New AACR Partnership Aims to Accelerate Research on Early Detection of High-risk Cancers

The earlier a cancer is caught, the better. For some high-risk cancers, that is especially crucial, since the survival rates drop to dismal percentages once the cancer has metastasized. For patients with pancreatic cancer, the five-year relative survival rate is 43.6% when diagnosed at stage 1, compared with 3.2% once it has spread. These rates are 48.7% vs. 5.4% for esophageal cancer and 91.7% vs. 31.8% for ovarian cancer—two other high-risk cancers. That is why the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, the Lustgarten Foundation, Break Through Cancer, and The Honorable Tina Brozman Foundation (Tina’s Wish) have launched a coalition to accelerate advances in early detection for some of the world’s deadliest cancers.

“Put simply, accelerating research into early detection and prevention of cancer saves lives,” said Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD, FAACR, executive chairman of The Mark Foundation’s Board of Directors. DuBois, who is a former AACR President and director of the Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center, added, “By forming strategic alliances with key stakeholders, we plan to fund and support groundbreaking research in early detection.”

Through this partnership, the organizations will provide $12 million in grants to six collaborative research projects that are focused on pancreatic, ovarian, and esophageal cancers, as well as cancer predisposition syndromes.

“I have been wanting to do something like this for years, but I knew we needed to look beyond Lustgarten Foundation’s focus on pancreatic cancer,” said David Tuveson, MD, PhD, FAACR, chief scientist on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lustgarten Foundation. “By broadening it to a wider pool of experts, we can better assess why it’s been so challenging to make progress in the early detection of the most lethal cancers and brainstorm potential approaches to solve this,” added the former AACR President and director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer Center.

Another goal of this initiative is to build a global early detection ecosystem through workshops that bring together scientists and physician-scientists within this field, as well as additional partnerships with other cancer research funding organizations. In January 2025, AACR, the Lustgarten Foundation, and The Mark Foundation held one such workshop in Philadelphia to explore new solutions in early detection.

“Knowledge-sharing is central to solving the most pressing challenges in cancer research,” said AACR CEO Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc). “By leveraging our collective expertise, we have brought together a network of international experts across various scientific disciplines to address cancers that have historically been very difficult to detect. This partnership offers a unique opportunity to expand the reach of our research network and foster creative approaches that go beyond traditional funding mechanisms.”

Addressing the Gaps in Early Cancer Detection

Pancreatic, ovarian, and esophageal cancers tend to grow and spread slowly, which makes them harder to detect and leads to poor long-term survival rates. Last year, this coalition of organizations put out a request for proposals seeking research projects that address the challenges in detecting early signs of these cancers.

“We need reliable noninvasive methods to detect these cancers before symptoms appear,” DuBois explained. “We also need to develop the ability to integrate diverse data types—genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and microbiome research—to improve personalized risk prediction. Developing comprehensive multiomic databases will be crucial for tailoring screening guidelines to high-risk individuals.”

Another gap that must be closed for many of these hard-to-detect cancers is a better understanding of the origins of tumors—how they evolve from benign precursor lesions into tumors—and the identification of markers of precancers.

Andrew Rakeman, PhD, vice president of research at the Lustgarten Foundation, explained that it is possible that anything they discover about one cancer type could lead to insights that are applicable to the early detection of multiple cancer types.

“The idea is that we’ll be able to learn from both the successes and the failures in detecting these different cancers and apply them to each other to move the field forward faster,” Rakeman said.

Ultimately, Rakeman explained, they were looking to fund projects “that are going to challenge the field and help us move on a hockey stick, not on a line.”

Six Research Projects Awarded Funding

From the grant proposals submitted, six teams have been selected to receive up to $2 million for projects exploring ways to overcome some of these pressing obstacles for the early detection of these cancers.

Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation Early Detection Awards:

• Programmable Recognition of KRAS Neoantigens for Early Cancer Diagnostics Across Patients: Nikolaos G. Sgourakis, PhD, Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania; Mark A. Sellmyer, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania; Possu Huang, PhD, Stanford University
• Detection and Interception of KRAS-mutant Pancreatic Cancer Using Small Molecule RAS(ON) Inhibitors: Brian M. Wolpin, MD, MPH, and Andrew J. Aguirre, MD, PhD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Julie L. Sutcliffe, PhD, University of California, Davis; Laura D. Wood, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins University
• Towards a Unified Platform for Li-Fraumeni Syndrome Cancer Risk Prediction and Cell-free DNA Surveillance: Trevor J. Pugh, PhD, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, UHN, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research; Brian D. Crompton, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; Paul A. Northcott, PhD, St. Jude Children’s Hospital; Kara N. Maxwell, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Break Through Cancer Early Detection Awards:

• Digital Pathology Diagnostics for Robust Stratification of Esophageal Cancer Risk: Christina Curtis, PhD, and Greg Charville, MD, PhD, Stanford University; William M. Grady, MD, University of Washington; Rebecca Fitzgerald, MD, University of Cambridge
• Molecular Profiling of Ovarian Cancer Precursors to Transform Early Detection and Precancer Stratification: Peter K. Sorger, PhD, David R. Walt, PhD, and Sandro Santagata, MD, PhD, Harvard University; Ronny I. Drapkin, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Mark Foundation-AACR-Lustgarten Foundation-Tina’s Wish Early Detection Award for Ovarian Cancer:

• Harnessing Extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) and Aneuploidy Signals in Plasma Whole Genome for Early Detection of Ovarian Cancer: Dan Landau, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medical of Cornell University; Ronny I. Drapkin, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania; Paul S. Mischel, MD, FAACR, Stanford University; Adam Widman, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

“We are excited to see researchers take informed risks on projects with the potential to revolutionize early detection for the most challenging cancers,” said Ryan Schoenfeld, CEO of The Mark Foundation, “and we believe this collaborative approach is the key to unlocking breakthroughs that will ultimately change the standard of care for patients everywhere.”