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ASH Awarded for Outstanding Live Continuing Education Activity
The Alliance for Continuing Education in the Health Professions ( ACEhp ) presented the American Society of Hematology ( ASH ), in collaboration with the American Society for Clinical Pathology and the France Foundation , the 2017 ACEhp Award for Outstanding Live Continuing Education Activity for a program on a multidisciplinary approach to diagnosing and treating patients with myelodysplastic syndromes ( MDS ). The program , “ Improving MDS Outcomes from Diagnosis to Treatment : A Multidisciplinary Approach ,” was supported by an independent educational grant from Celgene Corporation .
The collaborative educational program consisted of a series of highly interactive meetings designed to enhance cross-disciplinary and inter-specialty collaboration . During the events , attendees participated in an interactive tumor board session , followed by hands-on activities . Afterward , attendees worked on case scenarios for MDS diagnosis and management via a problem-based learning method and presented their case recommendations to the entire group .
The faculty who participated in the grant program were :
Steering Committee
• Tracy George
• Timothy Miley
• Mikkael Sekeres
• Marilyn Slovak
• David Steensma
Summit Faculty
• Jessica Altman
• Rafel Bejar
• Anne Marie Block
• Kathy Calvo
• Guillermo Garcia- Manero
• Sandeep Gurbuxani
Source : American Society for Clinical Pathology news release , January 31 , 2017 .
• Robert Hasserjian
• Elias Jabbour
• William Koss
• Attilio Orazi
• Ari Rao
• Joyce Rogers
• Danielle Townsley
NCI Issues Grant to Support Study of African-American Cancer Survivors
The National Cancer Institute ( NCI ) awarded researchers a $ 9 million grant , to be administered over five years , to support the launch of a large study of African-American cancer survivors . The Detroit Research on Cancer Survivors study will include 5,560 cancer survivors and assess major factors affecting cancer progression , recurrence , mortality , and quality of life . The study will also include 2,780 family members to help researchers understand how a cancer diagnosis affects the mental , physical , and financial health of those providing care .
The researchers , led
Ann G . Schwartz , PhD , MPH by Ann G . Schwartz , PhD , MPH , deputy center director , and Terrance Albrecht , PhD , associate director for population sciences , both from the Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Karmanos
Cancer Institute in Detroit , will collect comprehensive data through interviews with participants , medical records , and
Terrance Albrecht , PhD biospecimens from participants who live in three counties surrounding Detroit . “ Efforts like this will help us move toward bridging the gap of cancer disparities , ensuring that advances in cancer prevention , diagnosis , and treatment reach all Americans ,” said Douglas R . Lowy , MD , acting director of NCI . African-Americans continue to experience higher cancer incidence rates than other racial / ethnic groups in the United States for most cancer types , and they are also more likely to be diagnosed with more advanced-stage disease and experience higher cancer mortality rates .
Source : National Cancer Institute press release , February 27 , 2017 .
NIH Expands Funding for ENCODE Project
The National Institutes of Health ( NIH ) plans to expand its Encyclopedia of DNA Elements ( ENCODE ) Project , which is a genomics resource to study human health and disease . Since launching in 2003 , ENCODE has funded a network of researchers to develop and apply methods for mapping candidate functional elements in the genome and to analyze the genetic information in the database .
NIH ’ s National Human Genome Research Institute ( NHGRI ) plans to donate as much as $ 31.5 million in fiscal year 2017 to fund this initiative . With this funding , ENCODE will expand its scope to include characterization centers that will study the potential biologic role of candidate functional elements and develop methods to determine how these elements contribute to gene regulation in a variety of cell types and model systems . Additionally , the
project will enhance the ENCODE catalog by developing methods to incorporate clinical trials data and using biologic samples from consenting research participants .
“ ENCODE has created highquality and easily accessible sets of data , tools , and analyses that are being used extensively in studies to interpret genome sequences and to understand the consequence of genomic variation ,” said Elise Feingold , PhD , program director in the Division of Genome Sciences at NHGRI . “ These awards provide the opportunity to strengthen this foundation by expanding the breadth and depth of the resource .”
For a full list of recipients representing mapping centers , characterization centers , computational analysis , and data coordinating and analysis centers , visit nih . gov .
Source : National Human Genome Research Institute news release , February 2 , 2017 .
ACS Announces Medal of Honor Awardees
The American Cancer Society ( ACS ) announced the 2016 recipients of the Medal of Honor , an award given to those who have saved lives from cancer by making valuable contributions to basic and clinical research and cancer control .
The honorees are :
Joan S . Brugge , PhD
Charles L . Sawyers , MD
Leslie L . Robison , PhD
Joan S . Brugge , PhD , director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School in Boston , Massachusetts , for her contributions in basic research , including her influential contributions to the identification of the protein encoded by the Src oncogene and the fundamental understanding of events involved in the initiation and progression of cancer .
Charles L . Sawyers , MD , chair and director of the Human Oncology and Pathogenesis Program at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York , for his contributions in clinical research , including the development of new treatment options for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and prostate cancer .
Leslie L . Robison , PhD , chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control , associate director for cancer prevention and control , and co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at St . Jude Children ’ s Research Hospital in Memphis , Tennessee , for his contributions in cancer control , including his dedication to pediatric oncology research .
“ Each of these individuals have significantly contributed to the advancement and impact of our collective efforts to save more lives from cancer ,” said Gary M . Reedy , chief executive officer of ACS . ●
Source : American Cancer Society press release , January 13 , 2017 .
10 ASH Clinical News May 2017