A pioneering immunotherapy approach to treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the most common form of leukemia in adults, has shown long-term beneficial effects in a clinical trial with patients whose disease was not controlled by other therapies, according to a paper published in
Science Translational Medicine. Carl H. June, MD, director of the Translational Research Program at Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC), was leader of the clinical trial team.

The SU2C-Lustgarten Pancreatic Dream team has made some important findings in the fight against pancreatic cancer. The researchers part of this team are testing the impact of adding vitamin D to the treatment regimen for some pancreatic cancer patients.

An international team of scientists have published a report that presents a comprehensive picture of the genetic alterations (or mutations) involved in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), a particularly deadly form of the disease. The research was supported in part by an Innovative Research Grant made by SU2C in 2009.

The Wall Street Journal has reported on a paper from the SU2C-PCF Prostate Cancer Dream Team that was published in the prestigious journal Cell. The Cell paper reported that up to 90 percent of samples from patients with advanced prostate cancer harbored some kind of genetic anomaly that was clinically actionable, meaning we have potential treatments to target that specific aberration. The WSJ article focuses specifically on the presence of BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which may be treatable with drugs called PARP inhibitors.  Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan of the University of Michigan and Dr. Charles Sawyers of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, co-leaders of the Dream Team, discuss the significance of the team’s findings in the Journal article, with comment from SU2C SAC Vice-Chair Dr. William Nelson, director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

Forbes Contributor, Elaine Schattner, writes about several pieces of research that were presented at the recent Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.  A physician herself, Schattner lays out the evidence that the drug olaparib has unexpected anti-tumor activity in ovarian and prostate cancers.  SU2C was proud to support the studies presented by Ursula Matulonis, MD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Joaquin Mateo, MD, of the Institute for Cancer Research in the U.K.

In research supported in part by Stand Up To Cancer, scientists in the Netherlands have created a model using living cells that will help researchers study the processes involved in the development of colon cancer.  The model will also help discover which drugs will work against cancerous cells. 

Developed in the laboratory of Hans Clevers, MD, PhD, professor at the Hubrecht Institute in Utrecht, the model utilizes organoids, which are made from cultured human tissues. SU2C and the Dutch Cancer Society launched a Dream Team headed by Clevers along with Johannes Bos, PhD, chairman of the department of molecular cancer research at University Medical Center Utrecht, to support the organoid work in November 2013. The SU2C Dream Team grants are administered by SU2C’s Scientific Partner, the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

There’s a revolution taking place in emergency medical services, and for many, it could be life changing.

No exalted individual, no victory celebration, no Marie Curie or Jonas Salk, who in 1955, after he created the first polio vaccine, was asked, So what’s next? Cancer? — as if a doctor finished with one disease could simply shift his attention to another, like a chef turning from the soup to the entrée.