News and Events

FDA grants rare pediatric disease designation for experimental immunotherapy for acute lymphoblastic leukemia

A cell-based immunotherapy that is currently being evaluated at the NIH Clinical Center for the treatment of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has been designated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a drug for a rare pediatric disease. Designation could encourage development of this novel therapy for children with relapsed or refractory ALL.

In mice, new therapeutic strategy enhances the effects of immunotherapy in high ASS1-expressing cancers

Many prevalent cancers (e.g., lung, breast and colon) exhibit abnormally high expression of the enzyme ASS1. This results in greater production of genetic material incorporating purines, consequently making these tumors more resistant to immunotherapy. The researchers showed that drugs blocking purine production in these tumors enhance their response to immunotherapy.

Experimental compound blocks SARS-CoV-2’s ability to infect and kill cells in the lab

A potential therapy for COVID-19 binds to a viral enzyme that SARS-CoV-2 requires for replication. With further development and testing, it might be an effective treatment for people with the disease.

Epigenetic marker contributes to PARP inhibitor resistance

CCR scientists have discovered a way cancer cells can become resistant to PARP inhibitors, targeted therapies that are used to treat some ovarian, breast and prostate cancers.

New synthetic compounds alter RNA expression in bacteria

Researchers have succeeded in developing a number of different compounds that bind to ZTP riboswitches, which regulate RNA, in bacteria. Their approach could one day be used to create a new class of antibacterial drug.

A Conversation with Adam Sowalsky, Ph.D.

Adam Sowalsky, Ph.D., is an Investigator in the Laboratory of Genitourinary Cancer Pathogenesis. He is seeking to tease apart the molecular mechanisms underlying prostate cancers that have a high likelihood of progressing and then identifying patients who might benefit from earlier therapy. He discusses what motivated him to pursue a career in cancer biology as well as what lies ahead for his research.

Clinical trial evaluates radiopharmaceutical as therapy for biochemically recurrent prostate cancer

Some men who have been treated for localized prostate cancer (PC) with surgery or radiation still have signs of the disease that are only detected by a blood test (a rising prostate specific antigen or PSA). This is called biochemically recurrent prostate cancer (BCRpc). Investigators in the Center for Cancer Research are leading a clinical trial exploring an option meant to be less toxic for treating BCRpc, which may impact microscopic bone disease seen only on PET scans, using radium-223.

Immunotherapy clinical trial tests therapy for metastatic solid tumors

Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are white blood cells (T cells) that have moved from the blood into a tumor. While tumor cells frequently change their molecular structure to avoid attack by the immune system’s T cells, recent studies by the Center for Cancer Research’s Surgery Branch have found that most TILs don’t recognize newly mutated tumor cells. A clinical trial led by Steve Rosenberg, M.D., Ph.D., engineers T cells to recognize newly altered cancer cells that are then given back to the patient to help the immune system kill cancer cells in solid tumors.

Two patient’s stomachs kept “alive” after removal in novel study to understand stomach cancer

Two women with genetic predisposition to stomach cancer participated in a clinical trial at the Center for Cancer Research where their stomachs were removed and kept “alive” for several days, allowing the researchers to study the development of cancer and the effects of different therapies in unprecedented detail. The goal is to better study stomach cancer under realistic conditions and find novel, effective treatments.

Joe Chinquee volunteers with Navajo Nation during COVID-19 pandemic

Joe Chinquee, D.H.Sc., M.B.A., M.T. (A.S.C.P.) D.L.M., Clinical and Scientific Manager of the Laboratory of Pathology, served on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an effort to give back, he was deployed on a month-long mission to assist the U.S. Public Health Service at the Navajo Nation in New Mexico. Chinquee said: “At the NIH, I’ve been given so many opportunities and rewards. I will never stop giving back, but I would not be able to volunteer for these missions without the full support of my NCI leadership.”

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