• The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance declared the six winners of the first Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research.  The recipients each receive $200,000 per year for up to three years to help them carry on their research.  One of the prize winners, MSK’s Dr. Ross Levine, is evaluating how mutations in some specific epigenetic proteins contribute to cancer in humans.  His aim is to find novel drugs to fight the cancers.
• Protea Biosciences Group, Inc. announced its collaborative research initiative with MSK and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  The two institutions use Protea’s next generation LAESI direct molecular imaging technology to investigate cancer cells.  The study will aid in the comprehension of cancer’s origins.  MSK’s lead investigators for the research are Dr. Robert  J. Downey and Dr. Andre Moreira.

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Some interesting news related to Memorial Sloan Kettering…..

• Currently, the position of a number of organizations is that guidelines for population-based screening for melanoma are not needed since there is no clinical trial evidence of a benefit.  However, at a meeting of the Hawaii Dermatology Seminar, Dr. Allan C. Halpern, Chief of the Dermatology Service at MSK, reported that there is an increase in the demand for screening for melanoma.  There has been a dramatic increase in new cases of melanoma.  Dr. Halpern says there may be a million people in the US. who have had melanoma who need follow-up  visits and their family members need to be tested as well. Continue reading →

• MSK is highlighted in a recent report as one of the 100 Great Hospitals in America, 2014.  A brief profile states that MSK, established in 1884, is the oldest and largest private cancer center in the world.  It also reports that between 1980 and 2012, 10 drugs developed at MSK were approved by the FDA, which is a greater number than were developed at any other cancer center in the country.
• The State of Cancer Care in America: 2014, the first report of its kind published by ASCO, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, focuses on the increased need for cancer care and an insufficient oncology workforce.   ASCO’s president and MSK’s Chief of the Breast Cancer Medicine Service, Dr. Clifford A. Hudis, stated at a Capital Hill briefing at which the report was released, that “access to the care we have developed is being threatened…”  On a positive note, Dr. Hudis mentioned plans to develop new care delivery and payment models. Continue reading →