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Patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) now have more improved treatment options compared to standard of care with the addition of several new agents called immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). Despite these changes, many patients still develop progressive disease after ICI treatment. In a new study published in Clinical Cancer Research, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers describe promising results from an early clinical trial that may offer patients who progress after ICI an additional treatment option.

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A personalized approach to cancer treatment has become more common over the last several decades, with numerous targeted drugs approved to treat particular tumor types with specific mutations or patterns. However, this same personalized strategy has not translated to radiation therapy, and a one-size-fits-all approach for most patients is still common practice. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers hope to change this mindset for radiation treatment with the development of a genomically-based model that can optimize and personalize a radiation dose to match an individual patient’s needs.

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Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is a rare, aggressive skin tumor that is diagnosed in approximately 2,000 people each year in the United States. Since MCC affects so few people, it is difficult to study the genetic factors that lead to its development and how those factors correlate with response to therapy. However, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have developed the largest descriptive genomic analysis of MCC patients to date, in collaboration with Foundation Medicine and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Their analysis, published in Clinical Cancer Research, will provide important information to improve the care and treatment of MCC patients for many years to come.

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Lung cancer is the second most common cancer found in both men and women. It is estimated there will be roughly 228,000 new lung cancer cases this year, and nearly 30% of those patients will have mutations in the KRAS pathway. This type of mutation makes the cancer more aggressive and difficult to treat. Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center are hoping to change that. In a new study published in Cancer Research, the team discovered a new treatment approach that may help this group of patients.

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Despite improved knowledge of the molecular alterations in SCC, little is understood about how the alterations contribute to the development of the cancer and how potential vulnerabilities could be exploited to treat the disease. Researchers in Moffitt Cancer Center’s Lung Cancer Center of Excellence took a closer look at SCC tumors to determine if their characteristics had an impact on patient outcomes. The findings were published today in Nature Communications.

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Elderly cancer patients who are HIV-positive, particularly those with prostate and breast cancers, have worse outcomes compared to cancer patients in the same age range who do not have HIV. A Moffitt Cancer Center researcher, in collaboration with investigators at the National Cancer Institute, Duke University, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, took a closer look at the disparity, factoring in whether or not cancer treatment had an impact on outcomes among this patient population. Their findings were published today in JAMA Oncology.

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A first-in-class drug recently granted accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for adult patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma has been the subject of study at Moffitt Cancer Center for years. Now, selinexor (XPOVIO™, Karyopharm Therapeutics) used in combination with the corticosteroid dexamethasone will offer another option for patients with multiple myeloma who have exhausted the most common therapies for the disease.

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In a new article published by Cancer Research, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers propose the evolutionary dynamics of background extinctions suggest this focus on finding new and better drugs may have neglected opportunities to develop new and better treatment strategies to improve outcomes with currently available drugs.

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Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have identified a new drug combination that is effective against metastatic uveal melanoma cells in preclinical studies.

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With more targeted therapies being approved each year for cancer, the development of drug resistance to these agents is a growing concern. It has often been assumed that drug resistance is due to the presence or development of additional genetic alterations; however, it is now clear that resistance mechanisms are more complicated. Researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a mechanism of drug resistance to Venetoclax®, also known as ABT-199, a BCL-2 targeting drug commonly used to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia. Their findings, published in the journal Cancer Cell, also suggest a possible co-treatment strategy to overcome this resistance.

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The protein BRAF is a key player in the development of many different types of cancer, including melanoma. Scientists have known that BRAF becomes activated by growth factors and subsequently stimulates downstream proteins that promote cancer cell growth, invasion and survival. However, less is understood about how BRAF is involved in communicating signals from pro-inflammatory cytokines that are released by immune cells in the surrounding tumor environment. Researchers in Moffitt Cancer Center’s Donald A. Adam Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center of Excellence have discovered a signaling pathway between cytokines and BRAF that promotes tumor growth.

