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Press Program 2021

The AACR Annual Meeting 2021 press program included a virtual press conference featuring five newsworthy studies from the Annual Meeting. The AACR also issued news releases on 10 additional abstracts.

Press Conference

The AACR hosted a virtual press conference featuring presentations of newsworthy research from the AACR Annual Meeting 2021 on Friday, April 9.

AACR President Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD, FAACR, and Annual Meeting Program Chair Charles Swanton, MBPhD, FRCP, FMedSci, FRS, FAACR, moderated the press conference.

View the Press Conference


The following studies were presented:

Copanlisib-Rituximab Combination Cuts Lymphoma Progression or Death by Nearly Half in CHRONOS-3 Trial 

  • This study was simultaneously published in The Lancet Oncology.  
  • Presented by: Matthew J. Matasar, MD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)

Bispecific Fusion Protein Tebentafusp Significantly Improves Overall Survival in Patients With Metastatic Uveal Melanoma 

  • Presented by: Jessica Hassel, MD, University Hospital Heidelberg in Germany

Neoadjuvant Nivolumab plus Chemotherapy Increased Pathological Complete Response Rate in CheckMate-816 Lung Cancer Trial 

  • Presented by: Patrick Forde, MBBCh, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Johns Hopkins University

Rare Pathogenic Germline Variants Were Observed in Sporadic Pediatric Neuroblastoma Cases and Were Inherited 

  • Presented by: Emily Blauel, MD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Healthy Lifestyle May Offset Risk of Lethal Prostate Cancer in Men With High Genetic Risk 

  • Presented by: Anna Plym, PhD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health

ADDITIONAL NEWS RELEASES

Cancer Aneuploidy May Predict Responses to Immunotherapy in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

  • Presented by: João Alessi, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Oncolytic Herpesvirus Shows Early Promise in Pediatric Patients with High-grade Glioma

  • This study was simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 
  • Presented by: Gregory Friedman, MD, Alabama Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Children’s of Alabama

Bispecific CAR T-cell Therapy Shows Early Promise for Relapsed or Refractory B-cell Lymphoma

  • Presented by: Sanaz Ghafouri, MD, University of California Los Angeles Medical Center

Unselected Autologous Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocyte Therapy Shows Early Promise in Patients With Metastatic Melanoma

  • Presented by: Robert Hawkins, MD, PhD, Instil Bio Inc.

Early-onset Colorectal Cancers from Patients of Different Races May Exhibit Distinct Genetic Features

  • Presented by: Andreana N. Holowatyj, PhD, MS, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Ovarian Cancer Patients Face Increased Risk of Mental Illness

  • Presented by: Siqi Hu, a PhD candidate, University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Institute

CREB1 Identified as Potential Therapeutic Target for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer

  • This study was simultaneously published in the AACR journal Cancer Discovery.
  • Presented by: Michael Kim, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Personalized Cancer Vaccine Given After Adjuvant Therapy Safe, Shows Early Efficacy in Multiple Tumor Types

  • Presented by: Thomas Marron, MD, PhD, The Tisch Cancer Institute

Liquid Biopsy Augments MRI for Predicting Response to Neoadjuvant Treatment in Patients With Breast Cancer

  • Presented by: Francesco Ravera, MD, PhD, University of Genoa, Italy

Immunotherapy Response Prediction Using Tumor Mutational Burden May Differ Between Men and Women With Melanoma

  • Presented by: Neelam Sinha, MS, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute