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The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute Researchers at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have been awarded a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to study the long-term, longitudinal impact of COVID-19 on first responders, health care workers, and the general population. Read More

Hollings Cancer Center, Medical University of South Carolina The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Innova Therapeutics Inc., rare pediatric disease designation for IVT-8086 for the treatment of osteosarcoma. MUSC Hollings Cancer Center researcher Nancy Klauber-DeMore, MD, was instrumental in the development of the research that led to the therapy. Read More

UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center UC San Francisco scientists have launched a precision medicine initiative to offer free voluntary whole genome sequencing to all UCSF Health patients. The goal of the initiative, called the UCSF 3D Health Study (for "Data, Discovery, and Diversity") is to build a genomic database that matches the diversity of UCSF Health’s patient population. Read More

Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center Lois B. Travis, MD, ScD, at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, has been awarded a five-year, $5.7 million National Cancer Institute grant to evaluate long-term health outcomes for cancer patients who receive platinum-based chemotherapies. Read More

University of Virginia Cancer Center Women are underrepresented in the field of academic surgery, but women surgeons are earning a disproportionate share of research grants from the National Institutes of Health, a new study has found. Women comprise 19 percent of surgery faculty at academic health systems, but held 26.4 percent of R01 grants, the researchers found. Read More

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Overlap syndromes are distinct blood cancers that have features of both myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). The most common of these syndromes is chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. MDS/MPNs are difficult to treat and typically have poor prognoses. Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center is leading the first cooperative international trial for these rare cancers. Michael Savona, MD, is principal investigator. Read More

Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center of The Wistar Institute The Wistar Institute has appointed Ami Patel, PhD, as a Caspar Wistar Fellow in the Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center. Her research focuses on strategies to combat emerging infectious diseases, including engineering vaccines and immunotherapies against viral and bacterial pathogens.  Read More

University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center A $3.7 million grant, part of the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative, will support a clinical trial designed to test a personalized family genetic risk navigation support platform. The trial will be extended to all first- and second-degree relatives of 900 patients in Georgia and California in whom genetic testing identified a variant indicating an elevated hereditary cancer risk. Read More

UK Markey Cancer Center A study led by researchers at UK Markey Cancer Center highlighted differences in patient diagnosis and treatment in those with non-small cell lung cancer across the state of Kentucky. The study used Kentucky Cancer Registry patient data from 2007-2011 to identify trends in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation testing and the usage of the EGFR inhibitor, erlotinib. Read More

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center Whether a liver cancer cell is primed to grow or move affects its ability to resist cancer drugs, according to new work from researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington. They identified key molecules that orchestrate these different cell states in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In lab dishes, experimental compounds that target these molecules can shift drug-resistant HCC cells toward drug sensitivity. Read…

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Having dedicated his career to developing better treatments for cancer, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Igor Puzanov, MD, MSCI, FACP, has been promoted to senior vice president of clinical investigation. Read More

Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey With the aid of a $3.1 million, five-year National Institutes of Health grant, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey leaders Eileen White, PhD, Edmund Lattime, PhD, and Shridar Ganesan, MD, PhD, will collaborate on translational research exploring the immune response to cancers that feature a high number of mutations. Read More

UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Overall health care costs decreased for patients at clinics participating in Arkansas Blue Cross and Shield value-based primary care programs, according to a study by the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The study also found reductions in inpatient stays and use of emergency departments. Read More

Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Efstathios "Stathis” Karathanasis, PhD and William Schiemann, PhD are leading a team of researchers from the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and Duke University combining nanotechnology with immunotherapy to treat metastatic breast cancer. The team received a five-year, $3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to continue research into the engineering of nanoparticles that can wake up "cold" tumors so they can be located and attacked by the im…

University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center Researchers from the Rogel Cancer Center have received a $2.9 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to look at how HPV behaves in patients with head and neck cancer and how that could help identify who might benefit from less aggressive treatment. Principal investigator is Maureen Sartor, PhD. Read More

UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute A $1.9 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Studies will allow Justin Leung, Ph.D., at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, to advance his research of DNA damage response in cancer and genetic disorders. Read More

Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine The National Institutes of Health has awarded an Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant to fund 3D gene imaging research at Yale Cancer Center. The three-year, $1.2 million R33 award will help support research on multiplexed imaging of chromatin folding and RNA profiles in cancer and lead to new biomarkers for cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment.  Read More

Moffitt Cancer Center Moffitt Cancer Center is launching a nationwide study to help educate oncologists and address health care disparities among LGBTQ+ patients. The study’s findings will inform the groundbreaking COLORS Training Program (Curriculum for Oncologists on LGBTQ+ populations to Optimize Relevance and Skills), which Moffitt developed in 2018. Read More

UK Markey Cancer Center The National Science Foundation has awarded a three-year, $1,163,869 grant to the University of Kentucky to develop state-of-the-art metabolomics data analysis tools that will derive new data, knowledge, and interpretation from the active metabolic state of organisms and ecosystems with broad biological and biomedical applications. Read More

City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center Analyzing data for about 16,500 advanced colorectal cancer patients, City of Hope researchers found that Black people are more likely than other ethnic groups to die from the disease, especially if it had spread to the liver. They noted that Black people were the least likely to receive chemotherapy and had a 17 percent higher chance of death compared to white people. Read More

Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health (SKCC) has announced two leadership roles focused on quality and safety in cancer care. Mark Hurwitz, MD, FASTRO, FACRO, is the new SKCC enterprise cancer quality and safety officer and Valerie Csik, MPH, CPPS, was appointed director of cancer quality and care transformation. Read More

Stanford Cancer Institute Michael Lim, MD, has been appointed chair of the Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery. He joined Stanford from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Lim succeeds Gary Steinberg, MD, PhD, who is stepping down after 25 years as department chair. Read More

Siteman Cancer Center Julie K. Schwarz, MD, PhD, a Washington University professor of radiation oncology at Siteman Cancer Center, has been elected vice president of the Radiation Research Society. She will go on to serve as president beginning in October 2022. Read More

Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah Of any racial group, African-American men have the lowest five-year survival rate for colorectal cancer. A major contributing factor is low adherence to recommended early detection screening, like colonoscopy and home-based stool testing kits. Yet published research on effective strategies to increase screening for this group is minimal. Read More

USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center Patients treated for bladder cancer with a surgery known as radical cystectomy have worse outcomes if they are smokers, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis by Keck Medicine of USC. Giovanni Cacciamani, MD, is lead author of the study. Read More

The University of Kansas Cancer Center The University of Kansas Cancer Center’s status as a community site of the National Cancer Institute’s Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) has been renewed following a successful first year. The cancer center team exceeded clinical trial accrual goals by more than 22 percent. Read More

Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins University In laboratory studies, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins University researchers observed a key step in how cancer cells metastasize. Trying to determine how groups of cells migrate to other parts of the body, the scientists used tissue engineering to construct a functional 3D blood vessel and grew breast cancer cells nearby. Read More

The University of Kansas Cancer Center Elizabeth Calhoun, PhD, MEd, has been named associate dean for population health at the University of Kansas Medical Center. She also joins The University of Kansas Cancer Center’s Cancer Prevention and Control research program. Read More

Siteman Cancer Center Jiayi Huang, MD, has been named chief of the central nervous system/Gamma Knife service at Washington University School of Medicine and Siteman Cancer Center. He had been serving as interim chief since October 2019. Read More

Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple Health Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Jeffrey Farma, MD, FACS, was recently admitted to the American College of Surgeons Academy of Master Surgeon Educators. He is chief of the Division of General Surgery at Fox Chase and co-director of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Program. Read More

University of Florida Health Cancer Center Dejana Braithwaite, PhD, has been appointed as associate director for population sciences at the University of Florida Health Cancer Center, starting November 1. Since 2017, she has led the cancer screening group at the Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Read More

Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah 5 For the Fight, a global movement inviting everyone to give $5 for the fight against cancer, has announced the inaugural recipients of the 5 For the Fight Cancer Research Fellowship in partnership with Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah. Read More

The 2020 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting will virtually convene AACI cancer center members with national cancer research and advocacy groups, industry, and government health agencies on October 12-13. At two meeting sessions, panelists will discuss the application of basic science and pediatric cancer research to the delivery of improved treatments for all cancers.   Read More

UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center Researchers at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health have reported that genetic testing is cost-effective and beneficial for newly diagnosed patients with metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST), a type of soft tissue sarcoma that develops in specialized nerve cells in the wall of the digestive system. Read More

VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center A nationwide clinical trial funded by the National Cancer Institute and now open at VCU Massey Cancer Center will examine the short- and long-term outcomes of patients with COVID-19 and cancer to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the impacts of infection. Read More

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute A new study by researchers at OSUCCC – James shows that RNA nanoparticles have elastic and rubbery properties that help explain why these particles target tumors so efficiently and why they possess lower toxicity in animal studies. Read More

Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine James B. Yu, MD, MHS, has been promoted to associate chief Medical officer for radiation oncology for Smilow Cancer Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital Network. Dr. Yu specializes in treating genitourinary cancers. Read More

University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center Breast cancer researcher Stuart S. Martin, PhD, has been installed as the inaugural Drs. Angela and Harry Brodie Professor in Translational Cancer Research. The endowed professorship honors the late Angela H. Brodie, PhD, who, with her husband, Harry Brodie, PhD, pioneered the development of aromatase inhibitors. Read More

Moffitt Cancer Center Targeted therapy with BRAF-MEK inhibitors is effective against advanced melanoma that cannot be surgically removed or has spread to other areas of the body. However, many patients become resistant to the therapy, often leading to further metastasis. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers who helped develop this type of combination therapy are now working to better understand what leads to this resistance. Read More

Stanford Cancer Institute There are currently two main ways of treating ocular melanoma: radiation therapy or removal of the eye. Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, MD, and Darius Moshfeghi, MD, are investigating whether there are any patterns linking patients' racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic status with which treatment they received and how long they lived after diagnosis. Read More

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Research from a team from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center explains how radiation helps boost the immune system’s ability to fight cancer in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors — and provides new evidence that the timing of these therapies can make a big difference in how effectively they work together. Read More

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Results from a Phase II trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center suggest that a combination of ipilimumab (anti-CTLA-4) plus nivolumab (anti-PD-1) can generate durable responses in a subset of patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), an "immune-cold" cancer that does not typically respond well to immunotherapy. Read More

University of Virginia Cancer Center A discovery from the University of Virginia School of Medicine may open the door to an entirely new approach to treating cancer: by disrupting a vital condensation process inside cancer cells. Researchers discovered that cancer cells are exceptionally dependent on the proper condensation of a particular protein, AKAP95, during tumor formation. Blocking this process halted the cancer cells in their tracks. Read More

Cedars-Sinai Cancer Cedars-Sinai Cancer is continuing to expand its clinical and investigative research staff with the addition of several new faculty scientists who bring a breadth of expertise to cancer patients. Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD, is the center's director. Read More

Wilmot Cancer Institute, UR Medicine Ruth O’Regan, MD, chief of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care at the University of Wisconsin, has been named the next chair of medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s School of Medicine and Dentistry. She succeeds Paul Levy, MD, who is stepping down after a decade as chair. Read More

This fall, AACI will welcome new members to its Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) and Government Relations (GR) Forum steering committees. The new members will formally assume their duties during the 2020 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting, held virtually October 12-13.   Read More

AACI is seeking recommendations for the Physician Clinical Leadership Initiative (PCLI) Steering Committee. The PCLI steering committee helps guide the activities of the initiative, identify barriers and challenges where AACI cancer center clinical leaders can share best practices, and identify ways AACI can collaborate with like-minded organizations. Read More

University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center A team of researchers from the Rogel Cancer Center received an $11.2 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to study how to use the microbiome to limit complications of stem cell transplants for blood cancers and other diseases. Principal investigator is Pavan Reddy, MD. Read More

UK Markey Cancer Center B. Mark Evers, MD, FACS, director of UK Markey Cancer Center, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Evers was elected for his expertise on intestinal hormones and hormonal arcades in oncogenesis. Read More

Indiana University School of Medicine has announced the hiring of Kelvin Lee, MD, to lead the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, bolstered by a $15 million fund established by the Walther Cancer Foundation to support him in this role. Read More

Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center The Walther Cancer Foundation will invest $11 million to advance collaborative cancer research at Indiana University and Purdue University by supporting scientists through bioinformatics. Income from the new fund will continuously support bioinformatics personnel, technology, and other tools shared by the cancer research programs at both universities. IU and Purdue will also make their own investments into the fund. …