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Melanoma is one of the most aggressive types of skin cancer, but recent advances in targeted therapies have improved the prognosis for many patients. Unfortunately, for some patients these positive outcomes are not long lasting, due to the development of drug resistance and tumor recurrence. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have discovered a mechanism by which melanoma cells become resistant to the commonly used drugs that target the BRAF protein and its signaling pathway.

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Cancer is a highly varied disease, with genetic differences among different tumor types, individuals and ancestral populations. These genetic differences can impact disease aggressiveness, the type of disease, and the response to therapy. It is important that scientists have proper tools and model systems to study how these variations affect cancer development and devise effective therapies for patients of all genetic backgrounds. In a new paper published in Cancer Research, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, in collaboration with scientists at Ponce Health Sciences University in Puerto Rico, investigated this issue by creating an online tool that can be used by scientists to determine the genetic ancestral origin of more than 1300 different cell lines.

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The immune system is an important defender against cancer. Immune cells continuously search the body for disease and use their anti-tumor cell properties to target and destroy defective cells. However, most cancer patients have an impaired immune system that allows cancer cells to go undetected. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have discovered a mechanism by which one type of immune cell, CD8+ T cells, can become dysfunctional, impeding its ability to seek and kill cancer cells.

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Despite progress being made, scientists have not been completely certain of how CAR T cells function mechanistically. A team of Moffitt Cancer Center researchers addressed this uncertainty and characterized the mechanism of action of these new agents in a new article published this week in Science Signaling.

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Moffitt launched the first nationwide survey to identify potential gaps in attitudes, knowledge and institutional practices for LGBTQ patients.

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Manish Kohli, M.D., has joined Moffitt Cancer Center as the vice chair of the Department of Genitourinary Oncology. He also has an extensive research background, focusing on creating new ways to bring individualized care to patients.

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Moffitt Cancer Center has named Susan Thomas Vadaparampil, Ph.D., M.P.H, its first Associate Center Director of Community Outreach & Engagement. The newly created leadership role is of great importance to the cancer center, as it focuses on the impact Moffitt is making to understand and address the cancer burden in our community and beyond.

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Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center are trying to devise alternative mechanisms to block KRas. Their recent study demonstrates that the protein GSK3 is an important mediator of KRas-dependent tumor viability. Their research was published today in Nature Communications.

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A new article published today in The Lancet Oncology shows 39 percent of large B cell lymphoma patients treated with the chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR T) Yescarta® (axicabtagene ciloleucel) remained in remission more than two years (27.1 months median follow up) following therapy, and more than half of the patients treated remain alive. The new long-term safety and activity results of the ZUMA-1 clinical trial were also presented Sunday, Dec. 2 at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in San Diego.

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Moffitt Cancer Center partnered with 16 academic cancer centers to analyze real world data of 274 patients treated commercially with Yescarta® (axicabtagene ciloleucel), one of two CAR T products that is now standard of care for patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who have not responded to two or more therapies. The researchers then compared those figures with results from the pivotal ZUMA-1 trial, which included 101 patients.

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A new study found that women who reported taking a low-dose aspirin every day had a 23 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer compared to nonaspirin users. The research also found that women who were heavy users of nonaspirin nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen (Advil) or naproxen (Aleve), over a long period of time had a higher risk of developing ovarian cancer.

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In a new study published in European Urology, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, along with colleagues at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, demonstrated that a baseline prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level obtained from black men between ages 40 and 60 can strongly predict future development of prostate cancer and its most aggressive forms for years after testing.

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Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among men and women. About 85 percent of lung cancers are non-small cell lung cancer. For a handful of these patients, therapies that target specific genetic mutations are effective. But for the majority of non-small cell lung cancer patients, targeted therapies are limited and many patients develop resistance to treatment, highlighting the need for other options.

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Non-small cell lung cancer patients survive longer when their treatment includes durvalumab following platinum-based chemoradiotherapy, according to research led by Moffitt Cancer Center. New clinical trial data published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine show durvalumab improved progression-free survival by 17.2 months compared to placebo.

