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Peter Kanetsky, Ph.D., M.P.H., chair of the Cancer Epidemiology Department at Moffitt Cancer Center, and colleagues from the International TEsticular CAncer Consortium (TECAC), launched a large analysis of five major testicular cancer studies to investigate genetic risk factors linked to TGCT. Their results, which uncovered eight new genetic markers associated with TGCT, were published in the June 12 issue of Nature Genetics.

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In a study published today in Cancer Cell, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers report that a newly discovered epigenetic mechanism can lead to the development of castration-resistant prostate cancer. They identified a novel drug that targets this epigenetic mechanism and may be able to combat the deadly form of the disease.

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Moffitt researchers have developed a test called the radiosensitivity index that determines how sensitive a patient’s tumor is to radiation therapy. The radiosensitivity index is based on the expression of different genes in a patient’s tumor and has been validated in 9 different patient groups across different tumor types.

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Researchers in the Integrated Mathematical Oncology Department at Moffitt Cancer Center recent study found that mathematical models can be used to predict how different tumor cell populations interact with each other and respond to a changing environment.

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Moffitt Cancer Center moved up two spots to be the No. 4 ranked health care facility on DiversityInc’s 2017 Top Hospitals & Health Systems list. Moffitt is the only cancer center and the only Florida health institution on the specialty list. DiversityInc announced the ranking during its diversity and inclusion keystone event May 2 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.

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Moffitt Cancer Center and its community partners will once again host the annual Men’s Health Forum on Saturday, March 18, from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. at the University of South Florida Marshall Student Center. This marks the 17th year of the forum and baseball legend Ken Griffey Sr. is scheduled to appear.

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A new therapy in development for the treatment of midgut neuroendocrine tumors, a rare type of cancer that occurs in the small intestine and colon, shows improved progression-free survival and response rates for patients with advanced disease. Results of the international phase 3 clinical trial of lutetium-177 (177Lu)-Dotatate compared to high-dose octreotide LAR were published in the Jan. 12 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) is the leading cause of non-relapse associated death in patients who receive stem cell transplants.  In a new study published as the cover story in Science Translational Medicine, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers show that a novel treatment can effectively inhibit the development of GVHD in mice and maintain the infection- and tumor-fighting capabilities of the immune system.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Lymphoma is the most common blood cancer. The disease occurs when immune cells called lymphocytes multiply uncontrollably. Cancerous lymphocytes can travel throughout the body and form lymph node tumors. The body has two types of lymphocytes that can develop into lymphoma – B cells and T cells. B-cell lymphomas account for 85 percent of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas and 30 percent of those patients are diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

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Immunotherapy is a fast growing area of cancer research. It involves developing therapies that use a patient’s own immune system to fight and kill cancer. Moffitt Cancer Center is working on a new vaccine that would help early-stage breast cancer patients who have HER2 positive disease.

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A collaborative team of researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center’s Integrated Mathematical Oncology (IMO) Program, led by Alexander Anderson, Ph.D., and Oxford University’s Department of Computer Science are using mathematical models to explain how bacteria and cancer cells exploit an evolutionary process known as bet-hedging to resist medical intervention.

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Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have their study published today in The Lancet Oncology describing a novel genomics model that allows a personalized approach to radiation therapy.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Immune cellular therapy is a promising new area of cancer treatment. Anti-cancer therapeutics, such as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modified T cells, can be engineered to target tumor-associated antigens to attack and kill cancer cells. This allows for an improved precision medicine approach to treating cancer.

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Analysis of a phase 3 trial shows that older patients with high-risk or secondary AML, who received initial treatment with CPX-351, had improved survival following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant, when compared with patients who received standard 7+3 cytarabine and daunorubicin as initial therapy.

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Patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) suffer from a reduction in the number of different types of blood cells, including red blood cells leading to the development of anemia. Many patients with lower-risk MDS benefit from treatment with recombinant-erythropoietin (rHuEPO), which stimulates blood cell production.

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Researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center’s Integrated Mathematical Oncology (IMO) Department are overcoming the limitations of common preclinical experiments and clinical trials by studying cancer through mathematical modeling.

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José R. Conejo-Garcia, M.D., Ph.D. has joined Moffitt Cancer Center as co-leader of the Immunology Program and chair of the Department of Immunology.

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In their most recent Annals of Oncology publication, Moffitt researchers sought to determine if patients with melanoma brain metastases treated with immune and targeted therapies had improved outcomes over patients treated with conventional chemotherapy. They retrospectively analyzed data from 96 patients with melanoma brain metastases who were treated with stereotactic radiation therapy within 3 months of different targeted therapies (anti–PD-1 therapy, anti–CTLA-4 therapy, BRAF inhibitor plus a MEK inhibitor, or a BRAF inhibitor alone) or conventional chemotherapy.

