Press Releases

Nearly two decades ago, first responders from across New York State answered the call for help when thousands of people were killed and injured in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A new program at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center will make sure these brave police officers, firefighters and emergency personnel don’t need to cross the state to protect themselves from the long-term health effects they may still be dealing with because of their 9/11-related service.

Two Roswell Park experts were invited to present new insights on treatment of gastroesophageal cancers during the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer 2021. Both highlighted easily adoptable methods that may help other clinicians to provide care supporting improved patient outcomes.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists continued to draw support for their innovative research proposals, garnering more than $34 million in competitive grants from government agencies and private funders. These recent grants fund efforts to improve outcomes for patients with some of the most challenging cancer types — including triple-negative breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and head and neck cancers — and to advance what we know about the impact of COVID-19 in cancer patients.

New collaborative research led by Roswell Park shows that treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) has led to a significant improvement in survival and response rates among patients with a particularly aggressive type of kidney cancer: advanced sarcomatoid renal cell carcinoma. The study is detailed in a presentation at the ASCO 2021 virtual annual meeting.

New work from a team at Roswell Park will help guide the care of patients with neuroendocrine tumors, or NETs. Abhay Singh, MD, MPH, and colleagues have discovered a potential biomarker to predict which patients are likely to experience side effects from a new targeted radiation treatment, peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT).

Researchers at Roswell Park led the largest study to date to suggest an improving trend in pathologic complete response rates over time for U.S. cancer patients of various races. The team's findings, documented in a poster presentation at the 2021 American Society of Clinical Oncology virtual annual meeting (abstract 575), show that African Americans are more likely than patients from any other group to have remaining disease following breast cancer treatment.

A pain-management protocol designed by Emese Zsiros, MD, PhD, FACOG, reported at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual annual meeting, resulted in a 45% decrease in the amount of opioids prescribed to patients undergoing surgery, without any significant effect on patient recovery or satisfaction.

The joint Roswell Park/Kaiser Permanente Northern California team behind a new study to be highlighted at the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2021 virtual annual meeting has found that sufficient vitamin D levels at the time of diagnosis are associated with improved outcomes among people with breast cancer.