Dr. Manisha Bhattacharya after receiving the ASCO Young Investigator Award with Division chief Dr. Taofeek Owonikoko

Dr. Xiancheng “Lewis” Wu (PGY-2 resident) reported on: “A radiomic-based predictive model of lung adenocarcinoma brain metastases and molecular subtypes” (co-authors: Xiancheng Wu, Maria A Velez, Murat Ak, Nourel Tahon, Priyadarshini Mamindla, Vishal Peddagangireddy, Rivka R. Colen, Laura P. Stabile, Timothy F. Burns)

Dr. Andrew Knight (PGY-3 resident) presented the abstract: “Prognostic significance of immune-related adverse events and immunosuppression in patients with melanoma receiving adjuvant anti-PD-1 therapy.” (Co-authors: Andrew David Knight, Lilit Karapetyan, Sabrina Bruno, Hassan Mohammed Abushukair, Na Bo, Hong Wang, Cindy Sander, John M. M. Kirkwood)

Dr. Benjamin Nacev (assistant professor) presented a talk entitled: “Integrating Genomic Profiling in the Care of Patients with Sarcoma: From Diagnosis to Therapy”.

Dr. Risa Wong (assistant professor) presented her study entitled: “Differences in real-world pembrolizumab dosing patterns (every 3 weeks versus every 6 weeks) across a large cancer center network” (Co authors: Divya Natesan, Priyanka Chablani, Hong wang, Mark Jelinek, Margaret Rosenzweig, Risa Wong)

Dr. Jason Luke (associate professor) reported on: “Pembrolizumab versus placebo as adjuvant therapy in stage IIB or IIC Melanoma: Final analysis of distant metastasis-free survival in the phase 3 KEYNOTE-716 study”

Dr. Anwaar Saeed (associate professor) contributed to the following abstracts:

• “Phase 1 dose escalation study of DSP107, a first-in-class CD47 and 4-1BB targeting fusion protein, in combination with atezolizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors.”
  (Co-Authors: Anwaar Saeed, Babar Bashir, Jason J. Luke, Reuven Chantre, Shira Amsili, Rinat Tabakman, Yaffa Shwartz, Adam Foley-Comer, Antonio Jimeno)

• “A phase 2 single-arm study of berzosertib in combination with irinotecan in patients with progressive TP53 mutant gastric and gastro-esophageal junction cancer.”
  (Co-Authors: Shannon Stockton, Heloisa P. Soares, Farshid Dayyani, Anwaar Saeed, Edward S. Kim, Ning Jin, George Hosni Yacoub, Jennifer Whisenant, G. Dan Ayers, Steven Gore, Satya (Nanu) Das, Jordan Berlin)

• “Phase 2 study of elraglusib (9-ING-41), a glycogen synthase kinase-3b inhibitor, in combination with gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel (GnP) in patients with previously untreated advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).”
  (Co-Authors: Devalingam Mahalingam, Anwaar Saeed, Steven Francis Powell, Marisol Huerta Alvaro, Vaibhav Sahai, Andrew L. Coveler, Elizabeth J. Davis, Neeltje Steeghs, Mary Frances Mulcahy, Alexander G Raufi, Ludimila Cavalcante, Andres Cervantes, Jordan Berlin, Janna Afanasjeva, William Mikrut, Sheri Lynn Smith, Francis J. Giles, Benedito A. Carneiro)

• “STELLAR-303: A phase 3 study of XL092 in combination with atezolizumab versus regorafenib in patients with previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer.”
  (Co-Authors: J. Randolph Hecht, Josep Tabernero, Aparna Raj Parikh, Yijia Wang, Zhong Wang, Martin Schwickart, Dominic Curran, Anwaar Saeed)

• “Targeting germline or somatic DNA repair defects (beyond BRCA) in pancreatic cancer with niraparib: A phase II study (NIRA-PANC).
  (Co-Authors: Anup Kasi, Junqiang Dai, Raed Moh’d Taiseer Al-Rajabi, Joaquina Celebre Baranda, Anwaar Saeed, Prabhakar Chalise, Erin Carroll, Shannon Bradbury, Stephen Hyter, Malgorzata Anna Witek, Venkatadri Beeki, Richard J. McKittrick, Manidhar Reddy Lekkala, Anusha Chidharla, Sean Kumer, Timothy Schmitt, Stephen K. Williamson, Steven Soper, Andrew K. Godwin, Weijing Sun)

• “Trastuzumab-induced cardiotoxicity in breast cancer patients: A meta-analysis and review of the literature (2012-2022).
  Authors: Fnu Anamika, Akshit Chitkara, Komal Saharan, Tushar Choudhary, Ujjwal Soni, Gabriella Angelina Harmon, Anwaar Saeed)

Highlighted Publications

• Graft-versus-host disease is locally maintained in target tissues by resident progenitor-like T cells. In allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, donor αβ T cells attack recipient tissues, causing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a major cause of morbidity and mortality. A central question has been how GVHD is sustained despite T cell exhaustion from chronic antigen stimulation. The current model for GVHD holds that disease is maintained through the continued recruitment of alloreactive effectors from blood into affected tissues. Here, the authors show, using multiple approaches including parabiosis of mice with GVHD, that GVHD is instead primarily maintained locally within diseased tissues. By tracking 1,203 alloreactive T cell clones, a mathematical model was fitted, predicting that within each tissue a small number of progenitor T cells maintain a larger effector pool. Consistent with this, Dr. Warren Shlomchik et al identified a tissue-resident TCF-1+ subpopulation that preferentially engrafted, expanded, and differentiated into effectors upon adoptive transfer. These results suggest that therapies targeting affected tissues and progenitor T cells within them would be effective. (Sacirbegovic F, …, Shlomchik WD. Immunity. 2023 Feb 14;56(2):369-385.e6. PMID: 36720219.)

NIH Funding

• Dr. Samit Ghosh (PI), “Renal endothelium and the development of chronic kidney disease in sickle cell disorders,” NIDDK R01. Read more

• Dr. Dan Zandberg / Dr. Theresa Whiteside / Dr. Brenda Diergaarde (MPI), “Small extracellular vesicles as biomarkers of prognosis and response to therapy in head and neck cancer,” NIDCR R01

Scientific Presentations

• 2023 AACR annual meeting, Orlando FL:
  • Dr. Taofeek Owonikoko will chair the session: “Small Cell Lung Cancer: Moving Biology to the Clinic” and present the talk titled: Putting SCLC in context using emerging clinical and translational insights.
  • Dr. Nadine Hempel will chair the session: “Tumor Cell Adaptability and Stress Response” and present the talk titled: “ Oxidative stress adaptations during metastasis: Focus on antioxidant enzyme function and regulation”.
  • Dr. Lan Coffman will chair the session: Models for Aging and Cancer and present the talk titled: “Studying the impact of the aging stromal microenvironment on cancer initiation”