ECOG-ACRIN Names New Committee Leaders

At the Fall 2024 Group Meeting, the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) announced the following scientific committee leadership appointments:

• Angela M. DeMichele, MD, MSCE (University of Pennsylvania/Abramson Cancer Center), is chair of the Breast Cancer Committee, succeeding Antonio C. Wolff, MD
• Christopher E. Comstock, MD (Cornell University/NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital), is chair of the Prevention, Screening and Surveillance Committee, succeeding Etta D. Pisano, MD
• Naomi B. Haas, MD (University of Pennsylvania/Abramson Cancer Center), is chair of the Genitourinary Cancer Committee, succeeding Michael A. Carducci, MD
• Kathleen J. Yost, MD (Cancer Research Consortium of West Michigan NCORP), is chair of the Community Advisory Committee, succeeding Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD
• Yana G. Najjar, MD (University of Pittsburgh/UPMC Hillman Cancer Center), is chair of the Immunotherapeutics/CIMAC Subcommittee within the Thoracic Cancer Committee, succeeding Ignacio I. Wistuba, MD (CIMAC stands for the NCI’s Cancer Immune Monitoring and Analysis Centers)
• Bryan P. Schneider, MD (Indiana University/IU Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center), is co-chair, translational science, for the Breast Cancer Committee, filling a new position
• Habib Rahbar, MD (University of Washington/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center), is imaging chair for the Breast Cancer Committee, succeeding Christopher E. Comstock, MD

Read the press release for more information on these individuals.

Welcome New Principal Investigators

At a recent meeting, the Principal Investigator (PI) Committee approved requests by member institutions to change their PIs for ECOG-ACRIN. The institutions and their new PIs are as follows :

• Fox Chase Cancer Center: Hossein Borghaei, DO, replaces Lori J. Goldstein, MD
• Puerto Rico Minority Underserved NCORP: Luis J. Santos Reyes, MD, replaces the late Luis Baez Diaz, MD
• The University of Iowa/Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center: Fabiana C. Policeni, MD, replaces Asim Afaq, MD
• Thomas Jefferson University/Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center: Steven J. Cohen, MD, replaces the late Edith P. Mitchell, MD
• Vanderbilt University/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center: Kristen K. Ciombor, MD, MSCI, replaces Jordan D. Berlin, MD
• Wake Forest University/Comprehensive Cancer Center of Wake Forest University: Yong Choi Bradley, MD, replaces Jean-Luc Claude Urbain, MD, PhD

View the roster of voting members of the Principal Investigator Committee at ecog-acrin.org.

Ruth Carlos Joins Columbia University

Ruth C. Carlos, MD, MS, is now with the Department of Radiology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in the Division of Abdominal Imaging. At Columbia, Dr. Carlos has taken on two roles: associate chair of research faculty development for the department and director of research in outcomes and care delivery in the newly formed Center for Innovation in Imaging Biomarkers and Integrated Diagnostics.

Dr. Carlos is a distinguished leader in the field of radiology. Her expertise spans health services research and policy, health equity, and structural racism. She became the first woman editor-in-chief of a major radiology journal, the Journal of the American College of Radiology (JACR), which guides the management and practice of radiology as the flagship publication for the ACR. Her research has recently focused on social genomics, the negative biological effects of social and economic marginalization, and imaging biomarkers. At ECOG-ACRIN, she chairs the Cancer Care Delivery Research Committee and co-chairs the Cancer Control and Survivorship Committee.

Dr. Carlos joins Columbia from the University of Michigan, where she was a professor of radiology and assistant chair for clinical research in the Division of Abdominal Radiology. She was also a UM Rogel Cancer Center member and held an appointment at the UM Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation. Read the Columbia University press release.

SNO Highlights Positive E3F05 Glioma Trial Results

Lead investigator David Schiff, MD (pictured left), presented the results of E3F05, a study for adults with grade 2 glioma, as a late-breaking abstract at the Society of Neuro-Oncology (SNO) 2024 Annual Meeting on November 20, 2024. The results have an immediate clinical impact, as this is the first supporting evidence from a randomized phase 3 study that temozolomide chemotherapy improves long-term survival for these patients. The 10-year survival rate was 70% with the combined treatment compared to 47% with radiation alone. Temozolomide is a chemotherapy pill that is less toxic for patients and more manageable for oncologists to administer than other chemotherapies in use for these patients. Read the press release.

ECOG-ACRIN and PrECOG Plan Multiple Presentations at ASH 2024

Researchers with ECOG-ACRIN and PrECOG will present a variety of studies that aim to improve treatments for patients with acute leukemias and lymphomas at the upcoming 66th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting & Exposition. The highlight is the late-breaking abstract LBA-6, Lack of Benefit of Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation in Mantle Cell Lymphoma Patients in First Complete Remission with Undetectable Minimal Residual Disease (EA4151). Other highlights are the results of the phase 2 study PrE0905 in patients with acute myeloid leukemia and the phase 2 study EA4181 in patients with mantle cell lymphoma. For the complete list of abstracts, read the press release.

Investigators Receive ECOG-ACRIN Awards of Distinction

Two presenters from the 2024 Young Investigator Symposium received awards of distinction—an annual tradition. Their names were announced during the General Session of the Fall 2024 Group Meeting.

• Wenhui Zhou, MD, PhD (Stanford University), won the distinction award for translational research for his presentation, Integrating multimodal data for the prediction of occult invasive cancer in ductal carcinoma in situ using machine learning
• Steve Kwon, MD, MPH (Boston University/Roger Williams Medical Center) secured the distinction award for clinical research. His presentation was titled Intervention to improve patient-centered outcomes of older patients undergoing major oncological surgery-Geriatric surgery verification initiative

Fall Group Meeting Session Recordings Now Available

Did you miss the Fall 2024 Group Meeting? If you are an ECOG-ACRIN member, you can now catch up on important study updates and trainings by viewing our library of session recordings. These are available for both attendees and those who missed the meeting. Attendees can simply visit the Attendee Hub Website and log in with the information provided during registration. Everyone else should first register for the meeting and then visit the Attendee Hub to view session recordings on demand.

After registration, users should go to the Attendee Hub and log in with the information they provided. Navigate to ‘Schedule,’ and then select ‘On Demand’ from the dropdown list. Note: The Attendee Hub Website will expire 90 days following the meeting (early February 2025).

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

ASCO 2025 Abstract Submissions Now Open

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is now accepting abstract submissions for the 2025 Annual Meeting through Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at 11:59 PM EST. More information is on the ASCO website. Please notify publications@ecog-acrin.org immediately if you plan to submit an abstract to ASCO.

All draft abstracts using ECOG-ACRIN study data must be submitted to publications@ecog-acrin.org by Wednesday, January 15, 2025, 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.