Jan Kitajewski, PhD, has been appointed director of the University of Illinois (UI) Cancer Center effective November 13, 2020. He has served as interim director since December 2019 and joined UI Cancer Center in 2016 from Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Read More

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine and OSUCC – James have been awarded a five-year, $9.1 million renewal from the National Cancer Institute. The grant will allow principal investigator Patrick Green, PhD, and colleagues to continue studying retrovirus models of cancer. Read More

The University of Arizona Cancer Center Ginny L. Clements has given $8.5 million to the UArizona Cancer Center to strengthen the center's breast cancer patient care and research programs. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1956 at the age of 15. Read More

Results from a leadership diversity survey conducted by AACI in partnership with The Cancer Letter (TCL) show that there’s a long road ahead in confronting cancer disparities in the oncology leadership pipeline. In an editorial published in the October 9 edition of TCL, AACI President Karen E. Knudsen, MBA, PhD, and Immediate Past President Roy A. Jensen, MD, shared their thoughts on the survey results. Read More

The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will receive more than $7.3 million from the National Cancer Institute as part of its new Serological Sciences Network, one of the largest coordinated national efforts to study immunology and SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Read More

Cedars-Sinai Cancer Cedars-Sinai has been awarded a five-year, $8.3 million grant by the National Cancer Institute to study the diversity and determinants of the immune-inflammatory response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Using comprehensive longitudinal data collection and analyses, the research will focus on the ethnically and racially diverse population served by the Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles. Read More

University of Virginia Cancer Center Nearly 1 in 8 commercially insured patients nationwide who underwent an elective colonoscopy between 2012 and 2017 performed by an in-network provider received "surprise" bills for out-of-network expenses, often totaling hundreds of dollars or more, new analysis from a team led by James M. Scheiman, MD, shows. Read More

Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Ruben Mesa, MD, FACP, has been named executive director of the Mays Cancer Center. The appointment broadens Dr. Mesa's scope of responsibility in coordinating and integrating all aspects of cancer prevention, screening, care, and survivorship with practice, education, and research across UT Health San Antonio. Read More

The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Deirdre J. Cohen, MD, MS, has joined Mount Sinai Health System as director of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Program and medical director of the Cancer Clinical Trials Office at The Tisch Cancer Institute. Read More

Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine Michaela A. Dinan, PhD, has been appointed co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Yale Cancer Center beginning January 1, 2021. She joins Yale from Duke Cancer Institute/Duke Clinical Research Institute. Read More

Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson David Gius, MD, PhD, a breast cancer and radiation researcher, has joined the Mays Cancer Center. He was recruited from the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University with a $6 million senior investigator recruitment grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. Read More

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center The Focus Fund GP, LLC, in partnership with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has launched Cancer Focus Fund, LP, an oncology-focused investment fund designed to support the advancement of compelling investigational cancer therapies from late preclinical development through Phase I and Phase Ib/II clinical trials. Read More

Cancer Center at Illinois Researchers affiliated with the Cancer Center at Illinois discovered a novel small molecule compound that is now the subject of a new global licensing agreement between the pharmaceutical company Bayer AG and the cancer drug development company Systems Oncology LLC. Read More

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center A new study from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has discovered that mutations found in cancers do not accumulate randomly, but are found in distinct patterns that vary based on the three-dimensional organization of the genome in the cell as well as the underlying factors causing the mutations. Read More

UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center Risk for melanoma can be estimated long before detection of any suspicious moles, according to A. Hunter Shain, PhD, who led a new study to detect DNA mutations in individual skin cells. The genomic methods used to probe skin damage in the study could be developed to be used to estimate baseline melanoma risk for individuals in the general population. Read More

Siteman Cancer Center A broad collaboration of scientists co-led by Robert Schreiber, PhD, has identified five features of neoantigens that optimize the ability to trigger T cells to attack cancer and leave healthy tissue untouched. The discovery could improve immunotherapies against the disease. Read More

University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center With a new $7.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute, Rogel Cancer Center researchers and their national collaborators will test whether blocking inflammatory processes could protect cells and potentially prevent some cancers. Read More

UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, has been named to the National Academy of Medicine. He was recognized for defining the mechanistic basis of how patients respond to or develop resistance to checkpoint inhibitors and for leading multicenter clinical trials for patients with advanced melanoma. Read More

UK Markey Cancer Center Cardiothoracic surgeon Timothy W. Mullett, MD, MBA, FACS, has started a two-year term as chair of the Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons. He serves as medical director of the UK Markey Cancer Center Affiliate Network and specializes in the treatment of lung cancer. Read More

Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University Medical Center The national breast cancer organization Susan G. Komen® has announced that Donald McDonnell, PhD, is one of two breast cancer researchers named to receive the nonprofit's Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction — Komen's highest scientific honor. Read More

Hannah Hazard-Jenkins, MD, associate chair of surgery for cancer services and a native West Virginian, has been named the permanent director of the WVU Cancer Institute after having served in the position on an interim basis since January. Read More

Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University A study from Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University has the potential to change how patients whose prostate cancer recurs after prostatectomy are treated. The Emory Molecular Prostate Imaging for Radiotherapy Enhancement, or EMPIRE-1, trial is the first randomized trial of men with prostate cancer with recurring cancer to show that treatment based on advanced molecular imaging can improve disease-free survival rates. Read More

VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center In his previous role at Moffitt Cancer Center, Said Sebti, PhD, and colleagues discovered FGTI-2734, a drug that overcomes a major hurdle in halting the growth of malignant tumors driven by the KRAS protein, including pancreatic cancer. In collaboration with VCU Massey Cancer Center researchers, Dr. Sebti intends to further develop FGTI-2734 to eventually gain FDA approval for testing the drug in clinical trials. Read More

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center After serving as interim director since January 1, Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, has been named director of the division of hematology and oncology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He is associate director for translational research, co-leader of the breast cancer research program, and director of precision oncology at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. Read More

Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Researchers with the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center have secured $4 million in funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to establish an HIV-associated Malignancy Research Center focused on lung cancer in East Africa. Read More

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center - James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute OSUCCC – James and the Ohio State College of Pharmacy have been awarded a five-year, $7 million grant renewal from the National Cancer Institute. This grant will allow research to continue on potential anticancer drug leads based on compounds from tropical plants, coastal lichens, cultured cyanobacteria, and filamentous fungi. Read More

The coronavirus pandemic has challenged the cancer research community in countless ways, and the 2020 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting was no exception. Held virtually for the first time during two days in October, the event drew nearly 900 cancer center colleagues for presentations on topics ranging from cancer screening guidelines and managing change in clinical trials to pediatric oncology and end-of-life care. Read More

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Subhamoy Dasgupta, PhD, has received a five-year, $2.52 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support investigations into how communication channels between a cancer cell’s nucleus and the mitochondria are driving cancer metastasis. The award is part of the NIH’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program. Read More

Fox Chase Cancer Center, Temple Health Colleen Tetzlaff, MHS, PA-C, an advanced practice clinician at Fox Chase Cancer Center, was recently named president of the Association of Physician Assistants in Oncology for 2020-2021. Read More

UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center Patients receiving care for advanced cancer at Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health were more likely to survive or experience a longer period without their disease progressing if they received personalized cancer therapy, report University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers led by Razelle Kurzrock, MD. Read More

University of Florida Health Cancer Center University of Florida Health researchers Sumita Bhaduri-McIntosh, MD, PhD, and Michael McIntosh, PhD, and their collaborators have published new research showing a class of drugs used to treat a limited set of breast and ovarian cancers are also effective against cancers linked to the Epstein-Barr virus when tested on human cells. Read More

Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have genetically modified human Natural Killer T (NKT) cells with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that enables them to specifically recognize and attack neuroblastoma. Expressed with the CAR is interleukin-15 (IL-15), a natural protein that supports NKT cell survival. Read More

The University of Arizona Cancer Center A promising new biomarker that appears in patients before stomach cancer develops may help with early detection of the disease and improve patient response to therapy, according to findings in a study led by Juanita L. Merchant, MD, PhD, and colleagues at the University of Arizona Health Sciences. Read More

Case Comprehensive Cancer Center Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine Interim Dean Stanton L. Gerson, MD, has agreed to extend his term for another year, to June 30, 2022. Dr. Gerson is a Distinguished University Professor, longtime director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, and a past president of AACI. Read More

