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JUNE 2024
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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:
- From the Cancer Consortium
- Consortium Kudos
- In the Spotlight
- Current Funding Opportunities
- Save the Date - Upcoming Events
- From the Office of Community Outreach & Engagement
- From the Consortium Shared Resources
- From Clinical Research Support
- From the Office of Faculty Affairs and Diversity
- From the Office of Education and Training
- Consortium Investigator Spotlight: Dr. Claire de la Calle
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FROM THE CANCER CONSORTIUM
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Consortium Kudos
Please join us in congratulating the following members of the FH/UW/SC Cancer Consortium for their recent accomplishments!
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Dr. Paul Nghiem recently celebrated the opening of an exciting new trial called the MATRiX Trial on May 2. The MATRiX Trial is part of the NCI’s Experimental Therapeutics Clinical Trials Network (ETCTN) and will test a new combination treatment for Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC) patients. The trial will take place at Fred Hutch and 23 other sites in the United States and Canada.
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Although approved treatments for MCC do exist, many patients do not respond to them. Dr. Nghiem and his team hope that introducing a new drug (an ATR inhibitor) in tandem with an existing approved immune-therapy drug for MCC will help patients’ immune systems recognize and attack cancer cells, thus making it more difficult for the cancer to grow and spread. “This type of combination of approaches is very new,” said Dr. Nghiem, “and we have reasons to believe that it might work especially well in Merkel cell carcinoma.”
MCC is a relatively rare disease, which makes it difficult to find funding for research and trials. When it comes to diseases like MCC, working with the ETCTN is enormously helpful – but obtaining approval is a challenging, competitive process. “We are delighted that 23 other centers in the United States and Canada feel that this is an interesting and important trial and have chosen to participate,” Dr. Nghiem said. “It will be helpful in a rare cancer that there are multiple sites that are open and active.”
Notably, this is also the first trial at Fred Hutch to participate in the ETCTN – but hopefully not the last. Dr. Nghiem added, “If this trial is successful and allows us to answer a question that would otherwise not be addressable, it might lead to Fred Hutch [and other Consortium institutions] participating more broadly in this network.”
Dr. Nghiem serves as co-leader of the Pathogen Associated Malignancies (PAM) research program.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Nghiem!
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Dr. Holly Harris recently received a Rivkin Center/CARE Fund Award! This award represents a collaboration between the Rivkin Center and Washington's Andy Hill CARE Fund to invest in ovarian cancer research in Washington State.
Dr. Harris is a member of the Breast & Ovary Cancers program. Her project, "Identifying ovarian cancer risk factors among women with endometriosis," aims to enable more accurate risk prediction for ovarian cancer among women with endometriosis.
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"Our project will lay the groundwork to identifying a full risk factor profile for ovarian cancer among those with endometriosis," said Dr. Harris. "Factors we identify in this and future projects can be combined with genetic risk scores and clinical endometriosis phenotypes to further refine ovarian cancer risk prediction among this high-risk group, ultimately leading to developing novel targeted interventions to effectively mitigate risk of ovarian cancer in those diagnosed with endometriosis."
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Harris!
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Dr. Dan Lin, Cancer Consortium member and national PI of the Canary Prostate Active Surveillance Study (PASS), and Dr. Lisa Newcomb, Fred Hutch Staff Scientist and Canary PASS deputy director, are looking forward to an exciting new publication in JAMA! Their paper, “Long-Term Outcomes in Patients Using Protocol-Directed Active Surveillance for Prostate Cancer,” documents outcomes from a multi-institutional prospective cohort study of 2,155 men. The study, which was initiated in 2008, demonstrates the effectiveness of active surveillance as a management strategy for men diagnosed with favorable-risk prostate cancer.
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Although active surveillance is the preferred approach for men with low-grade prostate cancer, many patients and providers avoid it, often out of fear of undertreating the disease. On the other hand, overtreatment of prostate cancer comes with its own set of problems. The goal of the Canary PASS project is to find a balance between the two.
“This is important in reassuring patients that with favorable risk prostate cancer they usually do not need to receive treatment right away,” said Dr. Lin and Dr. Newcomb. “We hope that these results encourage the national acceptance of active surveillance instead of immediate treatment for prostate cancer.”
