Wafik El-Deiry: Dr. Lowy provided an update from NCI along with covering broad areas including future priorities AACI2023.

Wafik El-Deiry, made the following post on LinkedIn:

“Dr. Lowy provided an update from NCI along with covering broad areas including future priorities AACI2023 AACI (Association of American Cancer Institutes).
Enormous opportunities and challenges.
Lauds work of AACI leadership, Jen Pehger.
FY ‘24 budget will not match opportunities.
“I’m going to be like the skunk who came to the picnic”
Mortality rates from cancer overall going down
Not just for melanoma but for common cancers such as lung cancer.
Some cancer rates are going up such as
Bones and joints and of significant concern is
Uterine cancer with high mortality and significant disparities. An NCI workshop that focused on this cancer including models
Dr. Lowy congratulated newly approved NCI centers.
Spoke of critical work being done at non-NCI designated.
Dr. Lowy addressed some cancer research workforce concerns including clinical trial staff, difficult goals of Cancer Moonshot, and need to accelerate reduction in cancer mortality to 2.7% per year. He suggested wider dissemination of current standards, implementation research and changing policies.
He showed benefit from adjuvant therapy in resected EGFR mutated cancer but major disparities in genomic testing.
Rare cancers add up in terms of cancer mortality per Dr. Lowy.
mentioned telehealth research centers of excellence, new initiatives to address cancer rates in areas of persistent poverty, and
Cancer Cabinet Meeting with President Biden to advance moonshot September 13, 2023.
National Cancer Plan and recent stakeholder meeting
Regarding Cancer Screening, Dr. Lowy advocates for increasing screening rates to higher than pre-COVID levels.
There were fewer diagnoses during early part of pandemic.
Cervical cancer screenings that were overdue increased between 2015 to 2019. The
“Last Mile Initiative” looks to increase screening. There is interest in bringing screening closer of people.
NCI doing rigorous testing of multi-cancer detection tests to try and show impact on mortality.
CSRN funded only 4 instead of 9
Dr. Lowy spoke about ANCHOR trial and anal cancer screening among HIV + patients as rates are rising among women
Budget outlook:
More money available but also more applications than are reducing pay lines. Early stage have 5% higher payline which has increased the numbers of funded grants for them.
Less buying power, more non-modular awards that have increased costs of more investigator grants.
Flat budget in 2024 affects all cancer efforts
‘We need to work together’ ‘not compete.'”

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Source: Wafik El-Deiry/LinkedIn

Wafik El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP, FRSM, an American Cancer Society Research Professor, is the Associate Dean for Oncologic Sciences at the Warren Alpert Medical School and Director of the Legorreta Cancer Center at Brown University. Dr. El-Deiry discovered p21(WAF1) as a p53 target gene, cell cycle inhibitor, and tumor suppressor that explained the mammalian cell stress response. This has been the most highly cited original work published in Cell. He discovered TRAIL receptor DR5 as a p53 target, and ONC201/TIC10 as a TRAIL pathway, integrated stress response inducer, and cancer therapeutic with efficacy in diffuse midline glioma and other tumors.  He was named one of America’s Top Oncologists by the Consumer Res Council of America in 2008 and 2009. He is a practicing physician-scientist specializing in colorectal cancer treatment.