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New DiscoveriesFebruary 29, 2012

2012 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology

Elaine V. Fuchs, PhD (Damon Runyon Board Member, Damon Runyon Fellow ‘77-‘79) of The Rockefeller University, New York, has been named a recipient of the 2012 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology. She will share the award with Howard Green, MD, of Harvard Medical School, Boston. The prize recognizes their revolutionary research in skin biology, which explains the molecular underpinnings of skin stem cells and inherited skin disorders, including cancers and certain birth defects.

New DiscoveriesFebruary 22, 2012

New microfluidic device for isolating cells

Ian Y. Wong, PhD (Damon Runyon-Merck Fellow ‘10-‘13) of Massachusetts General Hospital, Cambridge, and colleagues, developed a new microfluidic device that can isolate specific cells faster and more accurately than existing devices. These new devices could potentially be applied to the isolation of cancer cells from patient blood samples for use in diagnostics and personalized medicine. The study was published in Biophysical Journal.

New DiscoveriesJanuary 31, 2012

Targeted therapy may effectively treat new subset of lung cancers

Alice Tsang Shaw, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘04-‘05) of Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Pierre P. Massion, MD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘03-‘08) of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, and colleagues, reported the role of the ROS1 gene in certain non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC).

New DiscoveriesJanuary 29, 2012

Drug kills cancer cells while sparing normal immunity

Rachael A. Clark, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ‘08-‘13) of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and colleagues reported that the drug Campath (alemtuzumab) effectively treats patients with Leukemic cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (L-CTCL), a leukemia arising from a type of white blood cell called T-cells. This cancer can involve the skin and other organs, and patients often die within three years.

New DiscoveriesJanuary 26, 2012

Oral HPV prevalence reported

Maura L. Gillison, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Lilly Clinical Investigator ‘00-‘05) of the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, and colleagues reported that the prevalence of oral HPV (human papillomavirus) infection is about 7 percent in the United States. The prevalence was higher among men than among women. HPV-16, the high-risk strain linked to throat cancers and many cervical cancers, is detected in 1 percent of people. The authors identified smoking and sexual behavior as risk factors for HPV infection.

New DiscoveriesJanuary 12, 2012

Imaging technology applied to brain tumors

In two parallel studies, Ralph J. DeBerardinis, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ‘11-‘14) of UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and Matthew G. Vander Heiden, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovator ‘11-‘13, Fellow ‘06-‘08) of MIT, Cambridge, and colleagues, reported the use of noninvasive imaging technology (magnetic resonance spectroscopy) to visualize whether glioma brain tumors have a particular genetic mutation called IDH.

New DiscoveriesDecember 12, 2011

Novel genes linked to Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Catherine J. Wu, MD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ‘07-‘12) and Matthew L. Meyerson, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘95-‘98) of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, led the first large-scale genomics study of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In tumor samples from 91 patients, they identified nine commonly mutated genes – five of which have been linked to CLL for the first time. One of these genes, SF3B1, is required for gene splicing (RNA processing), connecting the process to disease progression.

New DiscoveriesDecember 8, 2011

New treatment combination improves breast cancer survival

David E. Lebwohl, MD (Damon Runyon Fellow ‘86-‘87) of Novartis, East Hanover, and colleagues, reported results of a Phase III clinical trial testing the treatment combination of everolimus (Afinitor), which blocks a protein known to affect blood vessel growth in cancer cells, and the hormone therapy exemestane (Aromasin). 724 metastatic breast cancer patients with hormone receptor-positive tumors were enrolled in the trial. Patients who received the combination survived progression-free for twice as long as those who only received exemestane (7.4 months vs. 3.2 months).

New DiscoveriesNovember 22, 2011

Tumor-specific metabolic pathway discovered

Ralph J. DeBerardinis, MD, PhD (Damon Runyon Clinical Investigator ‘11-‘14) of UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, and colleagues, discovered a metabolic pathway unique to some tumors. The tumor-specific pathway is dependent on the amino acid glutamine and reverses many of the chemical reactions of the Krebs cycle, used by normal cells. This new finding could provide a new target for drugs that could specifically target cancer cells without harming healthy cells. The study was published in the scientific journal Nature.

New DiscoveriesNovember 9, 2011

Targeted therapy for treatment of neuroblastoma

Mark A. Lemmon, PhD (Damon Runyon Scholar ‘97-‘98, Damon Runyon Fellow ‘93-‘96) of University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues, reported new findings that will allow physicians to identify which neuroblastoma patients are most likely to respond to crizotinib (Xalkori). The drug was recently approved for treatment of certain lung cancers. It targets a protein called anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) which is mutated in about ten percent of children with deadly neuroblastoma tumors.