Catherine Wu, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who received an SU2C Innovative Research Grant (IRG) in 2011, is developing vaccines to help keep melanoma from returning in patients after surgery, according to Science magazine.  Findings from the study were presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Dr. Wu’s team sequenced the DNA from the patients’ tumors and used computational methods to create a personalized vaccine intended to stimulate the immune system to attack returning cancer cells, Science said. The vaccines appear to have prevented early relapse in 12 patients with melanoma, reported the magazine, which is published by the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). While attending the AACR Annual Meeting, Dr. Wu also took time to address the latest class of IRG recipients, telling them how much SU2C support meant to her career as a cancer researcher and urging them to continue their work. 

Thanks to SU2C Dream Team Leader Dr. Daniel Von Hoff’s clinical leadership, TGen is becoming a bigger player in precision medicine. Clinical trials for rare and common cancers are available for patients in Arizona, while working to gain approval by the FDA.

Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, leader of the SU2C-Lustgarten Foundation Pancreatic Cancer Dream Team, has been elected president-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research, SU2C’s Scientific Partner. Dr. Jaffee, who is deputy director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore; will become president of AACR one year from now. She is an internationally recognized expert in cancer immunology, with specific expertise in preclinical and early clinical development of immunotherapies for breast and pancreatic cancers.  The Dream Team was launched in 2014 and is developing new treatments for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), the most common form of cancer of the pancreas. 

In research supported by SU2C, F. Stephen Hodi, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and colleagues investigated whether a serumbiomarker could predict the response of patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors, a type of immunotherapy. This is very important to improving the utilization ofimmunotherapies. According to a paper published in a journal published by SU2C’s Scientific Partner, the American Association for Cancer Research, Hodi’s team found that serum levels of a protein called ANGPT2 predicted response to, and influenced the outcomes of,immune checkpoint inhibitors in patients with advanced melanoma.

David Tuveson, MD, PhD, a leader in pancreatic cancer research, and member of SU2C’s Scientific Advisory Committee has been named the new director of CSHL’s cancer center, a National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated research facility.  In addition to his roles at Cold Spring Harbor Lab, where he is a professor, and as one of our SU2C scientific leaders, Tuveson is a clinician who treats pancreatic cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and is Director of Research for SU2C collaborator, the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Research.

A research team supported in part by SU2C has published findings that show how we may be able to kill cancerous cells more effectively by combining drugs that work together to significantly disrupt a cancer cell’s ability to survive DNA damage. These findings are the first to show this combination drug therapy as a novel approach for treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and potentially, many other cancers.

Immunotherapy and precision treatment are two of the biggest trends in cancer research and treatment today. Studies published recently in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine show that SU2C-supported researchers are at the forefront of these remarkable trends. These studies deal with immunotherapy in advanced melanoma and targeted therapy in metastatic prostate cancer.

Congratulations to Peter Jones, PhD, DSc, a member of the SU2C scientific community, who has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences!  The Academy advises the government and the nation on scientific issues.  An expert in epigenetics at the Van Andel Research Institute (VARI) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Dr. Jones was co-leader of the SU2C Epigenetics Dream Team and is continuing his work as leader of the VARI-SU2C Epigenetics Dream Team. Also serving as team leader is Dr. Stephen Baylin of VARI. 

Researchers from the SU2C-St. Baldrick’s Foundation Pediatric Cancer Dream Team found that if medulloblastoma, a brain cancer more common in children than adults, recurs after treatment, it is likely to be genetically different from the original disease. This could open new avenues for better treatment of the recurrent tumors.

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Other scientists on the pediatric team demonstrated ways to improve the process through which T cells, the immune cells needed for adoptive cell therapy (the powerful immunotherapy that has saved the lives of children with leukemia), are collected and modified in the laboratory before they are returned to the patient.

Scientists with the SU2C-Prostate Cancer Foundation Dream Team have developed a “molecular classifier” for patients with metastatic prostate cancer that has become resistant to the standard hormone treatment.  Based on biomarkers, the “classifier” can help identify tumors that are transitioning to a more dangerous form of the disease, potentially improving treatment and benefitting the patient.