In This Section

Program

Please note that this meeting will take place as an in-person event in Vancouver and will not live-stream content for virtual participation. The meeting content will be recorded and made available as an on-demand program after the conference. Please see the registration page for details.

All presentations are scheduled to be live, in-person presentations at the date and time specified below unless noted otherwise. Program in progress.

*-Short talk from proffered abstract

[R] – Remote Presentation

Saturday, July 18

SUNDAY, JULY 19

MONDAY, JULY 20

Saturday, July 18

REGISTRATION

3-8 p.m.

WELCOME AND OPENING Keynote

5-6:15 p.m.

  • Welcome from Co-Chairs
    Andrew Futreal, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
  • Radical collaboration for rare cancers
    Jesse Boehm, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • David Huntsman, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Additional speakers to be announced

Break

6:15-6:30 p.m.

Panel Discussion: Rare Cancers, Broad Insights: Translating Niche Discoveries into Universal Oncology Advances

6:30-7:30 p.m.

Panelists:
Andy Futreal, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas
David Huntsman, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, CANADA
Jesse Boehm, Broad Institute, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Additional panelist to be announced

Opening Reception

7:30-9:30 p.m.

Sunday, July 19

Breakfast

7-8:30 a.m.

Special Session: GENIE Project

7:15-8:15 a.m.

Plenary Session 1: Genomic Drivers of Rare Cancers – Discovery and Translation

8:30-10:15 a.m.

  • 8:55 a.m. | How to Understand and Defeat Even Rare Cancers: Lessons from the patient-scientist partnership to defeat Fibrolamellar Carcinoma
    Sanford Simon, The Rockefeller University, New York, New York
  • 9:35 a.m. | Discussion/ Q&A

Break

10-10:15 a.m.

Plenary Session 2: Navigating Genomic and Epigenomic Complexity in Rare Cancers

10:30 a.m. -12:15 p.m.

Session Chair: Patrick Tan, Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore

  • 10:30 a.m. | Introduction
  • 10:35 a.m. | Patrick Tan
  • 10:55 a.m. | Chromatin and cancer: From mechanisms to emerging therapies
    Charles Roberts, St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
  • 11:15 a.m. | Atsushi Kaneda, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan 
  • 11:35 a.m. | Discussion/ Q&A

Lunch on Own

12:15 -2 p.m.

Plenary Session 3: From Bench to Bioinformatics: Advanced Modeling of Rare Cancers

2-4 p.m.

Session Chair: Taran Gujral, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington

  • 2 p.m. | Introduction
  • 2:05 p.m. | Eliminating “luck” – learning from rare cancer patients to improve outcomes
    Andrew Futreal, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 
  • 2:25 p.m. | Eric Holland, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington 
  • 2:45 p.m. | Bissan Al-Lazikani, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 
  • 3:05 p.m. | Functional Precision Oncology in Rare Cancers: From Biobank to Drug Discovery
    Taran Gujral
  • 3:25 p.m. | Discussion/ Q&A

Break

4- 4:15 p.m.

Plenary Session 4: Diagnostic Challenges and Novel Classification Strategies in Rare Cancers

4:15-6:15 p.m.

Session Chair: Brooke E. Howitt, Stanford University, Stanford, California

  • 4:15 p.m. | Introduction
    Brooke E. Howitt
  • 4:20 p.m. | Challenges and Updates in the Classification of Uterine Mesenchymal Tumors
    Brooke E. Howitt, Stanford University, Stanford, California
  • 4:40 p.m. | Using DNA Methylation to Identify and Classify Rare Cancers
    David Capper, Charité University Hospital, Berlin, Germany 
  • 5 p.m. | Cancer pathology: Rare just ain’t as rare as it used to be
    Alexander J. Lazar
  • 5:20 p.m. | Therapeutic targeting of NUP98-rearranged acute leukemia
    Charles G. Mulligan St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
  • 5:40 p.m. | Discussion/ Q&A

Break

6:15-6:30 p.m.

Proffered Talks Session

6:30-7:30 p.m

Poster Session & Reception

7:30-9:30 p.m.

Monday, July 20

Breakfast

7-8 a.m.

Plenary Session 5: Harnessing Immunotherapy for Rare Cancers: Progress and Pitfalls

8-9:30 a.m.

Session Chair: Sandra P. D’Angelo, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 

  • 8:05 a.m. | Immunotherapy for Sarcoma
    Sandra P. D’Angelo
  • 8:25 p.m. | Lessons Learned From Treating Melanomas Unrelated to Sun Exposure
    Alexander N. Shoustari, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
  • 8:45 p.m. | Mark Yarchoan, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

Break

9:30-9:45 a.m.

Plenary Session 6: Breaking New Ground: Emerging Therapeutic Strategies for Rare Cancers

9:45 a.m.–11:15 a.m.

Session Chair: Paul Huang, The Institute of Cancer Research, London, UK

  • 9:45 a.m. | Introduction
  • 9:50 a.m. | Paul Huang
  • 10:10 a.m. | Turning the Tide: How We Doubled the Survival of Patients with Renal Medullary Carcinoma
    Pavlos Msaouel, MD Anderson Cancer Research Center, Houston, Texas

Additional speaker to be announced

Break

11:15-11:30 a.m.

Plenary Session 7: Innovative Clinical Trial Design for Rare Cancers

11:30 a.m.–1 p.m.

Session Chair: Razelle Kurzrock, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

  • 11:35 a.m. | On the Right TRACK: Operationalizing a National, Patient-Centric Fully Remote Precision Trial offering Comprehensive Genomic Profiling and a Molecular Tumor Board for Rare Cancers
    Jim Palma, TargetCancer Foundation, Cambridge, Massachusetts
  • 12:15 p.m. | Razelle Kurzrock

Additional speaker to be announced

Closing Remarks & Departure

1-1:15 p.m.

  • Taran Gujral, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Seattle, Washington