Scientists supported by the Stand Up To Cancer-St. Baldrick’s Foundation Pediatric Cancer Dream Team have identified a promising new target for possible treatment of neuroblastoma, the most common cancer in infants. “We have built a strong foundation for developing a completely new and hopefully much less toxic treatment for neuroblastoma,” said John M. Maris, MD, a pediatric oncologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) who is leader of the Dream Team and supervised a study published in Cancer Cell, a prestigious scientific journal. Crystal Mackall, MD, associate director of the Stanford Cancer Institute and co-leader of the Dream Team, is also a co-author of the paper. Maris, Mackall,and colleagues identified a protein that occurs on the surface of the tumor cells and then developed a combination of an antibody that zeroes in on the protein and a chemotherapy drug that attacks the DNA in the tumors while sparing healthy tissue. 

Hans Clevers, MD, PhD, leader of the SU2C-Dutch Cancer Society Tumor Organoids Dream Team, is featured in Science Magazine for his pioneering work on organoids, which are grown in the lab from small samples of cells taken from tumor tissue. They can be used to study patients’ tumors and to test new drugs. The Dream Team is focusing on colon cancer, breast cancer, and pancreatic cancer.

Scientists supported by Stand Up To Cancer have developed a test that spots tiny amounts of cancer-specific DNA in blood, allowing them to identify people with early-stage colorectal, breast, lung, and ovarian cancers. “This study shows that identifying cancer early using DNA changes in the blood is feasible and that our high accuracy sequencing method is a promising approach to achieve this goal,” says Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and co-leader of the SU2C-Dutch Cancer Society Dream Team on Molecular Early Detection of Colorectal Cancer (MEDOCC). A report on the research, performed on blood and tumor tissue samples from 200 people with all stages of cancer in the U.S., Denmark and the Netherlands, appears as the cover story in the Aug. 16, 2017, issue of Science Translational Medicine, a major scientific journal.

Jeffrey E. Gershenwald, MD, a surgical oncologist from MD Anderson Cancer Center and a member of the SU2C-MRA Dream Team JSAC, published an op-ed in Newsweek highlighting that skin cancers (including melanoma, a more aggressive form of skin cancer) are on the rise – and are readily prevented with proper sun safety practices. In the article, Dr. Gershenwald discusses the need to increase use of sunscreen, protective clothing, limiting exposure and public policy to allow children access to over-the-counter sun screen use while at school, and to restrict minor’s access to indoor tanning beds.

Scientists on the SU2C-Cancer Research Institute Immunology Dream Team and the SU2C-Melanoma Research Institute Melanoma Dream Team have separately reported findings that provide new insights into melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer. More than 75,000 cases of melanoma, and more than 10,000 deaths, are reported in the United States every year.  While the new immunotherapy drugs are highly effective against melanoma in some patients (like former President Jimmy Carter), they are not effective in all cases.  An SU2C-supported team at UCLA has reported findings on its research into the mechanisms of resistance which could lead to more effective immunotherapy.

Melissa Skala, PhD, a 2016 recipient of an SU2C Innovative Research Grant, says the IRG program, with its quick turnaround and emphasis on results, is “the way science should be.”

James P. Allison, PhD, leader of the SU2C-Cancer Research Institute Cancer Immunology Dream Team, has been named to Time Magazine’s list of the 100 “most influential people in the world” for his pioneering work in cancer immunology. “It was Allison who figured out how to switch immune cells on to target malignant tumors,” says an essay written by Alice Park, Time’s senior health writer. “The drug he created is now spawning a new generation of immunotherapy treatments that experts hope will be less toxic and more aggressive than what’s available now. His discoveries have already saved thousands of lives — and they’re also forever changing what it means to have cancer.” Allison is chairman of the immunology program at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He was named leader of the Dream Team in 2013, along with Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, of UCLA, and co-leaders Drew Pardoll, MD, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Cassian Yee, MD, of MD Anderson. The team has studied the immunology methods known as checkpoint inhibitors and adoptive cell transfer, building on work by members of the team that contributed to approval of two new checkpoint inhibitors, pembrolizumab and nivolumab, by the U.S Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Diaz, Team Leader of the SU2C-Colorectal Cancer Dream Team: Targeting Genomic, Metabolic and Immunological Vulnerabilities of Colorectal Cancer, has been named Head of the Division of Solid Tumor Oncology in the Department of Medicine at Memorial Sloan Kettering

Catherine Wu, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who received an SU2C Innovative Research Grant (IRG) in 2011, is developing vaccines to help keep melanoma from returning in patients after surgery, according to Science magazine.  Findings from the study were presented at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR). Dr. Wu’s team sequenced the DNA from the patients’ tumors and used computational methods to create a personalized vaccine intended to stimulate the immune system to attack returning cancer cells, Science said. The vaccines appear to have prevented early relapse in 12 patients with melanoma, reported the magazine, which is published by the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). While attending the AACR Annual Meeting, Dr. Wu also took time to address the latest class of IRG recipients, telling them how much SU2C support meant to her career as a cancer researcher and urging them to continue their work. 

Thanks to SU2C Dream Team Leader Dr. Daniel Von Hoff’s clinical leadership, TGen is becoming a bigger player in precision medicine. Clinical trials for rare and common cancers are available for patients in Arizona, while working to gain approval by the FDA.