The fifth day (Tuesday) of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2024 annual meeting was another triumphant day of amazing science for the 23,000-person audience. The many exciting sessions throughout the day featured outstanding presentations on a wide variety of cancer topics from metastasis, to the use of fragmentomics-based liquid biopsy screening for early cancer detection, to mutational processes in cancer, to clinical trials breakthroughs, to discussion of the Reinvigorated Cancer Moonshot program and the National Cancer Program by a panel including the new NCI Director, the new AACR President, and the Chair of the President’s Cancer Panel, and to prestigious awards presented to outstanding scientists, including one to Owen Witte, MD, PhD, University Professor and Director Emeritus of the Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, for his unprecedented contributions to elucidating the role of tyrosine kinases in hematologic malignancies and for his pivotal role in developing novel cancer treatments. The day also featured the third press conference of the meeting for the 200 journalists covering this largest cancer meeting in the world.
Press Conference
The AACR’s third press conference of the meeting featured descriptions of three major advances. Victor Velculescu, MD, PhD, Professor of Oncology, Co-Director of Cancer Genetics and Epigenetics, Johns Hopkins Medicine, spoke on “Artificial Intelligence Analysis of DNA Fragmentomes and Protein Biomarkers Noninvasively Detects Ovarian Cancer.” Jonathan T. Yang, MD, PhD, Director of Metastatic Disease and Developmental Therapeutics in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Washington, presented “AZD1390 with Radiotherapy Shows Manageable Safety Profile and Preliminary Efficacy for Patients with Glioblastoma in Phase I Trial.” Olivier Lantz, PhD, Director, Clinical Immunology Laboratory, at the Institut Curie, spoke on “Investigational Personalized Vaccine Provides Clinical Benefit for Some Patients with Resected Head and Neck Cancers.” The press releases describing these advances can be found at the links above.
Opening Plenary Session Focuses on Metastasis
Tuesday’s opening plenary session was titled “Evolution of the Genome, Microenvironment, and Host Through Metastasis,” and was chaired by Cyrus Ghajar, PhD, Professor, Human Biology Division and Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Metastatic Microenvironments, Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Christopher Klein, PhD, led off with a talk on “Insights into the Invisible Phase of Systemic Cancer: Genomic Evolution and Phenotypic Plasticity of the Metastatic Seed.” Dana Pe’er, PhD, Chair and Professor in Computational and Systems Biology Program at Sloan Kettering Institute, spoke on “Charting the Awesome Power of Plasticity During Metastasis.” Sarah-Maria Fendt, PhD, Principal Investigator, Center for Cancer Biology, VIB, Professor of Oncology, VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology, Leuven, Belgium, delivered an address titled “Metastasis Aggressiveness: A Function of Metabolite Signaling.” The final speaker of the session was David Lyden, MD, PhD, who spoke on “Multi-Organ Systemic Therapies to Combat Metastatic Disease and Its Complications,” noting the key role of exosomes and exomeres. A stimulating Q&A panel discussion was then moderated by Dr. Ghajar.
2023 AACR Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award Winner Reports on Her Research Funded by the Award
With generous support from GlaxoSmithKline, the AACR Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award encourages and supports tenure-eligible junior faculty to conduct research in cancer etiology, diagnosis, treatment, or prevention. Last year’s winner of this award was Yadira Soto-Feliciano, PhD, Assistant Professor, MIT, and today she described the research that the award enabled in a talk entitled “Revealing Cancer Epigenomes Through the Lens of Chromatin Adaptor Proteins.”
The role of chromatin adaptor/scaffold proteins is largely unexplored. Additionally, a rapidly advancing area in chromatin biology aims to understand the non-enzymatic activities and potential structural roles of many chromatin-modifying enzymes. Dr. Soto-Feliciano’s work aims to uncover how chromatin adaptors contribute to interpreting chemical modifications and their specific effects in different contexts, and to investigate how chromatin adaptors control gene activity in normal and disease conditions.
