Jefferson Names Edith Mitchell Its VP for Cancer Disparities

Jefferson Health’s Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC) has appointed Edith P. Mitchell, MD, MACP, FCCP, FRCP, enterprise vice president for cancer disparities. In this role, she is responsible for developing and coordinating operations for cancer care disparities across Jefferson. Dr. Mitchell oversees a team focused on cancer care quality and cost-effectiveness, as well as patient-oriented outcomes; she also is focusing on identifying and eliminating barriers to care, particularly those related to socioeconomic, racial, or ethnic disparities and social determinants of health.

Dr. Mitchell is co-chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group’s (ECOG-ACRIN) Health Equity Committee. She is a clinical professor of medicine and medical oncology, director of the Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities and associate director of Diversity Affairs at the SKCC at Thomas Jefferson University. She also serves as a member of the President’s Cancer Panel. Learn more.

American Cancer Society Honors Gabrielle Rocque

The American Cancer Society honored Gabrielle Rocque, MD as the 2022 recipient of the Trish Greene Quality of Life Award. The award recognizes an investigator whose body of work illustrates outstanding innovative contributions over the years, has had years of funding sources recognized nationally and/or internationally, and a program of quality-of-life research built over their career.

Dr. Rocque is a key contributor to ECOG-ACRIN’s Cancer Control and Outcomes Program. She is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a medical oncologist specializing in the care of women with breast cancer. Her research focuses on improving the quality of healthcare delivery for cancer patients, with an emphasis on shared decision-making, payment reform, and the provision of supportive care services to patients. Learn more.

Matthew Schabath to Co-Lead Moffitt Cancer Epidemiology Program

Moffitt Cancer Center recently appointed Matthew Schabath, PhD co-leader of its Cancer Epidemiology Program, which aims to reduce the cancer burden through the identification and confirmation of biological factors affecting carcinogenesis across the cancer continuum that contribute to disease development, progression, and outcomes, and to exploit learned knowledge to inform advances in clinical and public health practice. As part of this appointment, he was also named a Moffit Distinguished Scholar.

Dr. Schabath is chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Sexual and Gender Minorities Working Group, part of the Health Equity Committee. At Moffitt, he has a secondary appointment in the Department of Thoracic Oncology. Dr. Schabath has expertise in molecular epidemiology, quantitative imaging/radiomics, and cancer disparities among sexual and gender minority populations. He is on the organizing committee for the Science of Cancer Health Equity in Sexual and Gender Minority Communities Conference, taking place October 5-7, 2023, in New York, NY.

Update on the Task Force on Advancement for Women

The first recipient of the Remarkable Mentor to Women in Oncology Award will be announced at the General Session of the upcoming ECOG-ACRIN Spring Group Meeting, taking place on Thursday, May 4, from 5:15-7:00 PM in Chicago, Illinois. Members of the Task Force on Advancement for Women initiated this professional honor, which will be given annually as one of ECOG-ACRIN’s highest distinctions. The award is one of several initiatives by the task force to increase the representation of women across the Group. Attendees of the Spring 2023 Group Meeting, mark your calendars to attend the task force’s update session on Wednesday, May 3, from 6:30-7:30 PM.

ECOG-ACRIN Leaders Elected to AACR Board of Directors

Two leaders of ECOG-ACRIN’s Therapeutic Studies Program were recently elected to the American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR) Board of Directors: Christine M. Lovly, MD, PhD (Vanderbilt University/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center), and Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center).

At ECOG-ACRIN, Dr. Lovly leads the Lung Biology Working Group, is a member of the Thoracic Cancer Committee, and was honored as the 2021 ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator of the Year. A longtime member of our Group, Dr. Wolchok currently chairs the Melanoma Committee. Learn more.

E1609 Correlative Oral Presentation at AACR

Researchers recently presented An integrated immune signature predictive of adjuvant immunotherapeutic benefits for high-risk melanoma (Abstract 5704) at the annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting. First author Alyssa Obermeyer and lead investigator Ahmad Tarhini, MD, PhD (Moffitt Cancer Center) led the development of a bioinformatics framework for associating genes and pathway signatures with clinical endpoints. In addition, they performed survival analyses using data from patients treated as part of the E1609 phase 3 trial. Dr. Tarhini presented the broadly applicable model during the mini-symposium Immune-based Biomarkers for Prognostic and Predictive Benefit (MS.CL01.02).

TMIST Update

The study chair for this trial is Etta Pisano, MD (University of Pennsylvania/American College of Radiology).

Personalized recruiting of women by staff at local facilities and a forward-thinking study design continue to drive steady enrollment of women to the Tomosynthesis Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (TMIST). Current enrollment stands at 85,021 as of April 19, 2023. Even as screening mammography volumes remain below pre-pandemic levels, 124 active TMIST sites continue to enroll women at a pace nearly unheard of in the COVID era. Learn more.

Attendees of the ECOG-ACRIN Spring Group Meeting, mark your calendars to attend the TMIST Update and Education Session on May 4, from 11:30 AM-12:30 PM.

Reminder: Register for the Spring 2023 Group Meeting

There is still time to register for the ECOG-ACRIN Spring 2023 Group Meeting, taking place in person at the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile in Chicago, IL, from Wednesday, May 3 – Friday, May 5. View the schedule on the Group Meeting website and then register for three days of engaging sessions highlighting the latest in basic, clinical, and translational research.

Important note: This year, the ECOG-ACRIN Group Meetings are returning to an in-person only format; ECOG-ACRIN members unable to attend in person may register via the link above for on-demand access to select session recordings (to be posted after the meeting has concluded). Registration is required to access these recordings.