Lawrence Fong, a genitourinary oncologist and expert in immunotherapy for solid tumors, was named scientific director of the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. He will begin the role July 1, 2024.
Julie Beitz was named principal drug regulatory expert at Hyman, Phelps & McNamara, P.C., a law firm focused on FDA.
A $10.9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health will help establish the University of HawaiÊ»i Pacific Center for Genome Research.Â
The Willard & Pat Walker Charitable Foundation pledged $1 million to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. The funds will support the cancer institute’s radiation oncology center, which opened in July.
The Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer and the International Bladder Cancer Group published bladder cancer clinical trial design recommendations, which provide a detailed clinical trial design guide to maximize the chance of capturing the benefit of medical therapies for each unique stage of bladder cancer, from low-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer to metastatic disease.
The phase III KEYNOTE-671 trial investigating Keytruda, Merck’s anti-PD-1 therapy, as a perioperative treatment regimen for patients with resectable stage 2, 3A or 3B non-small cell lung cancer met its dual primary endpoint of overall survival.Â
A single-arm, open-label, phase II trial of BXCL701, an oral innate immune activator, in combination with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in patients with small cell neuroendocrine prostate cancer showed positive overall survival data. As of a data cutoff of Sept. 6, evaluable patients with SCNC showed a median OS of 13.6 months, and a 12-month survival rate of 56.5%.
Results from a phase II study, led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, BC Cancer, and the Canadian Cancer trials Group, suggest that circulating tumor DNA analyses could be used as an early marker of immunotherapy response in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients and may help guide therapy.
Results from a collaborative study on universal hereditary cancer genetic testing in all patients with breast cancer in a rural population in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. Conducted by Invitae in collaboration with The Outer Banks Hospital in North Carolina from 2019 to 2022, the study analyzed the implementation of universal hereditary cancer genetic testing in all patients with breast cancer, as recommended by the American Society of Breast Surgeons guidelines in 2019.Â
A study on human tissue and plasma led by researchers at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center shows that their newly developed blood test, OvaPrint, may distinguish between cancerous and benign pelvic masses with up to 91% accuracy, surpassing other commercially available tests.
