Gastric (stomach) cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer death worldwide. New ways are needed to detect this cancer early, when it can be successfully treated. This research team is working to identify biomarkers, such as particular bits of DNA or cells shed from the tumor, that circulate in the blood system and indicate the presence of gastric cancer. The team has also developed a new detection technology using a pill-sized camera that can be swallowed by the patient and a marker that “lights up” cancer cells. This may enable researchers to capture images of stomach tissue at risk of developing cancer. If validated in a clinical trial, these methods will help doctors screen people in groups at risk of gastric cancer.

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The goal of this team’s research is to develop a tool that uses advances in machine learning analysis of clinical records and images to identify patients with an elevated risk of pancreatic cancer.

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This interdisciplinary, multi‐institutional, and international team will focus on developing a collection of biomarkers that predict an individual’s risk of developing pancreatic cancer. Samples will be obtained from large clinical and molecular datasets, and the research will be complemented by the identification of tumor microenvironmental factors to create a screening tool for pancreatic cancer risk.

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Pancreatic cancer cells have a high level of a protein, called TGF-β, that can repress the activity of the immune system in fighting cancers. This research team can isolate tumor-specific killer T cells (called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, or TILs) from pancreatic cancer tissue and transfer them back to the patient for maximal impact against the tumor cells. The team is engineering TIL to make the cells resistant to the suppressive effect of TGF-β, potentially enabling the TIL to attack the cancer tissue within the pancreas.

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The standard of care for people with pancreatic cancer is difficult and often ineffective. To better control this type of cancer, the research team is testing a combination approach that involves shutting down two cellular pathways. The first pathway carries signals that relate to tumor growth, and the second controls a process called autophagy, in which the cell effectively reuses its own interior contents. By shutting down both pathways, the team hopes to slow or stop the growth of pancreatic tumors.

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Drugs called PARP inhibitors are being used to treat ovarian cancer by interfering with the processes of cell division that allows tumors to grow. Based on preclinical work suggesting a combination of first-line therapy gemcitabine with other drugs that block cellular pathways also involved in DNA repair, the team is testing three combinations in clinical trials. It is hoped that together, these therapies will in many cases cause pancreatic tumors to shrink.

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Mutations in the KRAS oncogene drive the vast majority of pancreatic cancers. This research team used knowledge of the immune system and innovative bioinformatic, biochemistry and cell biology strategies to isolate T cells that can target the cancer-promoting gene. The team is studying two novel precision therapies involving highly selective white blood cells that can be given to patients with resected pancreatic cancer and will then study the most promising of these vaccines in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

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This team proposes the protein called integrin αvβ6 as a target for peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), an approved molecular targeted therapy used to treat neuroendocrine tumors. αvβ6 is significantly increased in pancreatic cancer, especially in metastasis. The scientists have developed a radiolabeled αvβ6-targeting peptide that they have successfully used to image pancreatic cancer metastases. In this study they are developing and testing a similar peptide, 177Lu-αvβ6-BP, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of that treatment in patients with locally advanced, or metastatic pancreatic cancer, and determine the most effective dose to be studied in a Phase II clinical trial.

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The team is studying whether inhibiting cellular processes in pancreatic tumors can stop the out-of-control growth that is characteristic of cancer. Pancreatic cancers with mutations in the KRAS gene are weakened when a protein called SHP2 is blocked in the RAS pathway—a cellular pathway that may be essential to the growth of pancreatic cancer cells. Another means to block this pathway involves a protein called MEK. In Round 1 pre-clinical work, the team has shown that inhibiting both of these components, they can better control growth of pancreatic cancer tumors. In Round 2, the team will test the combination in a phase 1/1b clinical trial to better understand how this double inhibition works and to inform continued clinical trials.

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Researchers on this team have identified a subpopulation of cells in pancreatic cancer that act like stem cells and help the cancer to proliferate. The team has also found that these cells are especially resistant to therapeutic drugs but may be sensitive to a new approach. The team is testing whether blocking a protein that regulates inflammation can slow or stop the growth of pancreatic cancer. Promising drugs in this class are already in development for autoimmune diseases, so if this approach is successful, doctors may be able to deploy it rapidly to develop new treatments for pancreatic cancer.

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To intercept pancreatic cancer, the SU2C–Lustgarten Foundation For Pancreatic Research Interception Research Team is taking a comprehensive, two-pronged approach. Team members are testing novel and intensive preoperative treatments allowing doctors to achieve a complete surgical removal of a tumor and eradicate micrometastatic disease in more patients. They are also using organoids-cultured tumor cell colonies―to identify robust biomarkers of response to help guide the choice of standard therapies and immunotherapies.

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The SU2C-LUNGevity-American Lung Association (ALA) Lung Cancer Interception Research Team hypothesizes that the early detection of invasive lung cancers can be improved through new technological approaches, and that progress on this front can quickly bring about more effective patient treatments. hypothesizes that the early detection of invasive lung cancers can be improved through new technological approaches, and that progress on this front can quickly bring about more effective patient treatments. The team is working to build a new tool―a composite of blood-based biomarker tests called the Lung Cancer Interception Assay―that can be used in conjunction with standard imaging to provide early detection of lung cancer.

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CAR T therapy, a therapeutic strategy to use the patient’s immune cells to fight cancer, has been promising with blood cancers but seems less effective in treating solid cancers. The SU2C–Lustgarten Foundation CAR T Research Team is using state-of-the-art epigenetic approaches and preclinical models to examine CAR T cells and tumor cells in patients who respond to CAR T therapy and in those who do not, with a particular focus on pancreatic cancer patients.

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The SU2C–Farrah Fawcett Foundation Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Research Team focuses on patients with HPV-driven cancers (including cervical, anal, and head and neck cancer) who relapse following initial therapy. The team aims to develop novel immunotherapy approaches that will address this important unmet clinical need.

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The ultimate goal of personalized, or “precision,” medicine—delivering the right drug to the right cancer patient—requires a detailed understanding of how alterations in tumor DNA are linked to responses to cancer drugs. The SU2C−Dutch Cancer Society (DCS) Translational Research Team studies how changes in the tumor DNA of patients can be used to predict sensitivity to specific anticancer agents.

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