Ashworth Honored for Research Contributions
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Alan Ashworth, PhD, FRS, president of the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been recognized for his transformative contributions to cancer research. The American Society of Clinical Oncology honored him with the 2023 Science of Oncology Award and Lecture, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center named him for its C. Chester Stock Award Lectureship.
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Leaders Honored as ASCO Advocacy Champions
University of Florida Health Cancer Center
Thomas George, MD, FACP, and Merry Jennifer Markham, MD, FACP, FASCO, have been honored by the American Society for Clinical Oncology as Advocacy Champions for exemplifying cancer care advocacy in 2022. Dr. George is chair-elect of AACI's Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) Steering Committee.
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Skalka Receives Reimann Honor Award
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple Health
In a ceremony honoring faculty at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Anna Marie Skalka, PhD, senior advisor to the president and professor emerita, was recognized with the Stanley P. Reimann Honor Award, the center’s highest distinction.
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Study of Cancer Metastasis Gets $35 Million Boost
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University
With a $35 million gift from researcher, philanthropist, and race car driver Theodore Giovanis, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine will study the biological roots of how cancer spreads through the body. The 15-year commitment will establish the Giovanis Institute for Translational Cell Biology. Andrew J. Ewald, PhD, is the institute's new director.
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Effects of Menthol, E-Cigarette Flavors Considered for People Who Currently Smoke Cigarettes
Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina
As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrestles with the best way to regulate a legal but deadly product, it turns to scientists with expertise in tobacco control. As part of that effort, the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products recently awarded Tracy Smith, PhD, two grants totaling $7.5 million to study the likely effects of allowing flavored e-cigarettes and a ban on menthol.
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$3 Million Gift Funds Director of Cancer Research
The University of Arizona
The University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Advanced Molecular and Immunological Therapies (CAMI)—a national biomedical research hub that will develop novel strategies for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of diseases—has received a $3 million gift from Bruce and Patricia Bartlett. The gift creates the George A. Vanderheiden Endowed Chair in Cancer Immunological Research at CAMI. The person who holds the chair will lead the center's cancer division.
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Researchers Get $3 Million to Improve Survivorship Care for Younger Colorectal Cancer Patients
University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center
A team of University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers have received a $3.07 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop a model for long-term surveillance and care of younger adults treated for colorectal cancer.
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Mao Awarded $1.6 Million Grant
University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center
Peng Mao, PhD, at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center, was awarded a National Cancer Institute grant totaling $1.6 million over five years for research into the "Mechanism of Transcription-coupled DNA Repair and its Impact on Cancer Mutations." Dr. Mao's research will focus on how the RNA polymerase complex recruits other molecules to repair DNA during transcription.
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State Legislators Thanked for Securing $1.5 Million in Funding
Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple Health
Fox Chase Cancer Center and Temple Health welcomed State Representative Kevin Boyle and State Senators Jimmy Dillon and Christine Tartaglione to the Fox Chase campus to thank them for their support in securing $1.5 million in funding for the modernization of Fox Chase research facilities.
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HHMI Selects Byndloss as Early-Career Scholar
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has selected Mariana Byndloss, DVM, PhD, assistant professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, as one of its first Freeman Hrabowski Scholars. Dr. Byndloss is co-director of the Vanderbilt Microbiome Innovation Center.
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Winship Catalyst Fund Bridges Research Funding Gap
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University
Atlantan Bernard "Berny" Gray has created a unique endowment at Winship Cancer Institute that addresses an underfunded stage of the research pipeline. The Winship Catalyst Fund will enable Winship researchers to bring promising drugs and treatment strategies from discovery to clinical use.
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Berchuck, Plichta Named Cancer Genetics Co-Directors
Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University Medical Center
Duke Cancer Institute faculty Andrew Berchuck, MD, and Jennifer Plichta, MD, MS, were recently named co-directors of cancer genetics at Duke Cancer Institute. Dr. Berchuck is chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and Dr. Plichta is director of the Duke Breast Risk Assessment Clinic.
