J. Paul Taylor was named scientific director and executive vice president of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Taylor will replace Jim Morgan, who served as scientific director and executive vice president from 2015-22. Morgan is retiring from his position as scientific director.
Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine established the Sylvester Pancreatic Cancer Research Institute. The center will support research, increase collaborations between scientists and clinicians, and provide more treatment and clinical trial opportunities for patients.
A gift commitment of $12.5 million to Indiana University School of Medicine from the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer will support research in immunotherapy for triple negative breast cancer.
The Canopy Cancer Collective awarded The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai a $500,000 grant to support innovation in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
A commentary authored by seven researchers who participated in the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence “Conversations on Cancer,” held July 29, 2021, discussed the significant cancer disparities facing Asian Americans.
Researchers from The Wistar Institute identified proteins in Epstein-Barr virus-infected cells that decreased expression of genes linked to the spread of the virus, with implications for cancer research.
NEXT Oncology – Madrid enrolled its first patient in March 2022 in an early phase clinical trial focused on metastatic triple negative breast cancer with an anti-drug conjugate used in monotherapy or in combination with antiPDL1. NEXT Oncology expanded to Spain in late 2021.
On April 21, the FDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted unanimously—with 16 “yes” votes and one abstention—to affirm that randomized data are warranted with an assessment of overall survival to support the evaluation of benefit-risk of phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) inhibitors in patients with hematologic malignancies.
FDA accepted the supplemental Biologics License Application of Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab deruxtecan-nxki), a HER2-directed antibody drug conjugate, for the treatment of adult patients with unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer whose tumors have a HER2 (ERBB2) mutation and who have received a prior systemic therapy. The application has also been granted Priority Review.
Lisa M. Coussens was named president of the American Association for Cancer Research for 2022-2023. She was inaugurated during the AACR Annual Business Meeting, held in New Orleans on April 11.