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In August, Moffitt researchers invited LGBTQ academic and advocacy experts from across the country to join them to discuss barriers and opportunities to overcome cancer healthcare disparities in the LGBTQ community.

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A new study by researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center found patients who tested negative for lung cancer by a detailed X-ray screening called low-dose helical computed tomography (LDCT) but later went on to develop lung cancer within the following two years had poorer outcomes than patients who initially had a non-cancerous positive LDCT screen.

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Early detection is one of the most effective strategies to save lives from most cancers. As part of a new U01 grant awarded to Jae K. Lee, PhD, Robert Gillies, PhD, John Heine, PhD and Matthew Schabath, PhD, the Moffitt Imaging Biomarker Validation Center (MIBVAC) will be established to discover, develop, and validate biomarkers for risk assessment, detection, and molecular diagnosis and prognosis of early cancer. Moffitt will also become a Clinical Validation Center for the National Cancer Institute’s Early Detection Research Network.

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Moffitt researchers David Basanta, PhD, and Conor Lynch, PhD, have been awarded a U01 grant to investigate prostate cancer metastasis. Prostate cancer frequently spreads to the bone, and can cause painful bony lesion and increased mortality for patients. Their study will integrate molecular, cellular and clinical information into mathematical models to better understand key factors driving the disease to help target when metastasis may occur and identify new therapeutic targets for its prevention.

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TAMPA, Fla. – The use of electronic cigarettes (“e-cigarettes”) has increased dramatically in recent years.  The majority of new “vapers” were already cigarette smokers.  To date, little is known about how e-cigarette use changes over time or how it affects the use of traditional cigarettes.  Such information would be valuable for understanding the long-term impact of e-cigarettes and for determining whether e-cigarettes help or hinder smoking cessation.

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Moffitt Cancer Center, a leader in molecular cancer research, and a research team led by Jia Fang, Ph.D., assistant member of the Tumor Biology Department, has discovered a new way to control the activity of SETDB1, a protein that is often upregulated in cancer. Their findings have been published in the June 16 issue of Molecular Cell.

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Moffitt Cancer Center researchers found that these assumptions may be incorrect. In a new article published in the journal Cancer Research, they report that certain subpopulations can be predicted and do not develop randomly as previously thought.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Moffitt Cancer Center will present results from a phase 1 study of selinexor in combination with liposomal doxorubicin and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. The findings will be discussed Monday, June 6, during the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago.

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Moffitt Cancer Center will present preliminary results from a phase 1 study testing whether the addition of pembrolizumab to radiation therapy and bevacizumab is safe and can control tumor growth for these patients.

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Moffitt Cancer Center will present results of the phase 3 NETTER-1 study, showing clinically meaningful and significant results for Lutathera (77Lu-DOTA0-Tyr3-Octreotate) in patients with metastatic midgut neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). The data will be presented Monday, June 6, during the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting in Chicago.

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A new Moffitt Cancer Center study being presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago and published in The Lancet Oncology shows that utilizing the immunotherapeutic agents nivolumab and ipilimumab could lead to more effective treatment options for SCLC patients who fail initial therapy.

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The drugs and therapies used to treat medical conditions often come with side effects.  Doctors, pharmacists and other health care professionals strive to be sure we are made aware. But when the patient is under age, and the effects include possibly permanent impacts on the ability to have biological children and/or sexual function, who should be told – the patient, the parent or both? And who should communicate these details? 

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Taxanes are a group of drugs commonly used to treat cancers of the breast, lung, ovary, or prostate, but its use can be limited by significant side effects. Researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center report prostate cancer patients who have a variation in the VAC14 gene are more susceptible to a side effect called peripheral neuropathy when treated with the taxane docetaxel.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Radiation is a commonly used therapeutic option to treat liver metastases, with the majority of tumors maintained under control after one year. However, some patients do not respond as well to radiation treatment, and the factors that predict patient outcomes are unclear. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers report that liver metastases have different sensitivities to radiation therapy based on the location of the primary tumor.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Several new immunotherapeutic antibodies that inhibit checkpoint receptors on T cells to restimulate the immune system to target tumors have been approved to treat advanced stage lung cancer and melanoma; however, only 20 percent of lung cancer patients show a response to these agents. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have identified a class of drugs that improve the activity of immunotherapeutic antibodies by stimulating the movement of T cells into a tumor and enhancing their activity.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Moffitt Cancer Center researchers discovered that patients with ovarian serous cancer and an overexpression of the HER4 protein are less likely to respond to chemotherapy and have a lower rate of survival. That’s according to a study Carolina Strosberg, M.D., is presenting this week at the 2016 United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) Annual Conference in Seattle, Washington.