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New OncoBiobank Director Appointed
Cedars-Sinai Cancer
Cedars-Sinai Cancer welcomes Karine Sargsyan, MD, formerly director of one of the world’s largest clinical biobanks, as scientific director of its OncoBiobank. Dr. Sargsyan is charged with leading biobank development and creating new strategies for the optimal deployment and use of the Cedars-Sinai Cancer Molecular Twin Precision Oncology Platform for both research and clinical practice.
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Foucar Joins UNM
University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center
Charles Foucar, MD, applies his problem-solving experiences in engineering and computer sciences to his work as a hematologist-oncologist at the UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Foucar holds a medical degree from Northwestern University and his research interests are in high-risk leukemias that can occur after treatment for other medical conditions or cancers.
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Wetter Named Inaugural Senior Director of Cancer Health Equity Science
Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah
David W. Wetter, PhD, has been appointed inaugural senior director of cancer health equity science at Huntsman Cancer Institute. Dr. Wetter also serves as the director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Population Equity.
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Allen Named DUHS Vice President for Cancer Services
Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University Medical Center
Peter J. Allen, MD, has been named Duke University Health System vice president for cancer services. He will oversee clinical cancer care for Duke, working closely with Duke Cancer Institute Executive Director Michael Kastan, MD, PhD. Dr. Allen currently serves as the chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology. His research lab focuses on pancreatic cancer.
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Senior Director of Community Outreach and Engagement Named
Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah
Rachel Ceballos, PhD, has been appointed senior director of community outreach and engagement at Huntsman Cancer Institute, associate professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, and a Huntsman Cancer Institute Endowed Chair in Cancer Research.
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Howe Appointed Associate Director of Cancer Research, Training, and Education
The University of Vermont Cancer Center
Alan Howe, PhD, associate professor of pharmacology, has been appointed to serve as associate director of cancer research, training and education coordination for the University of Vermont Cancer Center. Dr. Howe has been a member of UVM’s Cell, Molecular, and Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program for nearly 20 years.
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McKenna is New Chief Human Resources Officer
Moffitt Cancer Center
Jack McKenna has joined Moffitt Cancer Center as the new chief human resources (HR) officer. In his role, he will lead the cancer center’s HR team and oversee HR strategies and functions. McKenna has nearly 40 years of experience in human resources and organizational development, most recently serving as chief human resources officer at Universal Engineering Sciences, Inc., a national geotechnical engineering firm.
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Long Telomeres Not 'Fountain of Youth' as Once Thought
Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University
In a study of 17 people from five families, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they found that ultra-lengthy DNA endcaps called telomeres fail to provide the longevity presumed for such people. Instead, people with long telomeres tend to develop a range of benign and cancerous tumors, as well as the age-related blood condition clonal hematopoiesis.
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A Metabolic Process in Cancer Cells Could Unlock a Possible Treatment for Glioblastoma
UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
A study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has found that targeting a metabolic process in people with a specific genetic mutation could help treat glioblastoma. The genetic alteration—a deletion in a gene called CDKN2A—is present in about 60 percent of people with glioblastoma. The mutation causes changes in the way lipids are distributed in cancer cells, which in turn makes the cancer cells vulnerable to being destroyed.
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Gene p16 Drives Colorectal Cancer, Emerging as Target for Potential Therapies
Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine
How colorectal cancer develops is not well understood, but a team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reports that silencing the gene p16, even though the DNA itself does not change, can drive colorectal cancer progression in animal models. The researchers also revealed a strategy that reduced tumor growth and improved survival in tumor-bearing mice, opening new possibilities for future targeted therapies in patients with gene p16 alterations.
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Study Shows Immigrant Adults With Liver Cancer Have Higher Survival Rates Than Those Born in the U.S.
USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
Immigrant adults with liver cancer in the United States have higher survival rates than people with the disease who were born in the U.S., according to new research from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. The study identified a previously unrecognized disparity in survival after a diagnosis of liver cancer across all major racial/ethnic groups, with immigrants having better survival compared to those born in the U.S.
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Rethinking the Protein Inhibitor Approach to Cancer Therapy
Stony Brook Cancer Center
A new method that enables researchers to dial up or tone down the amount of a certain metastatic protein inhibitor (BACH1) within a cell could provide a new path in cancer research that reassesses the effectiveness of protein inhibitors to treat disease. Led by a team of Stony Brook University scientists, the research involves adjusting the levels of BACH1 using a gene circuit placed into human breast metastatic cells.
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A Simple Antibacterial Treatment Solves a Severe Skin Problem Caused by Radiation Therapy
Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center
Researchers at the Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center have found that many cases of acute radiation dermatitis involve a common skin bacterium and that a simple, low-cost treatment can prevent severe cases, potentially setting a new standard of care for people undergoing radiation therapy.
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Healthy Lifestyle Reduces Risk of Recurrence and Death in High-Risk Breast Cancer Patients
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center
High-risk breast cancer patients who most closely followed cancer-prevention guidelines published by the American Institute for Cancer Research and American Cancer Society before, during, and after chemotherapy experienced a 37 percent reduced risk of disease recurrence and a 58 percent reduced risk of death, according to a study led by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
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Study Highlights Racial Disparities in Ovarian Cancer Risk for Women
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
A new Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center study investigated how endometriosis, uterine leiomyomas (fibroids), and hysterectomy changed ovarian cancer risk in Black and white women. Fibroids were associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer in both Black and white women, with hysterectomy modifying the risk of cancer in both groups. However, scientists also found that while Black and white women with endometriosis had a higher risk of ovarian cancer overall, hysterectomy only modified this risk of cancer for white women.
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Study Finds Cancer Cells Use a New Fuel in Absence of Sugar
University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center
Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have discovered a new nutrient source that pancreatic cancer cells use to grow. The molecule, uridine, offers insight into both biochemical processes and possible therapeutic pathways. The findings show that cancer cells can adapt when they don’t have access to glucose.
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Study Identifies New Treatment Target for Metastatic Cancer
UK Markey Cancer Center
A new UK Markey Cancer Center study reveals more about changes that happen to cancer cells when they metastasize and identifies a promising target for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. The research shows a metabolite called succinate plays a role in enhancing cancer cell plasticity and identifies an enzyme called PLOD2 as a regulator of succinate during breast cancer progression.
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Microbiome Varies Widely in Tumors of People With Early Vs. Late-Onset Colorectal Cancer
Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center
Researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center studied the microbiome of people with colorectal cancer and found the makeup of the bacteria, fungi, and viruses in a person’s tumor varied significantly depending on whether they were diagnosed with early onset disease (age 45 or younger) or late-onset disease (age 65 or older).
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Scientists Create Most Powerful, Accurate Tool Yet to Research Deadliest Blood Cancer
The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai
Tisch Cancer Center scientists have developed unique models of acute myeloid leukemia, creating a transformative resource to study this cancer and eventually its drug response and drug resistance. The researchers said these models represent the disease accurately in genetic composition and in disease characteristics found in laboratory cell cultures, animal models, and patients.
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Ascending the 'Mount Everest' of Cancer Research
University of Florida Health Cancer Center
The cancer gene MYC has been called the "Mount Everest" of cancer research because of the difficulty of designing medications that can disable it, and the expectation that an effective MYC drug could help so many cancer patients. A collaboration among RNA scientists, chemists, and cancer biologists in Florida and Germany has climbed that peak, while opening new routes to summit other similarly hard-to-treat diseases.
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Excess and Rising Weight in Adulthood Associated With Increased Risk of Gastrointestinal Cancer
The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute
Doctors have long stressed the importance of maintaining a healthy weight for improving overall health, but a large new study suggests it could also reduce future gastrointestinal cancer risk. The study found that an overweight or obese body mass index in early and middle adulthood is associated with increased risk for gastrointestinal cancer. The study also found that frequent aspirin use did not modify this increased risk in overweight and obese individuals.
