A guest post by Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine.
Although 2021 was another challenging year in the pandemic, the Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine continued to transform cancer care with ground-breaking clinical research while maintaining the health and well-being of our patients, staff and community.
We take pride in the diversity and quality of the clinical research conducted by our team. Please join me in reviewing five of the many innovative breakthroughs that exemplify the hard work achieved by our cancer center peers over the course of this past year.
2021: Innovative Breakthroughs at Abramson Cancer Center
Penn mRNA Vaccine Pioneers Honored with America's Top Biomedical Prize
Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, the Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research and member of the Abramson Cancer Center, and Katalin Karikó, PhD, adjunct professor in Neurosurgery, were the recipients of the annual Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award.
Widely regarded as America's top biomedical research prize, it was awarded to Weissman and Karikó for their mRNA research that laid a foundation for the swift development of two COVID-19 vaccines.
FDA Approves "Glowing Tumor" Imaging Drug to Better Identify Ovarian Cancer Cells Using Approach Pioneered by Penn Surgeons
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved an imaging drug known as pafolacianine, which is attracted to ovarian cancer tissue and illuminates it when exposed to fluorescent light, allowing surgeons to more easily find and more precisely remove the cancer.
Existing Drug May Help Improve Responses to Cellular Therapies in Advanced Leukemias
Too many "exhausted" T-cells left in the wake of aggressive chemotherapy regimens for patients with advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) make it more challenging for chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy to do its job.
A study from researchers at the Abramson Cancer Center shows how to overcome this type of resistance and reinvigorate these T cells with an experimental small molecule inhibitor.
Abramson Cancer Center Doubles the Percentage of Black Participants in Clinical Trials
A five-year community outreach and engagement effort by the Abramson Cancer Center to increase enrollment of Black patients into cancer clinical trials more than doubled the percentage of participants, improving access and treatment for a group with historically low representation in cancer research.
FLASH Proton Radiotherapy Spares Normal Epithelial and Mesenchymal Tissues While Preserving Ability to Kill Cancer
In studies at the Abramson Cancer Center, ultrahigh dose rates of FLASH radiation therapy produced fewer toxicities than standard dose rates while maintaining local tumor control.
These findings will spur investigation of FLASH radiotherapy in sarcoma and additional cancers where normal tissues are at risk, including head and neck cancer, breast cancer, and pelvic malignancies.
Additional Resources from Penn Medicine