AACI's Clinical Research Innovation (CRI) has published a digital book of abstracts and posters from the 12th Annual AACI CRI Meeting. The book features 77 abstracts from 31 cancer centers submitted for virtual presentation at the CRI meeting this past July. The CRI Clinical Trials Office (CTO) Medical Director Working Group will host a virtual roundtable on Tuesday, November 10. The discussion will focus on the results of a recent survey distributed to CTO medical directors. Read More

UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center Researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that a drug that activates the body’s natural defenses by behaving like a virus may also make certain stealthy melanoma tumors visible to the immune system, allowing them to be better targeted by immunotherapy. Read More

Moffitt Cancer Center For patients with non-small cell lung cancer, two major treatment strategies have emerged: tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immune checkpoint inhibitors. However, choosing the right therapy isn’t always an easy decision, as biomarkers can change during therapy rendering that treatment ineffective. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are developing a noninvasive, accurate method to analyze a patient’s tumor mutations and biomarkers to determine the best course of treatme…

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center In a large randomized clinical trial, researchers evaluated the immunotherapy drug avelumab for patients with advanced urothelial cancer. And the findings of the trial, called the JAVELIN Bladder 100 study, are "practice-changing," according to Petros Grivas, MD, PhD, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, who is the co-leader of this global, industry-sponsored trial. Read More

Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah Brad Cairns, PhD, has accepted an appointment as chief academic officer at Huntsman Cancer Institute. In addition, Alana Welm, PhD, has accepted an appointment as senior director of basic science, a role previously held by Dr. Cairns. Read More

Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey has received a $1.6 million, five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute to support the Rutgers Youth Enjoy Science (RUYES) Program. RUYES seeks to increase the diversity of the biomedical, cancer research workforce in order to reduce cancer disparities in both New Jersey and across the United States. Read More

Duke Cancer Institute, Duke University Medical Center The Advanced Practitioner Society for Hematology and Oncology (APSHO) presented the third annual Mary Pazdur Award for Excellence in Advanced Practice in Oncology to Christina Cone, DNP, APRN, ANP-BC, AOCNP®, of Duke Cancer Institute, at JADPRO Live Virtual 2020, an educational conference for oncology advanced practitioners. Read More

The University of Kansas Cancer Center Opioids for pain relief are often a necessity for cancer patients, but opioid use comes with its own set of risks. Two papers published by researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Center bring those risks to light. Using the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database, Andrew Roberts, PharmD, PhD, and his team conducted two retrospective studies. Read More

University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center Peng Mao, PhD, and his team have discovered an intricate series of events that cells use to repair DNA, finding that in transcription-coupled DNA repair, RNA polymerases change shape when one type of protein binds and dislodges other proteins. The shape change switches RNA polymerase from transcribing DNA to repairing. Read More

UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center A new study by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has quantified the impact of repealing the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), which enables 18- to 25-year-olds to remain on their parents insurance plans, including cancer patients who require long-term medical follow-up. The study builds on previous UCSF research showing that children covered by private health insurance have better outcomes than…

Yale Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine The National Institutes of Health has awarded a Research Project Cooperative Agreement grant to Yale Cancer Center. The two-year, $1.4 million U01 award will fund immuno-serological assays for monitoring COVID-19 in patients with hematologic malignancies. Read More

Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson Health Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women and the most costly to treat. Now, Jefferson researchers have shown that although the use of an effective and less expensive treatment is on the rise, some patients, specifically Black women and those without private insurance, are offered the beneficial therapy less often. Read More

At the 2020 AACI/CCAF Annual Meeting, AACI President Karen E. Knudsen, MBA, PhD, announced plans for her presidential initiative, which will leverage the expertise of North America's 102 leading cancer institutes to address cancer health disparities. Through a two-phase process, the initiative will convert understanding of cancer disparities across AACI cancer centers into meaningful, measurable actions to improve the lives of people with cancer. Read More

University of Virginia Cancer Center Ambitious efforts at the UVA Cancer Center to improve care delivered to patients with cancer that has spread to the brain have yielded important insights and tools that can benefit other hospitals, a new publication reports. The tools include the first set of metrics to assess care provided for these secondary tumors, known as brain metastasis. Read More