Issue 39 – The Cancer Letter Publications

So you want to be a cancer center director…
AACI sees nearly one-in-four turnover in 12 months among directors at top acadeamic cancer centers
The caveats should be acknowledged:
Yes, all cancer centers are different. If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen one. Yes, every center director has a different political and economic situation on his or her hands, and, sure, the observation that follows in the next paragraph could well be a fluke:
Over the past 12 months, 23 directors at the 97 members of the Association of American Cancer Institutes have been replaced.
Conversation with the Cancer Letter
UPMC’s Ferris: “Now there are more system-wide pressures to make a budget and to monitor quality”
It may not be possible to point to definitive causes of the turnover in the executive offices of top academic cancer centers. However, the job of a center director is changing, said Robert Ferris, director of the University of Pittsburgh UPMC Hillman Cancer Center.
Sharpless sworn in as 15^th NCI director
Norman “Ned” Sharpless Oct. 17 was sworn in as took the 15th NCI director, succeeding Harold Varmus, who stepped down as director in March 2015, and Douglas Lowy, who has served as acting director since that time.
National Academy of Medicine elects 80 members
The National Academy of Medicine announced the election of 70 regular members and 10 international members during its annual meeting.
FDA approves Kite’s CAR-T cell therapy; another win for NCI’s intramural program
FDA has approved Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel), a genetically modified cell therapy, to treat adult patients with certain types of large B cell lymphoma who have not responded to or have relapsed after at least two other kinds of treatment.
Conversation with the Cancer Letter
Rosenberg: Yescarta is going to be lifesaving for patients with lymphomas
When Eric Karlson’s lymphoma went into complete regression in 2009, Steven Rosenberg and James Kochenderfer knew they were making history—for the first time, they had cured a patient by using genetically modified cell therapy, specifically, anti-CD19 CAR-T cells.
In Brief
- Dana-Farber joins the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
- Laurence Zitvogel wins first ESMO award for immuno-oncology
- Salk’s Evans receives $2.5 million SU2C grant for pancreatic cancer clinical trial
- NIH awards Mayo Clinic researchers $3.4 million glioblastoma grant
- Gene therapy group awards $1.3 million for research in glioblastoma, sarcoma, and ovarian cancer
Drugs and Targets
- FDA Accepts BMS application for Opdivo for resected high-risk advanced melanoma