Dr. Soto-Feliciano earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez in 2008 and her doctorate in biology from MIT in 2016. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Rockefeller University supported by a Damon Runyon fellowship and K99/R00 award. Joining MIT’s faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2022, Dr. Soto-Feliciano’s work integrates cancer biology, functional genomics, and chromatin biology to uncover molecular mechanisms underlying transcriptional regulation. Her research focuses on chromatin scaffold-mediated transcriptional regulation in the effort to uncover new insights into cancer development and treatment.
Dr. Soto-Feliciano acknowledged the support of the AACR award. “The 2023 AACR Gertrude B. Elion Cancer Research Award is important to me because it recognizes the immense value of fundamental biomedical research in combating cancer. This prestigious honor inspires me to continue my pursuit of groundbreaking discoveries, ultimately aiming to make a meaningful impact in the lives of cancer patients.”
Mutational Processes in Cancer: From Replication Stress to Complex Genomic Rearrangements
This session was chaired by Samuel Aparicio, PhD, Distinguished Scientist and Head of the Department of Breast and Molecular Oncology at BC Cancer Research, and he also gave the closing presentation. Sarah McClelland, PhD, Professor of Cancer Cell Biology and Genomics, Cancer Research UK, spoke on “Replication Stress As a Driver of Cancer Genome Evolution.” Ignacio Vazquez-Garcia, PhD, Research Fellow, Computational Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering, gave a talk on “Evolutionary Dynamics of Whole-Genome Doubling in Ovarian Cancer.” Marcin Imielinski, MD, PhD, Core Faculty Member at the New York Genome Center and Director of Cancer Genomics at NYU Langone Health’s Perlmutter Cancer Center, gave a presentation titled “Understanding Complex Structural Variant Mutational Processes in Cancer Through Long Molecule Genome Profiling.” Dr. Aparicio spoke on “Single Cell Origins and Consequences of Gene Dosage Mutations.”
The Cancer Moonshot: Opportunities to Fulfill the Vision of the National Cancer Plan – Dedicated to the Memory of Senator Dianne Feinstein
The Reignited Cancer Moonshot launched by President Biden seeks to mobilize resources and forge partnerships in the fight against cancer with the goals of reducing cancer death rates by half within 25 years and improving the lives of both people with cancer and cancer survivors. As part of the Moonshot, the NCI has outlined a bold roadmap, the National Cancer Plan, to advance research and intervention strategies to improve cancer prevention, detection, and treatment, and to reduce cancer inequities. However, the historic bipartisan support in Congress for federal biomedical research funding has tragically eroded. As a result, biomedical researchers are currently facing a crisis. The NIH budget is stagnant for the first time in eight years, jeopardizing further progress against cancer and a multitude of other diseases and health challenges. This session at the AACR annual meeting provided an opportunity for NCI leadership to discuss recent breakthroughs in cancer science and the promise of the National Cancer Plan. This was followed by a discussion by several leaders in the field about the enormous opportunities in cancer research and the need for a concerted effort to inform Congress about the importance of continuing robust investments in NIH and NCI. Speakers in this session included Dr. Kimryn Rathmell, Director, NCI; Dr. Patricia LoRusso, newly inaugurated President of the AACR, and Dr. Elizabeth Jaffee, Chair of the President’s Cancer Panel.
AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Blood Cancer Research: Owen N. Witte, MD
This award, supported by AbbVie, recognizes an individual on the basis of their meritorious achievements and contributions to any aspect of blood cancer research. Dr. Witte, is being recognized for his unprecedented contributions to elucidating the role of tyrosine kinases in hematologic malignancies and for his pivotal role in developing novel cancer treatments. He was the first to identify the ABL fusion oncoprotein in leukemia and to predict that mutated ABL kinase could serve as a viable drug target, which would, in turn, lead to the development of imatinib as a frontline therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia. He later described Bruton’s tyrosine kinases (BTK) as key drivers of antigen-activated lymphomas and autoimmune disease, a breakthrough discovery that would result in the clinical development of the FDA-approved BTK inhibitor, ibrutinib, for the treatment of B-cell lymphoma.
Home with Hope
Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be the sixth and last day of this fantastic meeting and attendees will doubtless return home buoyed by the excitement and great progress that has been recounted here.
by Michael D. O’Neill