We are extremely proud of our past and present grantees who presented and published their findings this past year. Their accomplishments have been made possible, thanks to the support of the AACR and its funding partners. JANUARY Tumor development...
Despite the surge in new treatments, multiple myeloma remains stubbornly incurable. Patients typically respond to their first treatment for about two years, but subsequent therapies often provide diminishing relief due to overlapping mechanisms of action. This underscores the urgent need for novel therapeutic strategies rather than mere variations of existing ones. Amin Sobh, PhD, recipient of the 2019 AACR-Takeda Oncology Myeloma Research Fellowship, identified adenylate kinase 2 as a promising target, particularly for multiple myeloma patients with the t(4;14) chromosomal translocation.
Multiple myeloma disproportionately affects Black Americans, who are twice as likely to be diagnosed with it and its precursor, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). Is this disparity related to ethnic ancestry or environmental factors? 2022 AACR-BMS Cancer Disparities Fellow Kara Cicero, MD and her international team observed that the prevalence of conventional MGUS was similar between Eswatini, a country in Africa where 97% of the population is Black, and Olmsted County in Minnesota where 97% of the population is White.
Roger Olofsson Bagge, MD, PhD, recipient of the 2021 AACR-OMF Career Development Award, in honor of Robert C. Allen, MD, shares how the recent SCANDIUM-II clinical trial found that isolated hepatic perfusion with melphalan in combination with immunotherapies, ipilimumab and nivolumab was efficacious in the treatment of patients with liver-dominant metastases of uveal melanoma, but associated with severe adverse events.
In a war, first-line troops are essential -- such are resident memory T cells (TRM), standing guard at peripheral sites, ready to fight infections and cancer. The Laboratory for Lymphatic Immunobiology, led by 2022 AACR-Bristol Myers Squibb Midcareer Female Investigator Grant Recipient Amanda Lund, PhD, seeks to understand how transport of TRMs through lymphatic vessels helps facilitate critical peripheral immune responses to antigen, whether presented by infectious agents or cancer cells.
Claudio E. Tatsui, MD, recipient of the 2021 AACR-Novocure Tumor Treating Fields Research Grant, and Christopher A. Alvarez-Breckenridge, MD, PhD, recipient of the 2023 AACR-Novocure Career Development Award for Cancer Research recently uncovered how the emerging treatment modality Tumor Treating Fields (TTFields) could be leveraged as a local therapy in the treatment of spinal metastases.
Xue-Yan He, PhD, was awarded the AACR-AstraZeneca Breast Cancer Research Fellowship in 2021. During her postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. He uncovered how neutrophils create a pro-metastatic environment in response to chronic stress. The results of this study highlight the potential of stress reduction as a strategy for cancer patients to improve treatment outcome.
More than half of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) have a mutation in an RNA splicing factor gene. In particular, mutations in U2AF1 and SRSF2 splicing factor genes are associated with worse overall survival and increased risk of transformation of MDS to secondary acute myelogenous leukemia. The team led by Hai Dang Nguyen, PhD, recipient of a 2022 AACR Career Development Award to Further Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Cancer Research, demonstrated the therapeutic potential of PARP inhibitors in U2AF1- and SRSF2- mutant leukemias.
Jason Northey, PhD, recipient of the 2015 AACR Basic Cancer Research Fellowship and 2017 AACR-Janssen Fellowship in Cancer Interception Research, and his colleagues uncovered how a stiff extracellular matrix, such as that observed in high mammographic density breast tissue, promotes ERK activity, progesterone receptor-dependent RANK signaling, and increased stemness, pointing to a potential benefit of RANK signaling inhibition as an anti-cancer treatment and prevention strategy.
Valerie O’Brien, PhD, recipient of the 2018 Debbie’s Dream Foundation-AACR Gastric Cancer Research Fellowship, in memory of Sally Mandel, and her colleagues discovered a precancerous gastric epithelium cell type whose expansion is driven by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (Hp), a bacterium that colonizes the stomach of half the world’s population.