Press Releases

Patients with pancreatic cancer who took the benzodiazepine lorazepam (Ativan), commonly prescribed to treat anxiety during cancer treatment, had a shorter progression-free survival than patients who did not, according to results published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

As work advances on a significant expansion of its cellular therapy production and research facilities, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has named Yeong “Christopher” Choi, PhD, MBA, as Senior Vice President of Industry Partnerships and Technical Director of the center’s current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) Facility.

The Roswell Park Care Network, a dynamic alliance of medical providers committed to delivering exceptional care to patients across Western New York and beyond, is pleased to announce new locations, care providers and services as part of ongoing growth and expansion. The Care Network was established in 2019 to expand convenient access to cancer treatment and services guided by experts at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

As bans on menthol tobacco spread across the country and a potential ban looms at the federal level, researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center and their colleagues at the University of Southern California (USC) are investigating the tobacco industry’s efforts to circumvent a menthol ban enacted in California in December 2022. Those efforts could signal how they will respond to a nationwide ban on menthol tobacco proposed by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), expected this fall.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center Director of Radiation Research Anurag Singh, MD, has been named a 2023 American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) Fellow. ASTRO is the world’s largest society for radiation oncology professionals. Dr. Singh will receive his FASTRO designation at the Society’s 65th Annual Meeting, which takes place October 1-4 in San Diego, California.

Researchers from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center report that a new approach to immunotherapy could overcome some of the challenges of treating ovarian cancer by leveraging the power of endogenous (host) T cells using engineered T cells to deliver bispecific T-cell engagers, commonly referred to as BiTEs — a trademarked term for a type of fusion protein. The research team believes this strategy could improve treatment outcomes in ovarian cancer, for which immunotherapy has been largely ineffective. Findings from their preclinical study lay the groundwork for a new approach to targeting folate receptor alpha (FR⍺), an antigen commonly present in epithelial ovarian cancer and associated with advanced disease, chemotherapy resistance and disease relapse.

Researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center are shedding light on how Body Mass Index (BMI) impacts treatment response, risk of recurrence and survival in patients with head and neck cancer. Their retrospective study, published late June in JAMA Network Open, found that head and neck cancer patients with an overweight BMI had better outcomes than those with a normal or obese BMI, including longer overall and progression-free survival and lower rates of locoregional failure — persistent or recurrent disease around the tumor site and in nearby lymph nodes. Sung Jun Ma, MD, former Department of Radiation Medicine resident at Roswell Park, is first author of the study.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has been named to the ranks of America’s Best Cancer Hospitals for 2023. It is the only Buffalo-area center included on the full list of 175 cancer hospitals across the country.

Researchers at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center have launched a phase 2 clinical trial that they hope will improve both survival and quality of life for patients with recurrent ovarian, fallopian-tube or primary peritoneal cancer and malignant effusion, a side effect of the disease that significantly impairs quality of life. The study is exclusive to Roswell Park, where it was developed.