NCI at AACR Virtual Meeting II

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is participating in this year's two-part American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting. The second part will be held June 22-24, 2020, and features the NCI Director's Address, awards and lectures, a special session on NCI funding for research and training, and several presentations and poster sessions featuring NCI experts. Registration is free and provides access to this live and on-demand content.

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For those who were unable to participate in the AACR Virtual Meeting I (April 27-28), we encourage you to learn more about NCI’s presence at the conference.

NCI Director's Address

NCI Director, Norman E. Sharpless, MD, will present his NCI Director’s Address, followed by an opportunity for questions and answers.

Join this session June 23, 12:00-12:30 p.m. EDT

NCI Awards and Lectures

Douglas R. Lowy, M.D.

NCI principal deputy director, Dr. Doug Lowy, will receive the 2020 AACR Distinguished Public Service Award in recognition of his leadership of the NCI during his tenure as the acting director. His presentation will cover his work in developing the technology for HPV vaccines with Dr. John T. Schiller, as well as current studies to improve HPV vaccine uptake in low- and middle-income countries. In addition, Dr. Lowy highlights various initiatives and programs that have been established at NCI since he began his first term as acting director in 2015 – including the Precision Medicine Initiative in Oncology, Cancer Moonshot, the National Center for Cryo-electron Microscopy at the Frederick National Lab, and more.

Join this session June 23, 5:15-6:00 p.m. EDT

Steven A. Rosenberg, M.D.

Chief of the Surgery Branch at NCI and senior investigator at the NCI Center for Cancer Research, Dr. Steven Rosenberg, is being honored with the 2020 AACR-CRI Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology . This award recognizes Dr. Rosenberg’s pioneering discoveries in the field of cancer immunotherapy.

Join this session June 24, 12:45-1:00 p.m. (EDT)

Patricia S. Steeg, Ph.D.

Co-director of the Office of Translational Resources and associate director of the Center for Cancer Research at the NCI, Dr. Patricia Steeg, will receive the 2020 AACR-Women in Cancer Research Charlotte Friend Memorial Lectureship . Dr. Steeg is being honored with this lectureship for her groundbreaking research on breast cancer metastasis.

Join this session June 24, 12:00-12:45 p.m. (EDT)

Special Session: NCI Funding for Research and Training

This session will feature four NCI experts who will provide an overview of NCI’s grant process, funding mechanisms, and training opportunities - such as fellowships, career development awards, and institutional training grants - to help attendees understand how NCI makes funding available to the research community and supports the development of the next generation of cancer researchers.

Join this session June 24, 1:45-2:55 p.m. EDT

Virtual Meeting: NCI COVID-19 in Cancer Patients Study

NCI recently launched a national, longitudinal study of COVID-19 in people with cancer. The study, named NCI COVID-19 in Cancer Patients Study (NCCAPS), will help scientists answer key questions about COVID-19’s impact on cancer patients, as well as cancer’s impact on the course of COVID-19. The study aims to enroll 2,000 patients at more than 1,000 sites across the United States – with NCI encouraging any and all NCI-funded clinical trial sites to participate, especially sites reaching minority, underserved, and rural populations and sites with a high incidence of COVID-19.

NCI invites AACR 2020 attendees to participate in a virtual presentation where study coordinators will review the objectives of NCCAPS and explain how you can participate in this important study.

The session will be held Thursday, June 25 at 1:00 p.m. EDT

Registration is free and open to the public.

For more information about NCCAPS, check out the recent Cancer Currents blog post, How Does COVID-19 Affect People with Cancer? NCCAPS Will Help Find Out.

Additional Presentations and Poster Sessions Featuring NCI Staff

View the AACR program for more information and to view poster sessions from NCI experts.

All times listed below in EDT.

June 22, 2020

Presentation Title and Time	NCI Presenter
Exceptional Responders and Long-Term Survivors Understanding exceptional responders Exit Disclaimer (2:31-2:51 p.m.)	Alice P. Chen
Carcinogens at Home: Science and Pathways to Prevention Pesticides in the field and in the home: What do we know about cancer risk?Exit Disclaimer (2:08-2:28 p.m.)	Mary H. Ward

June 23, 2020

Presentation Title and Time	NCI Presenter
Metastatic Mechanisms: New Insights A novel peptide based microRNA nanoparticle hydrogel composite attenuates mesothelioma growth Exit Disclaimer (10:05-10:15 a.m.)	Anand Singh
Adoptive Cell Therapy Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) recognize a unique and diverse number of non-synonymous somatic mutations in patients with metastatic breast cancer Exit Disclaimer (9:35-9:45 a.m.)	Nikolaos Zacharakis
Novel Immunotherapies and Mechanisms Complete regression of murine breast tumors by hetIL-15FC monotherapy correlates with infiltration by T, NK, cDC1 cells and a novel population of dendritic cells Exit Disclaimer (9:05-9:15 a.m.)	Dimitris Stellas
New Insight from Classic Epidemiologic Factors Commute patterns, residential traffic-related air pollution, and lung cancer risk in the prospective UK Biobank cohort study Exit Disclaimer (10:05-10:15 a.m.)	Jason Yat-Yang Wong
Metabolism and Cancer Targeting serine metabolism impairs tumor growth in preclinical models of Ewing sarcoma Exit Disclaimer (10:35-10:45 a.m.)	Sameer Issaq

June 24, 2020

Presentation Title and Time	NCI Presenter
Innovative Approaches and Tools to Study the Tumor Microenvironment Intratumor regulatory T cells prevent IFN-gamma-dependent tumor vessel regression and can be selectively targeted by anti-CD25 near-infrared photoimmunotherapy Exit Disclaimer (9:50-10:00 a.m.)	Yutaka Kurebayashi
Infection and Immune Factors Associations of anti-parietal cell and anti-intrinsic factor antibodies with gastric cancer risk Exit Disclaimer (9:50-10:00 a.m.) Elevated incidence of rare cancers among solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs) in the United States Exit Disclaimer (10:35-10:45 a.m.)	Jill Koshiol (Chair) Minkyo Song Eric Engels
Novel Mechanisms: From Tumor Suppression to Identification of Novel Therapeutics Epigenetic reactivation of the DLC1 tumor suppressor protein is a new approach for cancer treatment Exit Disclaimer (10:20-10:30 a.m.)	Brajendra Tripathi
Clinical Trial Design: Part 4: Trial Design for Early Cancer Detection Biomarkers for early-phase cancer prevention/immunoprevention trials Exit Disclaimer (4:00-4:20 p.m.)	Asad Umar