-cancer therapies to market, has signed an agreement to leverage the computational chemistry expertise of Dr. John Trent, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine at the University of Louisville’s James Graham Brown Cancer Center (Brown Cancer Center), to accelerate the identification of new clinical candidates for the prevention and treatment of cancer. more...
CINJ Welcomes Princeton University as a Scientific Collaborator
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey
Expanding its research horizons in the fight against cancer, The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) has formally welcomed Princeton University as a scientific collaborator, which will allow for the sharing of resources and the strengthening of quality research programs at both institutions. CINJ is a Center of Excellence of UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. more...
Nurses Manual Helpful in Guiding Patients Through Cancer Care
Fox Chase Cancer Center
From the time of cancer diagnosis—or even the discovery of an abnormal lump—nurse navigators help guide patients facing breast cancer through the continuum of care. Now, Fox Chase Cancer Center Partners has introduced a new resource to aid nursing professionals who are new to this role. The “Breast Care Coordinators/Navigators Orientation Manual” is designed to help breast care coordinators and nurse navigators as they provide patient education, decision-making support, and overall coordination of care to breast cancer patients. more...