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Solid Tumors Subdivision Report
Greetings
and best wishes for the New Year, 2010, from here in the
“Stormy, husky, brawling/City of Big Shoulders”. The
speakers for the Solid Tumor sessions in 2009 set a high
standard. Judged by turnout and ‘dwell time’ of the
audience, the programs were very successful. Marc Ladanyi
detailed the structure of “The Genome Cancer Atlas” (TCGA)
research network, an ambitious multicenter program to
systematically study numerous solid tumor types. Mark talked
about the attention given to sample collection and
processing (for a less dynamic presentation see
http://cancergenome.nih.gov,
also check the tab “Publications”). He discussed some
results, notably the ground-breaking analysis of
glioblastoma multiforme. Sanford Markowitz spoke on “Genetic
Lessons from Colon Cancer” learned in his laboratory. Much
of his work has originated in his long term study of TGFbeta
RII, but the talk ranged from the diagnostic – screening a
new biomarker, methylated vimentin exon 1 sequence in blood
- to the basic biology of 15-PGDH. If you missed his talk,
consider consulting his recent review:
"Molecular origins of cancer: Molecular basis of colorectal
cancer" 1 as well as
"Sensitive digital quantification of DNA methylation in
clinical samples"2 and “15-Hydroxyprostaglandin
dehydrogenase inactivation as a mechanism of resistance to
celecoxib chemoprevention of colon tumors"3. In
the Solid Tumor Workshop Shuji Ogino spoke on
“Molecular Classification and Molecular Testing in
Colorectal Cancer”, Wade Samowitz spoke on “KRAS
Mutation Testing, Methods and Application to Selection of
Colorectal Cancer for EGFR-Targeted Therapies”. Shuji
discussed the several axes along which one can classify
colon cancer: fortunately this does not rival the complexity
of hematopoietic neoplasms – so far. Wade discussed and
compared methods for analyzing Kras2 mutations.
Elizabeth Mambo, Benjamin Kipp, Samar Talwalkar,
Kandelaria Rumilla, and Michelle Wallander
gave platform presentation of their abstracts, exciting the
interest of a health news journalist present.
Abstract submissions continue to increase in number. Of 81
abstracts, 20 focused on Kras status. Clinical systems for
Next Generation Sequencing will probably not be in place in
time for members to generate data for the 2010 Meeting, so
the dark horse topic for 2010 remains just that.
I extend
my thanks to the outgoing Solid Tumors Subdivision Chair,
Antonia Sepulveda, for her readiness to do more
than her share of the work and for her calm demeanor such as
when a Plenary Session speaker still had not arrived at the
conference shortly before his presentation.
1. N
Engl J Med 361(25): 2449-60(2009)
2. Nat Biotechnol 27(9): 858-63 (2009)
3. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106(23): 9409-13 (2009).
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