New on NCI’s Websites for June 2022

June 10, 2022, by NCI Staff

Cancer Trends Progress Report

The Cancer Trends Progress Report outlines our nation's advances against cancer in relation to the Healthy People targets set by the Department of Health and Human Services. The report covers key measures of progress along the cancer control continuum and uses national trend data to illustrate where improvements have been made and where attention is needed. For the 20th installment of this report, updates were made to numerous key measures and several new measures were added, including sleep, melanoma treatment, outdoor tanning, and smoking cessation aids.

Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI) Launches Molecular Characterization Initiative, Data Catalog

CCDI has launched the Molecular Characterization Initiative, which offers biomarker testing to children, adolescents, and young adults newly diagnosed with central nervous system tumors and receiving care at hospitals affiliated with the Children’s Oncology Group. The results of this voluntary testing can help doctors choose the most effective and possibly least toxic treatment for each young person. 

The CCDI Childhood Cancer Data Catalog provides an inventory of pediatric oncology data resources, including childhood cancer repositories, registries, knowledge bases, and catalogs that either manage or refer to data. The catalog makes it easier for researchers to access what they need to make faster progress in childhood cancer research.

Cancer Moonshot Efforts: Federal Cervical Cancer Collaborative 

The Federal Cervical Cancer Collaborative is a multiagency federal partnership focused on realizing one of the primary goals of the Cancer Moonshot^SM: reducing disparities in cervical cancer. The partnership recently published a landscape analysis of the facilitators and barriers to effective cervical cancer screening in low-resource settings and for impoverished populations.

Popular NCI Fact Sheets Revised 

Several of NCI’s fact sheets have been revised to reflect the latest research and state of the science, including 

• Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Testing 
• Cell Phones and Cancer Risk 
• Electromagnetic Fields and Cancer
• Accidents at Nuclear Power Plants and Cancer Risk
• Obesity and Cancer

Chatbot Helps Researchers Find Cancer Training Funding

NCI’s Center for Cancer Training (CCT) has launched a new chatbot to help cancer researchers find funding opportunities for cancer research training. The chatbot poses a handful of questions (e.g., What is your career stage?) to help guide the search. This new tool optimizes and speeds up the current process of identifying funding for training.

New Video Series: NCI Minute 

NCI has launched a new series of brief videos about recent news in cancer research. The first two videos, about CAR T-Cell Immunotherapy for Cancer Treatment and COVID and Cancer, are available on NCI’s YouTube channel and on the Resources for News Media section of the NCI website.  

Meeting Recordings Available

The recordings from several NCI-hosted science meetings are available to view. NCI’s Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis held a mini-symposium in February on Maximizing the Research Use of Small Biopsy Tissue, and the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences hosted the Advancing Rapid Cycle Research in Cancer Care Delivery Fireside Chat. 

Center for Cancer Research Milestones Magazine

NCI’s Center for Cancer Research (CCR) has published its annual CCR Milestones magazine to share some of the center’s scientific advances from 2021 and early 2022. This issue features 14 of its top scientific advances from the past year, including basic research to understand cancer cell growth, promising advances in immunotherapy for solid tumors, precision oncology for selecting the best treatment for a patient, and new insights into the role of the tumor microenvironment and the microbiota in cancer treatment.

Myeloid Malignancies Program

CCR has launched a new web page for the Myeloid Malignancies Program, a trans-NIH multidisciplinary network of researchers and clinicians dedicated to improving early detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and development of novel therapeutics for myeloid malignancies.

CCR’s Commitment to Inclusion

CCR is dedicated to creating a more equitable community by building and retaining a diverse biomedical workforce, enhancing its health disparities research program, and making its clinical trials more inclusive.

Digital Oncology Studies

A team of CCR staff is collaborating with the Food and Drug Administration and commercial partners to test the use of digital technology to assess symptoms and functional outcomes, the remote collection of data, and new treatment approaches in cancer trials and clinical care.

Proteogenomics Provides New Insights into Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma

The second-most-common type of liver cancer—intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma—has a 5-year survival rate of just 15%. Effective treatment is difficult due to its aggressive nature, lack of early-stage symptoms, and early spread. Recently, scientists from NCI’s Clinical Proteomics Tumor Analysis Consortium collaborated with a team led by researchers from China to develop the largest and most comprehensive proteogenomics data set of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma to date. 

Living with and Learning about Neuroendocrine Tumors 

CCR’s Jaydira Del Rivero, M.D., is the principal investigator for the Natural History Study of Children and Adults with Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (NENs). In this Q&A, Dr. Del Rivero talks with trial participant Nan Fuhrman about her experience living with neuroendocrine tumors.

DCEG Linkage Newsletter Published

NCI’s Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG) has published the latest edition of its Linkage newsletter. This edition features a discussion about data science and the principles that guide its use and stewardship, an update on how researchers are extending precision medicine to people with Li-Fraumeni syndrome, and highlights of other recent DCEG research. 

When Someone You Love Is Being Treated for Cancer

NCI’s booklet, When Someone You Love Is Being Treated for Cancer: Support for Cancer Caregivers, has been revised and updated. The booklet is for friends or family members of a person with cancer, with a focus on how they can take care of themselves while caring for someone else.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor about Your Treatment 

A cancer diagnosis can be a frightening experience, and you may have questions about treatment. This page suggests some questions people may want to ask their health care team.

CAR T Cells: Engineering Immune Cells to Treat Cancer

Researchers are working to expand the use of CAR T-cell therapy to treat more types of cancer and better understand and manage its side effects. This updated page explains how CAR T-cell therapy works, which cancers it’s used to treat, and current research efforts.

New Drug Information Summaries 

The following summaries have been added to NCI’s collection of summaries of drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration for different types of cancer.

• Ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Carvykti) was approved to treat adults with multiple myeloma that has come back or did not respond to treatment after at least four other treatments.
• Pacritinib citrate (Vonjo) was approved to treat adults who have certain types of myelofibrosis and a low platelet count.
• Mobocertinib succinate (Exkivity) was approved to treat adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer that has worsened during or after platinum chemotherapy.
• Sirolimus protein-bound particles (Fyarro) was approved to treat adults with perivascular epithelioid cell tumors that have spread or cannot be removed by surgery.
• Tisotumab vedotin-tftv (Tivdak) was approved to treat cervical cancer that has spread, come back, or gotten worse after chemotherapy.
• Tebentafusp-tebn (Kimmtrak) was approved to treat melanoma of the eye (uveal melanoma) that cannot be removed by surgery or has spread to other parts of the body.