Dr. Lin is the co-leader of the Consortium’s Prostate Cancer research program. In addition to Drs. Lin and Newcomb, this paper involved collaboration from a number of other Consortium co-authors, including Drs. Yingye Zheng (Biostatistics & Computational Biology), Claire de la Calle (Prostate Cancer), William Ellis (Prostate Cancer), Maria Tretiakova (Prostate Cancer), and Pete Nelson (Prostate Cancer).
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Lin and his team!
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Dr. Claire de la Calle was recently awarded an NCI Early-Stage Surgeon Scientist Award! The NCI’s Early-Stage Surgeon Scientist Program (ESSP) is a highly competitive three-year program that focuses on training and retaining surgeon scientists in cancer research. Awardees receive three years of funding and are separated into cohorts that undergo training together. Participants receive funding via an administrative supplement to their institution’s P30 Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG) or U54 grant; only one candidate per P30 or U54 is permitted.
Dr. de la Calle’s project, “Measures of Inherited Prostate Cancer Risk in the Management of Low-Grade Prostate Cancers on Active Surveillance” purports to better understand the subgroup of patients who have a high genetic risk for prostate cancer and have been diagnosed with low-grade prostate cancer. Specifically, she hopes to outline a more nuanced approach to evaluating risk in these patients, and to determine whether they are a good fit for an active surveillance approach.
Dr. de la Calle is a member of the Consortium's Prostate Cancer Program. For more information about Dr. de la Calle's work, see her "Consortium Spotlight" interview at the end of this newsletter.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. de la Calle!
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In the Spotlight
The following interinstitutional collaboration by Consortium members was featured in the most recent edition of the Science Spotlight:
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CURRENT FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES
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NCI Notice of Funding Opportunity: U54 SPORE in Cancer Health Disparities and Minority Health
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) invites applications for U54 Specialized Programs of Research Excellence in Cancer Health Disparities and Minority Health (CHD-MH SPOREs). The program will fund a network of multidisciplinary, multi-institutional U54 CHD-MH SPOREs uniquely focused on health disparities and/or minority health translational research for improved prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer in populations who are underserved (and/or underrepresented). Applications are due September 26th, 2024 (the only receipt date for this opportunity).
The Cancer Consortium may submit a single application for this opportunity, and we are inviting interested investigators to join a working group facilitated by the Office of Community Outreach and Engagement and the Cancer Consortium Research Development Office to discuss this RFA and to build consensus/identify a team to put forward a competitive application. Please consider the following:
U54 CHD-MH SPOREs can investigate more than one cancer type in underserved populations, including groups of highly related cancers (e.g., gastrointestinal, neuroendocrine, and head and neck).
The research supported through this program must be translational and must stem from knowledge of human biology, addressing the interplay of various determinants of health with the biology of the disease.
U54 CHD-MH SPORE projects must have the goal of reaching a translational human endpoint within the project period of the grant.
If you are interested in participating in this working group, please fill out this form or contact Kris Blair ( kblair@fredhutch.org) no later than Monday, June 17th.
Key Dates
- Applications Due: September 26th, 2024
- Review: February 2025
- Start Date: Summer 2025
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UPCOMING EVENTS
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» Steam Plant Seminar Series – Summer Break
The trainee-organized Steam Plant Seminars Series is on summer break and will resume in September, 2024.
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» June 6, 2024: Pathways to Equity Symposium
It's not too late to register for the 2024 Pathways to Equity Symposium on June 6th. The symposium will take place at Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle and online. This is a space for learning and dialogue between researchers, community members, and community-based organizations. Join us as we focus on our 2024 theme: "Taking the next step: Bidirectional partnerships for health equity."
Date: June 6th, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Fred Hutch Cancer Center, 1100 Fairview Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
More information about the symposium, including a preview agenda, can be found on the OCOE website. We’ll hear from keynote speakers Dr. Tabia Henry Akintobi and LaShawn Hoffman from the Morehouse School of Medicine. We’ll also learn from two panels of patients, researchers, and community-based organizations on building trust in research and taking the next step in collaborative partnerships.
This event is free, and breakfast and lunch will be provided to those attending in person. This event will be livestreamed for those joining online.
