Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is spotlighting our 2024 Super Bowl MVPs — the Most Valuable Pups who are considered the “goodest boys and girls” by patients and staff alike. The cancer center will debut “Tails of Hope,” a local television commercial featuring its therapy dog program, airing in the Buffalo market during the big game on Sunday, February 11.

Up to 30% of patients newly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have an FLT3 gene mutation, which is associated with a high risk of relapse and a very poor prognosis. But clinical studies have shown that drugs called FLT3 inhibitors can extend long-term survival in these patients, especially when given in combination with other treatments. A phase 2 clinical trial led by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center tested that strategy for treating FLT3-mutated AML, and the encouraging results are newly reported in Journal of Clinical Oncology, a journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

A research study led by a multidisciplinary team of scientists at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center details evidence on the therapeutic efficacy of a compound that targets a key genetic feature of pancreatic cancer. The work, newly published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, illustrates potential clinical applications for the novel anticancer agent MRTX1133 and outlines its effect on both the tumor and the surrounding environment.

As new cancer treatments become available, some of the most important ongoing research must look at ways to optimize those new approaches so that more patients can benefit from groundbreaking therapies. In work newly published in Blood Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, a team of collaborators from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and Moffitt Cancer Center report the first strategy for identifying before treatment which patients are at risk for poor outcomes from CAR T-cell therapy — pointing to opportunities to improve the safety and efficacy of this new and fast-growing class of cancer immunotherapies.

Subcutaneous injection of the immunotherapy nivolumab (brand name Opdivo) is noninferior to intravenous delivery and dramatically reduces treatment time in patients with renal cell carcinoma, as seen in the results of a large phase 3 clinical trial reported today at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Genitourinary Cancers Symposium in San Francisco, California. Saby George, MD, FACP, Professor of Oncology and Medicine and Director of Network Clinical Trials at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, will deliver an oral abstract summarizing the findings of “A Study of Subcutaneous Nivolumab Versus Intravenous Nivolumab in Participants with Previously Treated Clear Cell Renal Carcinoma That Is Advanced or Has Spread (CheckMate-67T)” (NCT04810078).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded Orphan Drug Designation to Canget BioTekpharma LLC for FL118, a drug candidate developed at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, as a possible treatment for pancreatic cancer.