Komen Health Sciences Team Provides Highlights from 2007 AACR Meeting
April 20, 2007 - Members of Susan G. Komen for the Cure's Health Sciences team joined more than 17,000 researchers from around the world at the American Association for Cancer Research's (AACR) 100th anniversary meeting April 14 through 18 in Los Angeles.
©2007 AACR/Todd Buchanan
| During the meeting, Susan G. Komen for the Cure founder Nancy G. Brinker was presented with the AACR Centennial Medal for Distinguished Public Service. She announced that Komen was awarding nearly $82 million in research grants this year, including $2.5 million for a collaborative project with AACR that will target three key areas of concern in the cancer world: prevention, disparities and access to tissue by patients and researchers. Komen for the Cure board member, LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., M.D., received the AACR Public Service Award for his leadership in the fight against cancer through excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, patient care and public service. |
Komen Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction laureate Mina J. Bissell, Ph.D., received the 2007 Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Cancer Research for her pioneering work on the relationship between cancer genetics and the three-dimensional structure of cells and tissues.
Komen Perspective
"The research presented during AACR showed that the scientific community has made marked progress in understanding the complexities of cancer," said Cheryl Perkins, M.D., Komen's senior clinical advisor.
Perkins outlined the following general highlights from the meeting:
It is very likely that stem cells are the initiators of cancer and therefore are potential targets for future interventions and treatments. Damage to the DNA in these cells could result in cancer. Genetics plays a key role in cancer's development and in the risk and prognosis of cancer. It is likely that a major risk factor for breast cancer, getting older, somehow activates a lifetime's accumulation of genetic mutations.
The gene-environment interaction represents the area where the complex interactions and relationships are being studied. The external environment and the internal environment (the microenvironment) play complex roles in the cancer process. Epigenetic (non-inherited) changes in DNA can be associated with breast cancer risk factors. The timing in life of external exposures can impact the degree of risk later in life. Interactions between genes and the internal microenvironment can either block or assist cancer cells to survive, grow, multiply and spread. Cells in the microenvironment, such as inflammatory cells, which normally protect against injury and function in the repair process, can assume roles that protect cancer cells and help them thrive. How and why that happens is an important area of research.
Because the body no longer recognizes cancer cells as foreign, understanding how this occurs within the cancer microenvironment is helping scientists use the body's immune system to develop vaccines that target cancer cells.
The sheer number of possible pathways being discovered for cancer to develop and the multiple factors that must play a role before cancer can develop, grow and spread will continue to present challenges to those who work for a cure. However, this knowledge will also bring us closer to our next steps - developing therapies that target the uniqueness in different cancers and identifying early changes to focus on earlier interventions, risk reduction and prevention therapies.
For advocates, the need to collaborate, educate and address disparities and access seems more urgent than ever as we move this knowledge closer to the clinic and to the patient.
Read a summary of AACR research highlights of particular interest to the breast cancer community.
Read more AACR news here: www.AACR.org