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Robert Gillies, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Cancer Physiology and vice chair of Radiology Research at Moffitt Cancer Center, was awarded the World Molecular Imaging Society’s highest honor. The 2018 Gold Medal Award recognizes his contributions to the field of molecular imaging. The award was presented to Gillies earlier this month at the World Molecular Imaging Congress in Seattle.

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Patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer have been shown to benefit from chemotherapy prior to surgical removal of the bladder. But which type of chemotherapy leads to the best outcomes in terms of complete response rates or cancer control? Moffitt Cancer Center researchers examined data from more than 800 surgical patients with advanced bladder cancer.

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A new study focusing on the environment inside cancer cells may lead to new targeted treatment strategies. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Maryland and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Barcelona, suggest that lowering the pH inside cancer cells to make it more acidic can slow down the growth and spread of the disease, and possibly provide new options for treatment.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Game theory can be utilized to identify potential flaws in current cancer treatment approaches and suggest new strategies to improve outcomes in patients with metastatic cancer, according to a new article published online today by JAMA Oncology. The study, which is authored by a mathematician, an evolutionary biologist and clinical physicians from the Moffitt Cancer Center and Maastricht University, challenges the decades old standard of treatment for metastatic cancers in which drugs are typically administered continuously at the maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) until the tumor progresses.

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Midgut neuroendocrine tumors are a rare type of cancer that develops in the small intestine and colon. Roughly 12,000 people are diagnosed with this disease each year. In January, the United Stated Food and Drug Administration approved Lutathera, a first-of-its-kind peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. The injection consists of a somatostatin analog combined with a radioactive isotope that directly targets neuroendocrine tumor cells.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Nearly 80 million Americans – one out of every four people – are infected with human papillomavirus (HPV). And of those millions, more than 31,000 will be diagnosed with an HPV-related cancer this year. Despite those staggering figures and the availability of a vaccine to prevent the infections that cause these cancers, HPV vaccination remains low in the United States.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy, also known as CAR T therapy, was named the biggest research breakthrough of 2017 by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The personal gene therapy utilizes a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. The Food and Drug Administration has approved CAR T therapy products for adults with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and pediatric and young adults suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

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TAMPA, Fla. – May is Skin Cancer Awareness Month. More than 5 million people in the United States are diagnosed with the disease each year, making it the most common cancer in our country. While prevention and screening are keys to driving down those statistics, better understanding of skin cancer, including what causes and drives it are a big focus of the Donald A.

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The Florida Department of Health’s James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program has armed Moffitt Cancer Center, University of Florida (UF) Health Cancer Center – Gainesville, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami and numerous collaborating centers with $1.36 million to address cancer disparities and improve outcomes and care for individuals affected by pancreatic cancer.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Cancer patients are commonly treated with the maximum dose they are able to withstand that does not cause too many toxic side effects.  However, many patients become resistant to these treatments and develop cancer recurrence.  Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center are using mathematical modeling based on evolutionary principles to show that adaptive drug treatments based on tumor responses to prior treatment are more effective than maximum-tolerated dose approaches for certain tumor situations.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Patients with advanced or metastatic melanoma have been able to live longer cancer-free lives because of several new therapies approved over the last decade, such as BRAF and MEK inhibitors. However, despite the success of these targeted agents, most patients eventually develop drug resistance and their cancer regrows.

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Cancer therapies that target a specific protein have improved outcomes for patients. However, many patients eventually develop resistance to these targeted therapies and their cancer comes back. It is believed that differences among tumor cells, or heterogeneity, may contribute to this drug resistance. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are using a unique approach by combining typical cell culture studies with mathematical modeling to determine how heterogeneity within a tumor and the surrounding tumor environment affect responses to targeted drug therapies.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Multiple myeloma is a rare incurable disease that is diagnosed in more than 30,000 people each year in the United States.  Only half of patients with multiple myeloma are expected to survive five years after their diagnosis. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are trying to identify patients who are at a higher risk of developing multiple myeloma early in order to improve patient outcomes.

