Many people accept illness as an inevitable part of aging. But in breast cancer, the relationship between age and tumor biology is more complex than it may seem. Supported by one of the inaugural 2023 Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers Rising Innovator Grants, in Partnership with Pelotonia and AACR, Dr. Sandra McAllister is investigating how aging shapes breast cancer at the molecular level.
Transforming outcomes for children with high-risk cancers demands innovation. In 2023, Kristopher Bosse, MD, a physician-scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, received the AACR-AstraZeneca Career Development Award for Physician-Scientists, a grant designed to empower early-career investigators to bridge the gap between laboratory discoveries and clinical breakthroughs. His AACR-supported research, published in Molecular Therapy, explores promising new directions in immunotherapy for children with neuroblastoma.
2020 AACR Swim Across America Fellowship recipient Manisha Jalan, DPhil, reveals a novel DNA repair mechanism in human cells where RNA transcripts, once thought to be passive messengers, actively guide the repair of double-strand breaks. Mediated by the DNA polymerase ζ complex, this RNA-templated repair pathway introduces a new dimension to genome maintenance and challenges long-held biological dogma.
Pancreatic cancer outcomes can differ depending on where the disease metastasizes, with lung involvement generally associated with better prognosis than liver involvement. Supported by a 2022 AACR-MPM Oncology Charitable Foundation Transformative Cancer Research Grant, Rushika Perera, PhD and her team at UCSF uncovered a key insight: a protein player in cholesterol metabolism, PCSK9, predicts whether pancreatic cancer cells colonize the liver or lungs. This discovery provides new understanding of metastatic behavior and potential therapeutic strategies.
Mariana Bustamante Eduardo, PhD, received the 2023 AACR-Pfizer Breast Cancer Research Fellowship to investigate the early cellular changes in non-transformed breast cells – work that is shedding light on how a lipid metabolism-induced metabolic shift contributes to several hallmarks of cancer.
With support from end-of-year AACR funds, Dr. Yao Yu advanced a novel PROTAC therapeutic strategy targeting the SS18::SSX-WDR5 chromatin complex - disrupting tumor growth and reactivating p53 defenses in a rare but aggressive soft tissue cancer, synovial sarcoma.
The survival rate for nearly half of children diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma remains tragically low. This devastating outcome is often linked to the amplification of the MYCN gene. Dr. Daniel Harki, recipient of two AACR-Bayer Innovation and Discovery (IND) Grants.
Ovarian tumors are often resistant to traditional chemotherapy and immunotherapy. Supported by a 2022 AACR-Bristol Myers Squibb Immuno-oncology Research Fellowship, Dr. Sung-Min Hwang has uncovered a novel strategy for reinvigorating the ability of dysfunctional intratumoral T cells to combat cancer.
ER+ breast cancer patients typically receive endocrine therapies targeting the estrogen receptor, but approximately half of high-grade diseases will likely progress, highlighting the urgent need for new and effective treatment options. Supported by a 2018 AACR-John and Elizabeth Leonard Family Foundation Basic Cancer Research Fellowship, Dr. Sicong Zhang, investigated why BET inhibitors (BETi), a promising class of anti-cancer drugs, have failed to show efficacy in clinical trials for ER+ breast cancer patients.
We are extremely proud of our past and present grantees who presented and published their findings throughout 2024. Their accomplishments have been made possible, thanks to the support of the AACR and its funding partners. JANUARY Tumor development in...