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**Recommended by the Research Development Office**
» June 20, 2024: NCI Seminar: "How Are Institutions Transformed to Foster Cultures of Inclusive Excellence?"
Thursday, June 20, 1:00-2:30pm ET / 10:00-11:30am PT
This seminar will feature a panel discussion and Q&A session focused on advancing institutional change to support equity and inclusion. Topics will include:
- strategies that enhance inclusive excellence
- examining challenges that institutions may encounter as they build their capacity for inclusion
- exploring methods for assessing institutional culture change
This seminar is open to members of the broader scientific community and all NIH staff. Advance registration is encouraged. Click here to register.
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» [Ongoing]: IIRC Seminars
Please see below for a list of upcoming seminars hosted by the Immunotherapy Integrated Research Center:
Thursday, June 27, 2-3pm: Dr. Eiu-Cheol Shin (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Talk Title: TBA
Details: Pelton Auditorium (Fred Hutch Campus)
Talk Title: TBA
Details: Pelton Auditorium (Fred Hutch Campus)
Talk Title: TBA
Details: Pelton Auditorium (Fred Hutch Campus)
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» November 14, 2024: Save the Date for the Joint BOC + CEPC Program Retreat!
Please save the date for a joint retreat hosted by the Consortium's Breast & Ovary Cancers (BOC) and Cancer Epidemiology, Prevention & Control (CEPC) Programs. The retreat will take place from 8:00am – 3:00pm on Thursday, November 14th, in the O’Mack Symposium Suite in the Steam Plant Building (Fred Hutch campus).
The theme for this retreat is "Understanding disparities contributing to oncogenesis and cancer outcomes." This is a unique opportunity to learn from leading minds in the field, alongside basic scientists, epidemiologists, and clinicians involved in developing genetic tests for predicting patient outcomes and response to therapy.
We are especially thrilled to announce that our keynote speaker for this year's retreat is the esteemed Professor Melissa Davis from the Morehouse School of Medicine. Dr. Davis’s pioneering research is leveraging high-throughput genomics technologies to uncover how genetic underpinnings interplay with social factors to drive health disparities. A testament to her original and highly rigorous research program is that her team was just awarded a Cancer Research UK Grand Challenge Award.
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FROM THE NCI
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NCI Seeks Input on Feasibility of a Study Focused on Multi-Cancer Detection (MCD) Tests Among People at High Genetic Risk for Cancer
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) published two Requests for Information (RFIs) in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts seeking input on the feasibility of an NCI-sponsored ancillary study focused on multi-cancer detection (MCD) performance among people at high genetic risk for cancer.
Individuals with a higher genetic risk for cancer frequently face elevated risk for various types of cancer, encompassing cancer types with recommended screening tests or procedures and those without. An existing challenge is how to screen for cancers from multiple organ systems among those at high genetic risk for cancer. Newly developed MCD liquid biopsy tests have the potential to detect multiple types of cancer from a single blood draw, including cancers for which there are currently no recommended screening modalities available. A single blood test capable of identifying the multiple cancers in those with genetic predisposition to cancer offers a promising solution but currently lacks the evidence that these tests are effective in any population, including those at high genetic risk for cancer.
Although reports of MCD test performance, including sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value, are available for average-risk populations, there is currently limited information on MCD test performance among individuals at high genetic risk for cancer. Additional research is needed to determine the performance of MCD tests among those at high genetic risk for cancer, and the generation of evidence may be possible by use of existing study populations.
- Through NOT-CA-24-046, NCI seeks information by June 10, 2024, on existing study populations with MCD test results and available samples for germline testing.
- Through NOT- CA-24-051, NCI seeks input by June 17, 2024, on existing study populations with germline results and samples available for MCD assay testing.
View the RFIs for more details:
Please submit comments to NCI_DCCPS_MCD@nih.gov and include the RFI number in the subject line of your email. All individual responses will remain confidential.
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FROM THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION & TRAINING (OET)
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OET and Office of Scientific Career Development Celebrate the First Successful Seattle DROP Event!
