Selina Luger Becomes Leukemia Committee Chair

Selina M. Luger, MD is the newly appointed chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Leukemia Committee, replacing Mark R. Litzow, MD. An internationally-regarded acute leukemia and myeloid disorders researcher, she served as co-chair of the committee since 2013. Dr. Luger is a professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a physician at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center, both at the Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

Dr. Luger received her BA from Harvard University and her MD from McGill University School of Medicine. She joined ECOG-ACRIN in 1995 while a junior faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania. She served as ECOG-ACRIN Principal Investigator for the University of Pennsylvania from 2011-2019. During that time, she co-chaired the Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology Subcommittee, part of the ECOG-ACRIN Health Equity Committee. In addition, Dr. Luger has participated in the Cardiotoxicity Subcommittee of the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Control and Survivorship Committee. She is also an active member of the American Society of Hematology, where she is an associate editor of Blood and participates in several committees.

Dr. Luger is currently a member of the ECOG-ACRIN Task Force on Advancement for Women. She chairs the ongoing trial, PrE0905, a Randomized Trial of Gilteritinib vs. Midostaurin in FLT3 Mutated Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Dustin Deming Becomes Developmental Therapeutics Committee Chair

Dustin A. Deming, MD is the newly appointed chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Developmental Therapeutics Committee, replacing Keith T. Flaherty, MD. Dr. Deming is an associate professor in the Division of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health.

Dr. Deming also serves as clinical co-chair of the UW Carbone Cancer Center (UW CCC) Molecular Tumor Board, director and founder of the UW CCC Colorectal and Anal Cancer Working Group, vice chair of the Chemotherapy Council, and medical director of the William S. Middleton Memorial Hospital Oncology Infusion Clinic.

As a clinician, his primary focus is on medical care of patients living with gastrointestinal cancers including colorectal cancer and esophageal cancer. Dr. Deming’s research program focuses on developing precision medicine treatments for different subtypes of colon cancer.

The Patient Voice: Hear From ECOG-ACRIN's Cancer Research Advocates

To help celebrate ECOG-ACRIN’s 10th Anniversary, we asked the people at the center of all we do—patients and survivors—to share their perspective. Watch a few of the ECOG-ACRIN cancer research advocates explain why cancer research is about more than just science.

Investigators Receive ECOG-ACRIN Awards of Distinction

Two presenters from the 2022 Young Investigator Symposium received awards of distinction—an annual tradition. Their names were announced during the General Session of the Fall 2022 Group Meeting.

Sandhya Prabhakaran, PhD (Moffitt Cancer Center) won the distinction award for translational research for her presentation, Distinct Tumor-Immune Ecologies in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Predict Progression and Define a Clinical Biomarker of Therapy Response.

Florian J. Fintelmann, MD (Massachusetts General Hospital) secured the distinction award for clinical research; his presentation was titled Sybil: A Validated Deep Learning Model to Predict Future Lung Cancer Risk from a Single Low-Dose Chest Computed Tomography.

Meet the eight 2022 Young Investigator Symposium presenters.

Minority Trainees Attend Fall Group Meeting

Eleven underrepresented minority trainees attended the Fall 2022 Group Meeting in Washington, DC thanks to travel scholarships provided by ECOG-ACRIN; an additional four attended the meeting virtually. Minority trainees include students, residents, fellows, and early-career investigators from member institutions. The program also includes other trainees focusing on minority health or health disparities regardless of race or ethnicity.

Those who participated virtually include Getinet M. Adinew, PhD Candidate, MS (Florida A&M University), Nwonukwuru I. Amadi, MD (Michigan State University), Oluwole A. Babatunde, MD, PhD (University of South Carolina), and Esther K. Frimpong, PhD Candidate, MPH (Florida A&M University).

Philip Stella Retires as PI of the MCRC NCORP

After a 40-year career in medical oncology, specializing in lung, gastrointestinal, and breast cancers, Philip Stella, MD has retired. Most recently, he served as medical director of the Oncology Program at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital Cancer Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was also the architect and principal investigator of the Michigan Cancer Research Consortium (MCRC) NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) site. Established in 1994, MCRC now encompasses medical centers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Florida that enroll hundreds of patients each year in 130+ clinical trials.

Read last month’s Institution Spotlight profile on MCRC to learn more.

Fall Group Meeting Session Recordings

Did you attend the Fall 2022 Group Meeting—either in-person or virtually? If so, don’t forget that you may access session agendas and view session recordings on the Attendee Hub Website for a limited time. Just log in to the Attendee Hub with the information you provided during registration, navigate to ‘Schedule,’ and then select ‘On Demand’ from the dropdown list. The Attendee Hub website will expire 90 days following the meeting (late January).

In the coming weeks, we will post select session recordings and resources from the Fall Group meeting in the members’ section of the ECOG-ACRIN website. These materials will be available indefinitely to anyone with member login credentials, regardless of meeting attendance.

PrE0506/DREAM3R Study: Amendment #4 Highlights

The PrE0506 clinical trial, DuRvalumab With chEmotherapy as First Line treAtment in Advanced Pleural Mesothelioma (DREAM3R), is testing if concurrent chemo-immunotherapy with durvalumab can improve outcomes for patients with newly diagnosed, unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma compared to the standard-of-care treatment of chemotherapy alone. Amendment #4 recently activated, prompting the following changes:

• Patients randomized to the standard-of-care arm may now receive either chemotherapy or immunotherapy with ipilimumab/nivolumab; this additional standard-of-care option allows for investigator choice between the two approaches in the control arm, and offers patients the chance to receive immunotherapy in either study arm
• Patient randomization is now 1:1 (instead of 2:1 to durvalumab:chemo)
• Disease histology is now restricted to epithelioid subtype only

DREAM3R is a collaborative effort between PrECOG, LLC in the United States and The University of Sydney’s NHMRC Clinical Trials Group, and the Thoracic Oncology Group of Australasia in Australia and New Zealand.

If you are interested in opening this study at your center or have a patient referral, please contact DREAM3R@precogllc.org.

ASCO 2023 Abstract Submissions Now Open

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is now accepting abstract submissions for the 2023 Annual Meeting, through Tuesday, February 14, 2023, at 11:59 PM EST. More information is on the ASCO website.

Please notify publications@ecog-acrin.org immediately if you are planning to submit an abstract to ASCO.

All draft abstracts using ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) study data must be submitted to publications@ecog-acrin.org by Tuesday, January 31, 2023, including trial-in-progress abstracts and late-breaking abstract placeholders. This deadline is firm and necessary to ensure sufficient time for ECOG-ACRIN to prepare/review the authorship line and for a courtesy review by NCI and industry collaborators, if applicable.

For questions regarding ECOG-ACRIN publication procedures, please contact the ECOG-ACRIN publications team. ECOG-ACRIN publication and authorship guidelines are available on the member section of the ECOG-ACRIN website.