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Combined Delivery of Engineered Virus With Immunotherapy is Safe and Improves Outcomes in Subset of Patients With Glioblastoma
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Intratumoral delivery of an engineered oncolytic virus (DNX-2401) targeting glioblastoma (GBM) cells combined with subsequent immunotherapy was safe and improved survival outcomes in a subset of patients with recurrent GBM, according to results from a multi-institutional Phase I/II clinical trial co-led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Toronto.
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Delivering on the Promise of Personalized Breast Cancer Therapy
Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine
A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine is coming closer to delivering on the promise of personalized breast cancer therapy with a strategy to predict the most likely response of a cancer to a specific less toxic treatment regimen. In this study, the scientists developed and validated in clinical trials a multiparameter molecular classifier test to predict with a high degree of confidence which patients with HER2-positive breast cancer would be candidates for anti-HER2 therapy alone without the need for chemotherapy.
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Potential New Strategy Identified to Prevent Side Effects From Immunotherapy
UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
A study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center suggests that IL-21, a soluble molecule involved in activating the immune system, can be a potential therapeutic target to help reduce endocrine autoimmune side effects caused by checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy.
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Scientists Discover Hidden Weakness in Deadly Brain Cancer
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
Scientists at UC San Francisco have discovered that neural activity in difficult-to-treat glioblastoma can restructure connections in surrounding brain tissue, causing the cognitive decline associated with the disease, and that the drug gabapentin, commonly used to prevent seizures, could block this growth-causing activity in mice with glioblastoma.
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CAR T Cells Developed That Fight Prostate Cancer in Bone
Moffitt Cancer Center
Prostate cancer frequently metastasizes to the bone and is incurable. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are working to identify new treatment options for this subset of patients. In a new article, a team of Moffitt scientists demonstrates that chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy is an effective antitumor approach in mouse models of bone metastatic prostate cancer.
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Genomic Analysis of SCLC Tumors Reveals Subtypes, Offers Cues Toward Personalized Treatments
Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center
The largest genomic analysis ever conducted of small cell lung cancer (SLSC) tumors has identified genetic subtypes and provided insights into the mechanisms of this aggressive and deadly cancer. The study reveals cues toward the development of personalized treatment approaches.
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Risk Biomarkers Could Predict Serious Side Effect of Stem Cell Transplant
Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina
Doctors are one step closer to having a risk biomarker to alert them to which of their pediatric stem cell transplant patients are likely to experience a potentially deadly side effect called sinusoidal obstruction syndrome. A team led by MUSC Hollings Cancer Center researcher Sophie Paczesny, MD, PhD, recently published the results of its biomarker study.
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Winship Opens New Cancer Care Center in Midtown Atlanta
Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University
The new Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Midtown opened for patients May 9. Winship Cancer Institute designed the full-service center to support a unique model of patient-centered, multidisciplinary cancer care integrated with innovative research to provide the best patient outcomes and a personalized patient experience.
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Major Expansion Provides Improved Cancer Care to Utah and Beyond
Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah
Huntsman Cancer Institute has announced the opening of the Kathryn F. Kirk Center for Comprehensive Cancer Care and Women’s Cancers. The center has an entire floor dedicated to breast and gynecologic cancers and additional space for the sophisticated treatment of blood and marrow transplant patients, including immunotherapies and clinical trial options.
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Allison Institute Announces Appointment of Inaugural Members
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
The James P. Allison Institute at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center announced the appointment of its first members, James P. Allison, PhD; Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD; Jennifer Wargo, MD; Sangeeta Goswami, MD, PhD; and Kenneth Hu, PhD. In addition, Garry Nolan, PhD, will join the Allison Institute as an adjunct member. The institute was launched to drive breakthroughs that will integrate immunobiology across disciplines.
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