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On May 7th, the Office of Scientific Career Development and OET hosted a Consortium-wide postdoc recruitment event in collaboration with UW and SCRI. The event, called Seattle Diverse Opportunities for Postdocs, or Seattle DROP, had ~220 registrants. 112 registrants opted to create a biosketch and consented to share it with faculty and HR. Approximately 40% of registrants self-identified as meeting at least one measure of the NIH Underrepresented Minority (URM) definition. The biosketches have been shared with HR, departmental/divisional admin, and/or faculty at each institution.
We’ve already set next year’s Seattle DROP for May 6th, 2025 - save the date!
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FROM THE CONSORTIUM SHARED RESOURCES
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Shared Resource Staff Authorship Contributions
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center and its Consortium partners rely on Shared Resource (SR) personnel for the success of scientific projects.
While not all projects may warrant SR personnel as authors, their contributions merit authorship if they meet these criteria:
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1) Significant involvement in:
- project conception or design
- data acquisition
- data analysis or interpretation
- software creation
2) Drafting or critical review of intellectual content
3) Final approval of the manuscript
4) Accountability for the work's integrity
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Although many SR services are fee-based, authorship isn't precluded, especially since many contributions don't incur charges. SR personnel's time and effort are often supported through Fred Hutch subsidies or the Consortium grant (P30). Adding an SR member as an author doesn't substitute payment for services rendered.
Valuable contributors who don't meet all four criteria should be acknowledged, along with the contributing SR(s), the P30 grant, and any relevant shared resources grants like the S10 mechanism. Please see the Cancer Consortium resources page for more information on citing the P30 grant.
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CONSORTIUM INVESTIGATOR SPOTLIGHT
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In honor of Dr. Clarie de la Calle's Early-State Surgeon Scientist Award, we sat down with her this month to learn more about her work, her vision for the future of prostate cancer, and more!
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Can you give a brief overview of your work, and what drew you to this particular research specialty?
I’m a urologic oncologist. In the clinic, I mostly take care of patients with prostate and bladder cancer, but my research focus has always been more around prostate cancer. I’ve specifically done a lot of research on the role of active surveillance for low-grade prostate cancers. Active surveillance means not treating the prostate cancer immediately, and monitoring it, and then treating it in a delayed fashion if and when the prostate cancer progresses. In some patients, it never progresses and so they avoid the side effects of treatment; in other patients, the cancer does progress and then we offer treatment, and we try to do that without missing the window of opportunity for cure.
In my fellowship at Johns Hopkins, I started working with people who do a lot of research on the role of germline genetics and prostate cancer. Germline genes are the genes you inherit from your parents, and research has shown that the germline has a huge impact on prostate cancer, but we don’t really know how it affects patients with low-grade prostate cancer, specifically patients on active surveillance. We don’t know if patients with inherited prostate cancer risk are safe to be monitored on active surveillance, and/or if they might need to be monitored more closely. Inherited risk can be measured through family history. A significant family history of prostate cancer – for example patients who had a brother with aggressive prostate cancer or a dad that died of prostate cancer – or a family history of other cancers that are associated with prostate cancer as part of a hereditary cancer syndrome, have both been associated with aggressive prostate cancer. Inherited risk can also be measured through mutations some people inherit from their parents. These mutations are rare in the general population, but can significantly increase one’s risk of getting prostate cancer. For example, the BRCA1/2 mutation is a pretty well-known mutation because it’s associated with breast cancer. It is also associated with aggressive prostate cancer. We don’t really know if it’s safe to monitor on active surveillance patients who are known to be carriers of one of these rare mutations. Finally, inherited risk can also be measured through minor changes in the genome that are basically so minor they don’t really have much of an effect on your phenotype, but if you combine a lot of them together, then they can be associated with a significant risk of developing prostate cancer. These are called polygenic risk scores – they combine hundreds of different tiny modifications in the genomes. Most of these are called SNPs – which means “single nucleotide polymorphism,” it’s just one change in the base pairs of the DNA. The impact of a high polygenic risk score on active surveillance is unclear but it is currently being researched here at UW.
My main research interest is to try to understand if patients that have an inherited risk for prostate cancer – whether that be in the form of a family history or them being carriers of a rare pathogenic mutation like the BRCA mutation, or having a high polygenic risk score, or any combination of those three measures of inherited risk – have the same outcomes on surveillance as patients without inherited risk, and to find if there ways that we can risk stratify these patients to understand if they’re safe to be monitored on surveillance.
