Anne E. Cress, PhD, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Deputy Dean for Research Affairs at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tuscon, has been named Interim Director of the University of Arizona Cancer Center. The announcement of her appointment was made by incoming UA Senior Vice President for Health Sciences Joe G.N. "Skip" Garcia, MD, and UA College of Medicine-Tuscon Dean Steve Goldschmid, MD.
"Anne Cress' service to the University of Arizona, especially within the College of Medicine, is unparalled. Between her extensive research credentials and her administrative leadership, she is unquestionably the right person to take the reins of our cancer center at this critical time," Goldsmith said in a news release.
She has been at UACC since 1980, beginning as a research associate. Her current research focuses on preventing tumor metastasis by examining how cell surface molecules behave abnormally in tumor cells, enabling their transit along vessels and nerves to their final destination in bone, and designing strategies to prevent that process of spreading.
She succeeds David S. Alberts, MD, who announced last year that he would be stepping down after serving as Director for eight years (OT, 8/10/12), but continues as Regents Professor of Medicine, Pharmacology, Nutritional Science and Public Health, conducting research.
The European Society for Medical Oncology has elected Fortunato Ciardiello, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Oncology and Director of the Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine and Surgery of the Second University of Naples, as the group's 2016-2017 President. Candidates for the position are proposed by the ESMO Nominating Committee based on recommendations from the Society's leaders, and one is then elected by ESMO full members.
Ciardiello is currently ESMO Treasurer and Chair of the Audit Committee, Press & Media Affairs Committee, and Personalized Medicine Task Force. He has also served as Chair of the ESMO Translational Research Working Group and as a member of both the ESMO Educational Committee and the Faculty.
His research focuses on the role of growth factors and their specific receptors in neoplastic transformation-in particular, the epidermal growth factor receptor family. He is involved in the development of novel anticancer therapeutic strategies targeting these receptors in lung and gastrointestinal cancers.
A team of researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center-led by Christopher Kemp, PhD, Member of the Center's Human Biology Division, and Carla Grandori, MD, PhD, Research Associate Member of the Center's Human Biology Division-has received a $4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop precision therapies. The work, which utilizes high-throughput screening and RNA interference to rapidly test thousands of genes in patient-derived tumor cells, aims to identify new genes to target that may be highly specific to that patient's tumor.
The research team will identify new classes of drug targets and identify patient stratification criteria to match patients to the right drug targets. Initially, the focus will be on the aggressive subtypes of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and triple-negative breast cancer. Plans to expand screening into ovarian and childhood cancer types are also in the works.
Research collaborators include Eduardo Mendez, MD, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery and Assistant Member of the Clinical Research Division; Vijayakrishna Gadi, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine and Assistant Member of the Clinical Research Division; and Adam Margolin, PhD, Director of Computational Biology at Sage Bionetworks.
David Penson, MD, MPH, Professor of Urologic Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has received a $2 million research award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to study localized prostate cancer. The project analyzes patient-reported outcomes, comparing the effectiveness of treatment in 3,691 patients across five states, to be able to better educate men on types of available therapies, known complications, and overall quality of life following treatment.
"No one wants to tackle cancer by guessing," Penson said in a news release. "We really have an opportunity to give patients the tools and information they need to lead a healthier, fuller life."
The project builds on Penson's previous work that established a network of tumor registries-the Comparative Effectiveness Analysis of Surgery and Radiation study-and which continues to collect data on treatment, complications, and short-term cancer rates in men diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Penson is also the Paul V. Hamilton, MD, and Virginia E. Howd Professor of Urologic Oncology, and directs the Vanderbilt Center for Surgical Quality and Outcomes Research.
Also at Vanderbilt, Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, has received the Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator Award, which supports young physician-scientists conducting patient-oriented research. The three-year, $450,000-award will support her lung cancer research, specifically investigation of novel strategies for patients with non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors are positive for ALK tyrosine kinase fusions. She is working to develop therapies or drug combinations that delay or overcome the acquired resistance that occur with use of existing small molecule inhibitors of ALK approved to treat ALK+ lung cancer.
