AACR announces AACR Progress Report 2013

Stephen J. Williams: Curator

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) presented a webinar of the highlights of their yearly progress report (released yesterday and available on the AACR website) on the recent advances and current status of cancer research and cancer research’s impact on health outcomes in the United States.  This report, compiled by staff of AACR, with special thanks to the efforts of Dr. Karen Honey, Ph.D, reports on the current achievements in cancer research including developments in immunotherapies, new drug approvals, health outcomes, newly approved imaging modalities, and the current state of affairs of funding for cancer research and clinical trials.  The report also describes the impact and timeline of discoveries leading to the use of genomics and personalized medicine in cancer treatment.  The last portion of the report is an “AACR Call to Action”, imploring cancer patient activists, scientists, and citizens to write their representatives in Washington for increased funding for cancer research and clinical trials.  The report and presentation will be given to lawmakers on Capital Hill on Spetmeber 19, 2013 as part of Hill Day’s Rally for Medical Research.

The presentation, given on September 18, 2013 at the National Press Club in Washington DC) was headed by AACR CEO Dr. Marge Foti, M.D., Ph.D. with presentations given by

• Dr. Charles Sawyers, M.D. (Memorial Sloan Kettering)
• Dr. Drew M. Pardoll, M.D., Ph.D. (Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins)
• 3 cancer survivors

Below is a brief summary of each of their talks.  The downloadable AACR Progress Report 2013 can be found here and a link to the video can also be found at the AACR website.

Marge Foti, M.D., Ph.D. (Chief Executive Officer, American Association Cancer Research)

Although Dr. Foti mentioned the grim statistic in the US 580,000 this year will die of cancer, she gave multiple statistics on the great progress the US has achieved since staring the “War on Cancer” in 1971 and the future progress which lies ahead.  Notably (from the report)

• From 1990 to 2012 over 1 million cancer patients lives have been saved
• There are over 13 million cancer survivors today
• For the year 2012-2013 FDA has approved

1. 11 new cancer drugs
2. 3 new uses of previously approved drugs
3. 3 new imaging modalities and protocols for cancer detection

However Dr. Foti also stressed the speed of progress is being pressured by diminishing federal funds for cancer research and clinical trials.  Dr. Foti noted:

• In mid 90’s there was a doubling of federal funds to the NCI
• Since 2003 however funding has not kept up with “biomedical inflation” (not risen adjusted for current inflation)
• Sequester has been a big pressure on biomedical and cancer research capacity
• Funding cuts also decrease the number of patients that can enroll in clinical trials

Charles Sawyers, M.D. (Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and Director at Memorial Sloan-Lettering Cancer Center)

Dr. Sawyers’s research work involves the signaling pathways involved in conferring growth advantage to cancerous cells.  His work led to the development of numerous targeted therapies such as imatinib (Gleevec) for CML (chronic myeloid leukemia).  He referred to these therapies as “precision medicine” and noted there were only 5 such therapies 10 years ago but now 17 such precision medicines five years ago for cancer, “ a complex host of diseases”.

Dr. Sawyers reflected this is the “most serious funding crisis in decades” and we are “already losing momentum” due to the current funding crisis.

Drew M. Pardoll, M.D. Ph.D. (Professor, Co-Director Division Immunology, Johns Hopkins)

Dr. Pardoll is a leader in the fielod of immunotherapy for cancer and his work is pioneering a new clas of immunotherapies, such as PD1 inhibitors, which supports the cancer patient’s own immune system to fight and kill the patient’s own cancer cells.  Dr. Pardoll had mentioned early work on immunotherapy had revealed its potential but researchers are now realize this is the “5^th pillar of cancer therapy”.  Because of research done in the early 2000’s, cancer researchers such as Dr. Pardoll figured out mechanisms how to make these immunotherapies more reproducible in clinical trials.  This led to the discovery of CTLA4 and PD1 as major regulators of the immune tolerance to cancer cells (see post Combined anti-CTLA4 and anti-PD1 immunotherapy shows promising results against advanced melanoma).

Dr. Pardoll also mentioned how he, and others, noticed that the pharmaceutical industry is now looking to academia to keep driving the science and that patient advocates are very important partner in the discovery process.

Moving presentation were also given by three cancer survivors (breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and  childhood leukemia) which all attested that without ground-breaking clinical research they might not have survived their deadly cancer.

Please see the following website below about the Rally for Medical Research to see how you can get involved in supporting cancer research in the US, and contacting your representative.

Rally for Medical Research Hill Day

September 18, 2013

Federal funding for medical research is in jeopardy, threatening the health of Americans. On September 18, 2013, a broad coalition of groups from the medical research advocacy community will meet with House and Senate offices in Washington, D.C., to urge Congress to invest in the National Institutes of Health for the health and economic security of our nation.

Sponsoring organizations will join the Rally for Medical Research Hill Day to raise awareness during a critical time about the urgent need for a sustained investment in the NIH to improve health, spur more progress, inspire more hope and save more lives.

More articles on Progress on the War on Cancer from this site include:

2013 Perspective on “War on Cancer” on December 23, 1971

2013 American Cancer Research Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research: Professor Alexander Levitzki