NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE
TARGET Sessions at the AACR 2011 Annual Meeting Highlighting Innovation in Pediatric Cancer Genomics
2011 102nd AACR Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida
April 2 – 6, 2011
The TARGET initiative will hold an NCI-sponsored session and be featured among various symposia at the upcoming American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 102nd Annual Meeting 2011 being held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, from April 2 - 6, 2011.
NCI Sponsored Session: The NCI Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments (TARGET) Initiative: Using Large-Scale Genomics to Identify Novel Therapeutic Targets for Childhood Cancers
Wednesday, April 6th
7:00 a.m. – 8:00 a.m.
Room: W208
TARGET is a large-scale genomics initiative to identify relevant genes in the biology of the most prevalent childhood cancers. There is an overwhelming need for new treatment approaches in pediatric cancers, as early victories in health outcomes over the last several decades for children with cancer have slowed. Further, current treatments for childhood cancers can have serious short- and long-term side effects, and recent molecularly targeted therapy advances have been largely limited to the treatment of adult cancers. TARGET began as a two-year pilot project to investigate promising therapeutic targets in two tumor types: acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and neuroblastoma. With ARRA funding, the initiative has expanded to include three additional cancers of focus: acute myeloid leukemia (AML), osteosarcoma and high-risk Wilms tumor. TARGET is jointly managed by the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Office of Cancer Genomics and Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, and it includes collaborations with researchers of the Children's Oncology Group (COG) and the NCI Center for Cancer Research.
The TARGET Initiative is committed to focusing the tools of modern genetics on the discovery of valid therapeutic targets in childhood cancers so that new, more effective treatments can be rapidly developed. In pursuing its mission, TARGET leverages the strengths of other NCI programs, including the COG, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), and the Strategic Partnership to Evaluate Cancer Signatures (SPECS). Such collaborative networking allows for both efficient discovery of therapeutic targets and translation of the findings for clinical application with the ultimate goal of providing scientific insight and resources that will help reduce the devastating burden of cancer for children and their families.
The session will report TARGET mission and goals, vehicles for broad research community access to genomics data including next generation sequencing, as well as pilot and early expansion phase progress to date. Speakers will highlight advances and challenges within tumor specific projects, along with valuable lessons learned for each. The session will additionally summarize future aims for the TARGET initiative.
Session Co-Chairpersons: Malcolm Smith, M.D., Ph.D., NCI, Bethesda, Md., and Jaime Guidry Auvil, Ph.D., NCI, Bethesda, Md.
TARGET Featured at AACR
New Concepts in Organ Site Research Session: Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia: Genomics, FISH, and Cell Death
Sunday, April 3rd
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Room W230 A-C
Recently, there have been significant advances in understanding the molecular pathogenesis of pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), which have identified potential new therapeutic targets. In this session, speakers will discuss findings from high-throughput genomic studies (Dr. Hunger) and next-generation sequencing (Dr. Mullighan) of primary childhood ALL specimens. Dr. Look will describe recent discoveries of genetic alterations that differentiate T-cell ALL from T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma. Dr. Muschen will report that BCL6 is a key mediator of drug resistance and relapse in ALL subtypes driven by tyrosine kinase oncogenes, and discuss the therapeutic implications of these findings.
Session Co-Chairpersons: Stephen Hunger, M.D., University of Colorado, Denver, Denver, Co. (ALL) and A. Thomas Look, Dana-Farber Cancer Inst., Boston, Mass.
Major Symposium: Recent Findings from Genomic Analyses of Tumors
Monday, April 4th
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
West Hall F3/F4
Over the last decade since the provision of the reference human genome DNA sequence, increasingly extensive sequence analyses of cancer genomes have led to the discovery of new mutated cancer genes and have explored the extant patterns of somatic mutation. The scope of these investigations has been constrained by sequence throughout and cost. However, the recent advent of novel sequencing technologies has ushered in a new era of cancer genome characterization leading to partial or complete catalogues of somatic mutations in individual cancers. The combinations of mutated cancer genes and the mutational processes that are operative are becoming apparent. These studies promise to bring new insights into etiology, pathogenesis and classification of cancer.
Session Chairperson: Michael R. Stratton. Wellcome Trust Sanger Inst., Cambridge, United Kingdom
Minisymposium: Genomics and Potential Targeted Therapies of Pediatric Malignancies
Tuesday, April 5th
3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Room W315
Presentations include a discussion of data generated by some TARGET ALL project team investigators, as well as a highlight of exome sequencing being performed by the Broad Institute for the TARGET Neuroblastoma project.
Minisymposium: Genomic Approaches to Cancer Discovery
Sunday, April 3rd
3:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
Room W230 A-C
Presentations include a highlight of whole genome sequencing being performed by the Broad Institute for the TARGET Neuroblastoma project.
Session Co-Chairpersons: Paul S. Meltzer, M.D., Ph.D., NCI, Bethesda, Md. (Osteosarcoma) and Samuel Aparicio. BC Cancer Agency, Vancouver, BC, Canada
HHS
NIH
USA