Brian Ladle, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has received a $200,000 grant over two years from Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to finding cures for children with cancer. His project, "Epigenetic Regulation of T Cell Activation and Immunotherapy for Childhood Cancer," investigates how DNA methylation limits T cell killing of tumor cells and how blocking DNA methylation can improve pediatric cancer vaccines.
Ladle was also recently appointed Instructor in Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics, where he will be establishing an immunotherapy program for pediatric solid tumors, with a focus on sarcomas.
And, in other Johns Hopkins news, the following individuals have joined the faculty:
* Colleen Annesley, MD, Instructor in Oncology and Pediatrics, focusing on treatment of children with acute myeloid leukemia by therapeutically targeting the molecular mechanism of disease initiation and maintenance.
* Gabriel Ghiaur, MD, PhD, Instructor in Oncology in the Leukemia Program and Bone Marrow Transplant Division; his primary interest is hematopoiesis, especially the role of the microenvironment in stem cell biology.
* Hyunseok Kang, MD, MPH, Instructor in Oncology in the Upper Aerodigestive Cancer Program and an Attending on the Inpatient Solid Tumor Service, where he will establish a continuity outpatient clinic and supervise hematology and oncology fellows.
* Karen Smith, MD, MPH, has joined Kimmel Cancer Center's Breast Cancer Program at John's Hopkins. Her interests are in cancer genetics, cancer survivorship, and clinical trials.
* Cristian Tomasetti, PhD, Assistant Professor of Oncology in the Division of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics and Department of Biostatistics, Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research focuses on applying mathematics, statistical models, and computational tools to aid the study of evolutionary dynamics of cancer, development of drug resistance, cancer genomics, and stem cell dynamics.
* John Wrangle, MD, MPH, Instructor in Oncology for the Cancer Biology Program, where his research focuses on epigenetics and clinical trials for esophageal and lung cancers. In the new role, he will have oversight roles of clinical trials and biomarker strategies.
San Antonio-based South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics (START, of South Texas Medical Center) and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin have launched a new collaborative Phase I drug development fellowship program. It is part of a larger joint training program in translational research that will train medical oncologists to become experts in the field of early phase trials of anticancer therapeutics. Amita Patnaik, MD, FRCP(C), Associate Director of Clinical Research at START, will be the program's Director.
"This program is designed to provide the fellows with the training they need to develop and conduct better translational research initiatives that achieve the greatest clinical impact. We are thrilled to be working with the START center in preparing the next generation of translational researchers," Linda deGraffenried, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of the Translational Cancer Research Program in Nutritional Sciences at UT Austin, said in a news release.
Wei Peng, MD, a medical oncologist and clinical investigator from Fudan University in Shanghai, China, and Elena Garralda Cabanas, MD, a medical oncologist and clinical investigator from Madrid, have been selected to serve as the program's first two clinical research fellows.
Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center has launched a Lung Cancer Screening Program for adults with a history of smoking. The new program, which is receiving partial underwriting by the Gianni Ferrarotti Lung Cancer Foundation, involves three consecutive annual CT scans of the chest (available at the Karmanos Cancer Center Weisberg Cancer Treatment Center in Farmington Hills).
"This screening test is an opportunity to dramatically change the lung cancer mortality rate for those who have a long history of smoking," said the United States Preventive Services Task Force recently released a draft recommendation for annual screening for lung cancer with low-dose CT for people at high risk based on their age and smoking history. Shirish Gadgeel, MD, Leader of the Thoracic Multidisciplinary Team at the Karmanos Cancer Institute. Recent results from the National Lung Screening Trial of more than 50,000 current or former heavy smokers showed that early detection of lung cancer through screening with a CT scan versus chest x-ray can reduce cancer death by 20 percent.
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