In melanoma patients, taking over-the-counter probiotic supplements was associated with a 70% lower chance of response to cancer immunotherapy treatment with anti-PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors, according to a preliminary study from the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and MD Anderson Cancer Center. The results were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 2019 Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
Maintenance treatment with the PARP inhibitor rucaparib (Rubraca) was well tolerated and provided clinical responses among patients with advanced BRCA- or PALB2- mutated pancreatic cancer sensitive to platinum-based chemotherapy, according to results from an interim analysis of an ongoing phase II clinical trial presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2019.
Amy Abernethy, FDA principal deputy commissioner, was appointed the agency's acting chief information officer and lead the Office of Information Management and Technology in addition to her other duties.
Zihai Li was named director of the Institute for Immuno-Oncology at Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-James Cancer Hospital.
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network announced the recipients of a series of awards honoring individuals whose contributions fueled progress in improving and facilitating quality, effective, efficient, and accessible cancer care over the past year:
The European Society for Medical Oncology announced Jonas Bergh from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm will receive the newly established 2019 ESMO Breast Cancer Award in connection with the inaugural ESMO Breast Cancer Congress.
The American Association for Cancer Research recognized Cornelis Melief with the seventh AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology during the AACR Annual Meeting 2019.
City of Hope has received $7.5 million in grant awards to study cutaneous T cell lymphoma.
Olivera Finn, University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor and founding chair of the Department of Immunology, was named the 2019 recipient of the Richard V. Smalley Memorial Award and Lectureship from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, the society's highest honor.
Feng Yue was appointed director of the Center for Cancer Genomics of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
