Academic cancer centers are facing severe staffing shortages after three years of personnel attrition during the COVID-19 pandemic—resulting in depressed levels of patient accrual to investigator-initiated and grant-funded clinical trials.
Gritstone bio Inc., entered into a clinical trial agreement with NCI to evaluate an autologous T-cell therapy expressing a T-cell receptor targeting mutated KRAS in combination with Gritstone’s KRAS-directed vaccine candidate, SLATE-KRAS, in a phase I study. The study will be led by Steven A. Rosenberg, chief of the surgery branch at NCI’s Center for Cancer Research.
NCI is increasing the R01 payline to the 12th percentile in fiscal year 2023, up from the 11th percentile in FY22—bringing the institute’s payline to a level not seen since 2010.
President Joe Biden mentioned cancer 13 times in his impassioned State of the Union address and placed cancer research at the top of his Unity Agenda—an indication that his administration would continue to prioritize funding for cancer research in fiscal year 2024.
Some job relocations are less cumbersome than others. When Jedd Wolchok left Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center after more than a quarter century, he crossed East 68th Street to Weill Cornell campus, where he is now the director of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center.
Kevin J. Cullen, the longtime director of the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Program in Oncology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, will transition from these leadership positions in 2023.
NIH and NCI received a $2.5 billion and $408 million increase, respectively, in the fiscal year 2023 omnibus appropriations package that President Joe Biden signed into law Dec. 23.
In 1971, when the National Cancer Act was signed, J. Palmer Saunders was the director of the Division of Cancer Research, Resources and Centers.
Steady advancements in cancer treatments over the past century have led to significant improvements in the expected lifespan of cancer patients. However, to this day, cancer is very rarely cured.
2022 was the year to try to return to normal—or at least an approximation thereof.