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Cancer cells have the ability to grow in an acidic tumor environment that is detrimental to other cells, including immune cells. In a Cancer Research cover article published this week, Moffitt Cancer Center reported that neutralizing the acidic tumor environment increases the efficacy of several immune-targeting cancer therapies.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain tumor with low survival rates, with newly diagnosed patients surviving a median of 14 months and recurrent patients surviving a median of only 3 to 9 months. New therapeutic targets and biomarkers for prognosis are urgently needed. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers recently reported that expression of the protein BIRC3 is associated with poor survival and recurrent disease in GBM patients; and therefore may be a good therapeutic target. The standard treatment options for GBM are temozolomide chemotherapy and radiation. These treatment options are effective for a short period of time; however, eventually patients experience tumor recurrence. One mechanism by which tumors recur and escape anti-cancer treatment is by evading cell death and increasing expression of proteins that inhibit cell death. The Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins (IAPs) is a family of proteins that are overexpressed in GBM and prevent c

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TAMPA, Fla. – Said M. Sebti, Ph.D., chair of the Drug Discovery Department and co-leader of the Chemical Biology and Molecular Medicine Program at Moffitt Cancer Center, has been awarded an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The prestigious award, which provides grant funding over a seven year term, is given to well-established cancer researchers with proven track records to encourage long-term projects of unusual potential in cancer research.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Moffitt Cancer Center received a grant from the National Cancer Institute Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities to bring together researchers, trainees, new and early-stage investigators, and community health members to identify and prioritize region-specific cancer research, education, outreach and training needs.

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Despite numerous advances in oncology since the War on Cancer began, many patients develop resistance to standard therapies and eventually relapse. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers hope to improve treatment outcomes with development of a novel therapeutic strategy, called adaptive therapy, which is based on evolutionary principals and aims to keep resistant cells in check by maintaining a population of chemo-sensitive cells.

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Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death in the United States resulting in more than 158,000 deaths each year. With a 5-year survival rate at only 18 percent, the development of new and improved treatment options is needed. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers are leading the way in the creation of novel therapies. Most recently, Moffitt, in conjunction with partner institutions, initiated a multicenter phase 1b clinical trial to determine the safety and efficacy of a new drug combination for non-small cell lung cancer that stimulates a patient’s immune system to target and kill cancer cells.

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Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have found that a protein called TBK1 plays an important role in the process of cell division, especially at a stage called mitosis. Cells go through a highly regulated, ordered process to divide and multiply, called the cell cycle. After the parental cell DNA is replicated, the duplicated DNA and cellular organelles are separated into two daughter cells during mitosis.

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Rather than targeting one or two specific genes or proteins that contribute to cancer, the task force was charged with researching a broad-spectrum approach. “This type of approach involves combinations of multiple low-toxicity agents that can collectively impact many pathways that are known to be important for the genesis and spread of cancer,” said Kumar.

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TAMPA, Fla. – New research from Moffitt Cancer Center and its collaborators find that the drug combination rituximab plus lenalidomide was effective and produced long-term responses in patients with mantle cell lymphoma. The results from the multicenter phase 2 study were published in the Nov. 5 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

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There are four gene mutations (KRAS, TP53, STK11, and EGFR) that most commonly occur in lung cancer; however, there are limited effective therapies to target these mutations. With this in mind, Moffitt Cancer Center performed an extensive genetic analysis of lung cancer specimens to unravel how mutations in the two of those genes (TP53 and STK11) contribute to the biology of lung cancer and patient outcomes.

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TAMPA, Fla. – Moffitt Cancer Center has long recognized the need to integrate mathematicians into cancer research to better understand the complex dynamics that govern cancer growth and treatment. The Integrated Mathematical Oncology (IMO) Department, established in 2007 and now consisting of six faculty members, integrates their skills with cancer biologists and oncologists in teams to use mathematical models to better understand cancer progression and treatment.

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Moffitt Cancer Center researchers have developed a novel mathematical method inspired by Darwinian evolution to use current antibiotics to eliminate or reduce the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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Peter A. Kanetsky, Ph.D., M.P.H., chair and program leader of Cancer Epidemiology at the Moffitt Cancer Center, has been elected as the new president for the American Society of Preventive Oncology (ASPO).

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Pancreatic cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death in the United States and has a 5-year survival rate of only 6 percent, which is the lowest rate of all types of cancer according to the American Cancer Society.  This low survival rate is partially attributed to the difficulty in detecting pancreatic cancer at an early stage.

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Moffitt Cancer Center researchers recently conducted the largest U.S. based study of BRCA mutation frequency in young black women diagnosed with breast cancer at or below age 50 and discovered they have a much higher BRCA mutation frequency than that previously reported among young white women with breast cancer.

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James J. Mulé, Ph.D., associate center director for Translational Science at Moffitt Cancer Center, has been named a Master of Immunology by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) publication Cancer Immunology Research.