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Drug therapies that target a specific molecule have changed the way patients are treated for cancer and greatly improved survival rates. However, some patients do not respond to these therapies because the drug is not reaching the tumor cells effectively. In a new study published in Scientific Reports, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers combined single-cell imaging of cancer cells in mice with mathematical modeling to determine which drug characteristics are the most important for efficient drug uptake.

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Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are trying to identify new drug targets to reduce the risk of GVHD. Their new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows a drug that targets the protein JAK2 may reduce the risk of GVHD.

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New drugs that activate the immune system to target cancer cells have improved the lives of many patients with cancer. However, immunotherapies are not effective in all patients, and the success of these therapies depends on individual patient factors. A team of Moffitt Cancer Center researchers is trying to find new ways to further enhance the activity of the immune system against cancer. In an article published in the January issue of Cancer Cell, the researchers describe how a new type of immunotherapy drug targeting the protein TIM-3 works to stimulate the immune system.

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Desmoplastic melanoma is a rare subtype of melanoma that is commonly found on sun-exposed areas, such as the head and neck, and usually seen in older patients. Treatment is difficult because these tumors are often resistant to chemotherapy and lack actionable mutations commonly found in other types of melanoma that are targeted by specific drugs. However, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers report in the Jan. 10 issue of Nature that patients with desmoplastic melanoma are more responsive to immune-activating anti-PD-1/PD-L1 therapies than previously assumed.

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Men infected with HPV16, the type responsible for most HPV-related cancers, are 20 times more likely to be reinfected with the same type of HPV after one year. That is according to a new study published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The article shows the same effect in both men who are sexually active and celibate, suggesting that they are not reacquiring the virus from another sexual partner.

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TAMPA, Fla. (Oct. 10, 2017) – Developing new drugs to treat cancer can be a painstaking process taking over a decade from start to Food and Drug Administration approval. Scientists are trying to develop innovative strategies to identify and test new drugs quicker and more efficiently. A team of researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center used cellular drug screening, functional proteomics and computer-based modeling to determine whether drugs with well-known targets may be repurposed for use against other biological targets. They found that an FDA approved drug for non-small cell lung cancer called ceritinib has anti-cancer activity against previously unknown targets. Their results were published today in the journal, Nature Chemical Biology.

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Anna Giuliano, Ph.D., director of Moffitt Cancer Center’s Center for Infection Research in Cancer, delivered the opening keynote address at the 2017 European Research Organization on Genital Infection and Neoplasia (EUROGIN) International Multidisciplinary Congress. The focus of this year’s conference is human papillomavirus (HPV) and its associated cancers.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Cervical cancer is the second most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with almost 300,000 deaths occurring each year. More than 80 percent of these deaths occur in developing nations. The advent of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines has significantly reduced the number of those who develop and die from cervical cancer.

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Moffitt’s Radiation Oncology Department will utilize Cvergenx’s Genomic-Adjusted Radiation Dose (GARD) model.

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Precision medicine has become the leading innovation of cancer treatment. Patients are routinely treated with drugs that are designed to target specific tumors and molecules. Despite the progress that has been made in targeted cancer therapies, the path has been slow and scientists have a long road ahead. In a collaborative project, researchers at the Moffitt Cancer Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigated the emerging field of radiomics has the potential to improve precision medicine by non-invasively assessing the molecular and clinical characteristics of lung tumors. Their work was published in the July 21 issue of eLIFE, a novel, emerging journal in biomedicine founded by National Academy members and Nobel Prize winners.

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Moffitt researchers launched a first of its kind study comparing the long-term benefits of radiation therapy in women with breast cancer either before surgery or after surgery. Their study found that patients who have neoadjuvant radiation therapy have a significantly lower risk of developing a second primary tumor at any site.

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The investigation found that the drug, geranylgeranyltransferase inhibitor GGTI-2418 suppresses a new defective PTEN cancer pathway discovered by Pagano’s group.