AACR Project GENIE

As the founding organization and leader of Project GENIE (Genomics Evidence Neoplasia Information Exchange)—a consortium of eight international institutions committed to aggregating their genomic data and linking it to clinical outcomes to advance cancer treatment—the AACR has overseen rapid progress in 2017 toward the project’s goal of using precision medicine to benefit cancer patients. In January, the project team publicly released its first dataset, consisting of nearly 19,000 tumor sequences and associated limited clinical data covering 59 major cancer types. In November, another 7,900 tumor sequences were added to the public domain registry, and another release planned for January 2018 will expand the number of tumor sequences in the public domain to 39,600. While the tumor types with the largest cohorts in the registry are non-small cell lung cancer, breast, and colorectal, these data releases significantly increased the cohorts for glioma and melanoma, thereby expanding the range of clinical questions that can be answered by the dataset.

The expansion of the AACR Project GENIE registry was accompanied by an acceleration of activity in 2017. Consortium members discussed the initial data release at a symposium on “Pan-cancer Genomic Analysis” at the AACR Annual Meeting 2017 in April, and a landscape analysis for the project was published in the August issue of the AACR journal Cancer Discovery. The registry has already begun yielding results, as two sponsored clinical studies were completed by the end of the year and are scheduled for presentation and publication in 2018. The consortium continues to grow with the dataset, as a total of 22 international institutions submitted applications to join the project in 2017. Led by the AACR, consortium members approved the addition of ten new participating national and international institutions, with additional participants expected to join by the end of 2018. As Project GENIE continues to scale up under the AACR’s leadership, it moves closer to delivering on the promise of precision medicine for all cancer patients.

Joint Statement on Cancer Health Disparities

In 2014, the AACR worked with the American Cancer Society (ACS), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to form a think tank to address the disparities in health care access and outcomes that exist within many populations. The participants identified the lack of a shared research agenda in the disparities research community as a major obstacle to the reduction of cancer disparities at the population level. To overcome this obstacle, the think tank members committed to developing a joint statement that would summarize the current state of disparities research, identify research priorities to advance the field, and recommend the most effective methodologies to achieve those priorities.

In July 2017, the efforts of the think tank came to fruition with the publication of joint statement on “Charting the Future of Cancer Health Disparities Research.” The goal of the statement—which was published in the AACR journal Cancer Research and simultaneously published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, and on cancer.gov—was to “promote cooperation among investigators in all areas of the cancer health disparities research community, to ensure that cancer research benefits all populations and patients regardless of race, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or the communities in which they live.”

AACR Publishes First Set of Screening Recommendations Emerging from Childhood Cancer Predisposition Workshop

The primary goal of the AACR Pediatric Cancer Working Group’s Childhood Cancer Predisposition Workshop, held in October 2016, was to provide pediatric clinicians with standard approaches to the surveillance of children affected by cancer predisposition syndromes. The workshop participants achieved that goal in 2017 with the publication of the first-ever consensus screening recommendations for the 50 most common syndromes that predispose children to the development of cancer in their first 20 years of life. The recommendations were published in a series of 18 articles in the AACR journal Clinical Cancer Research and were made freely available to provide clinicians with a detailed roadmap to prevent, intercept, and cure pediatric cancers.

Over the next two decades, the AACR established several more working groups to promote progress in fundamental or emerging areas of cancer research. These working groups create communities of interest around their areas of inquiry, building working relationships and fostering collaboration in each field.

Chemistry in Cancer Research (CICR): International Outreach

The mission of the CICR Working Group is to advocate the critical role of chemistry in the treatment of cancer and to increase the understanding of chemistry among cancer researchers. The group’s pursuit of this mission reached across the globe in November 2017, as the CICR leadership organized its first Town Hall meeting at the New Horizons in Cancer Research conference in Shanghai, China. In addition to providing a focused networking opportunity for attendees interested in cancer chemistry, the session included two chemistry-focused lectures from scientists working in the pharmaceutical and contract research industries.

Pediatric Cancer Working Group (PCWG): Special Conference

PCWG provides a forum for communication and collaboration among basic, clinical, and translational researchers in academia, industry, and government on all aspects of pediatric cancer research. In pursuit of that goal, PCWG members worked with the AACR Program Development staff to develop a special conference on “Pediatric Cancer Research: From Basic Science to the Clinic.” Held in December, the meeting was the third special conference since 2013 to be organized in partnership with PCWG. Nada Jabado, MD, PhD—a member of the PCWG Steering Committee—and fellow cochairs Peter C. Adamson, MD, and Charles W. M. Roberts, MD, PhD, developed a program that featured cutting-edge research in epigenetics, genomics and clinical trials, immunotherapy, pediatric cancer modeling, and targeted therapeutics.

AACR Cancer Career Clinics

In September, in recognition of National Postdoc Appreciation Week, the AACR organized two events in its hometown of Philadelphia to help postdoctoral students prepare for the next phase of their careers. At these Cancer Career Clinics, which were held at the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University, AACR staff scientists worked with postdoctoral students to develop their resumes and to answer their questions about traditional and nontraditional career paths in cancer research.

20TH Anniversary of the AACR Undergraduate Scholar Awards

Since their launch in 1997, the AACR Undergraduate Scholar Awards have provided promising undergraduate students with the motivation and mentorship to pursue a career in cancer research. These awards enable third-year undergraduate students to attend the AACR Annual Meeting for two consecutive years, inspiring them to consider cancer science as they approach a critical decision point in their professional journey.

At the Annual Meeting, the undergraduate program included a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the undergraduate scholar awards and of the AACR’s commitment to students and early-career scientists. Award recipients and mentors from previous years attended the celebration to acknowledge the program’s impact on their careers and on the cancer workforce. During the ceremony, AACR CEO Margaret Foti, PhD, MD (hc), presented a special award to Past President Donald S. Coffey, PhD, FAACR (right), in recognition of his dedication to educating and mentoring young scientists.

Student Members: Expanded Outreach

The AACR comprehensively supports the cancer workforce, educating young students about careers in science in addition to supporting undergraduates and early-career scientists. In 2017, the AACR Special Program for High School Students introduced more than 400 students to the world of cancer research. The students attended lectures to learn more about the cancer problem, and more than 45 of them presented their recent work in the largest poster competition to date. This year, the AACR’s support of future researchers reached beyond high school. Middle school students in the University of Maryland-Baltimore’s CURE Scholars Program—which prepares promising students for careers in health care and research—attended the Annual Meeting, participated in the poster session, and experienced the excitement of the largest comprehensive cancer research meeting in the world.

Continuing Medical Education

The AACR provides physician-scientists and clinicians with a wide range of opportunities to maintain their competence and incorporate new knowledge into their practice. As an ACCME-accredited provider, the AACR offered CME credit at 16 different meetings in 2017, including eight special conferences, three joint conferences, two workshops, one joint providership activity, and the Annual Meeting. AACR journals provided another educational resource, offering credit to investigators for reviewing manuscripts. A total of 3,054 researchers and clinicians claimed CME credit from the AACR in 2017, ensuring that caregivers apply the full spectrum of basic, translational, and clinical cancer science to improving the lives of their patients.