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You’re not from Seattle, right?
Yeah, I did my fellowship at Johns Hopkins, it was a two-year fellowship in neurologic oncology. And before that, I did a six-year residency in urology at UCSF in San Francisco.
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What drew you to UW and/or the Consortium?
I knew I wanted to work at a place where I could continue doing research on active surveillance specifically and in the space of germline genetics. Dr. Lin and Lisa Newcomb started the Canary PASS study. They have been prospectively following patients on active surveillance since 2008, and have since generated a huge database that is great resource to do research on active surveillance. So that was one of the main reasons for me to want to come to UW, to have the opportunity to learn from them and have them be my mentors, but also to work with the database itself. And then, University of Washington has a strong history of doing research on germline genetics for prostate cancer, mostly in the metastatic prostate cancer space. Dr. Pritchard was one of the first to uncover that some of these mutations like the BRCA mutation plays a huge role in prostate cancer. He and his group found that almost 12% of patients with metastatic prostate cancer actually have a DNA repair mutation. This was published in 2015, I believe, and prior to that we had no idea these mutations played such a role in prostate cancer. Since then, it’s been a major area of research at UW. Dr. Burcu Darst is a genetic epidemiologist who started working at UW a couple of years ago now. She’s also someone that I’ve been following from a distance for a while because a lot of her research interests are aligned with mine and I have wanted to work with her for a long time. And now she is one of my main mentors for this project that we’re talking about today. So, those are all some of the main reasons that I wanted to come to UW.
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What part of your ESSP award is most exciting to you?
There’s multiple things, but one of the things I’m most excited about is that we are going to have a small cohort of patients with the BRCA2 mutation and Grade Group 1, so low-grade prostate cancer and active surveillance. So far we have identified 12 patients, and they will be coming from institutions all over the country. With Dr. Pritchard, we plan to sequence their biopsy tissue to see if their tumor has loss of heterozygosity. Our hypothesis is that if you are a germline carrier of this mutation and your tumor has lost the second allele, then your risk of progression is quite high and maybe those patients are not safe for active surveillance. Regardless of what we find, though, it’s exciting because loss of heterozygosity in low grade tumors of BRCA2 carriers hasn’t really been characterized. So even though it’s a small cohort, it will be something completely new, and I think that’s very exciting. Another thing I’m excited about, is I’m hoping that regardless of what we find, that the preliminary data will allow Drs. Darst, Lin, Cheng, and myself to apply for larger grants to have enough funds to sequence all of PASS. We have about 2,300 patients on PASS, and so that would require a lot of funds. But doing so would allow for a most robust analysis to try and understand how these measures of inherited risk affect the biology of low-grade prostate cancers.
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What’s your vision for prostate cancer care and treatment?
I’m hopeful that in the future we’ll manage patients with prostate cancer based on their germline risk. My hope and goal is to have a role in figuring out how to manage localized prostate cancer according to germline risk but also somatic risk. Also, in terms of prostate cancer screening, I’m hopeful that in the future we’ll do a better job at screening patients based on their germline risk. For example, patients that have an increased germline risk could be screened more regularly and more aggressively versus those with a low risk, might only need to be screened a couple times in their lifetime, or maybe less. Those are my long-term goals.
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What is your least favorite part of about applying for grants?
It’s probably the human subjects form for the NIH. That one is just torture to fill out.
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What is something you know a lot about that is completely unrelated to your job, medicine, or science?
You know, I’m very busy with my job and I have two kids, and so if I’m not working, I’m taking care of my kids. So my hobbies are very, very reduced for the time being, but I know quite a bit about pop culture. I try to keep up with pop culture more than I think people might expect. I think people expect for me to be reading about the news or some French philosophy in my free time – but no, I’d rather do something totally opposite and not have to think much, so I try to keep up with pop culture.
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FRED HUTCH/UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON/SEATTLE CHILDREN'S CANCER CONSORTIUM
1100 FAIRVIEW AVE. N., SEATTLE, WA 98109
Award number P30 CA015704-49
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