101st Annual American Cancer Research Meeting: April 17-21, 2010 Washington, D.C.

I had the honor of attending this years AACR meeting held in Washington D.C.  During my time there I had a chance to sit in on the New Concept in Organ Site Research meeting.  There, medulloblastoma was discussed.  The headline for the discussion was Medulloblastoma: Genetics and Genomics and was headed by Dr. Martine Roussel from St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN.

Medulloblastoma is the most common solid tumor of childhood; arising in the cerebellum, a hindbrain structure with origins from two distinct germinal zones.  Medulloblastoma tumors therefore show a diversity of signaling abnormalities and stem cell biologies.  Sonic Hedgehog and Wnt pathways drive a substantial fraction of tumors; however, genetic pathways underlying the most aggressive subset of these tumors remain uncertain.

Participants from the meeting discussed the genetic diversity of both tumors and metastases, including forward genetic screens, molecular classifications, and stem cell biology.  Speakers addressed the novel signaling pathways, mouse models and biomarkers, and clinical progress in targeting inappropriate activation of Shh signaling.

In this session I had the privilege of hearing from several medical research scientists.  First up was Dr. Anna Kenney from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  She spoke to us about the “Interactions between proliferation controlling pathways in the developing cerebellum and medulloblastoma.”  I also heard from Dr. Robert Wechsler-Reya from Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Michael Taylor from the University of Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, and Dr. Philip Beachy from Stanford University.  They all discussed recent advances in the genetics of medulloblastoma and more specifically, they looked at Hedgehog signaling in these childhood tumors.

Overall, the meeting was insightful and inspiring.  In January, 2010 the National Institute of Heath in Bethesda, MD announced that brain cancer will become part of the Cancer Genome Atlas study currently underway.  The research team for TCGA is a collaborative effort funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), both parts of the National Institutes of Health.  TCGA is mobilizing the entire cancer community to find new strategies in detecting and treating cancer faster.  The findings presented at this year’s AACR are just a hint of what we expect to result from the comprehensive data generated by TCGA over the next few years.  It surely is an exciting time for brain cancer research.

Team Inspire

It always begins with a thought.  And then that thought grows a little more and becomes an idea.  And then that idea, with some nurturing and attention, becomes a plan.  And when a plan is carried out, it leads to success.  Okay, sometimes the plan can fail, but not when it has a little angel helping to see it through.

Inspire Daily.  That’s the name of our team.  Some may call it a racing team, but others, who struggle to run faster than an 8:30 minute-mile, prefer to call it a race team.  Either way you slice it, Inspire Daily helped to put cancer on the run last Sunday by raising over $3,000.00.

Sometime ago, Noelle put the plan into action by asking people to run either 6, 13.1, or 26.2 miles on May 2, 2010 to raise money for LLF.  We met Sunday morning at Eisenhower Park at 7 AM. We pinned on our race bibs, fastened our sneakers, and proceeded to tear into the Party City bag that contained many fun gadgets and crafts: plastic whistles and face paint and glitter. Oh my.  The more serious runners passed by, and while at first they wanted to judge us as we painted blue ribbons on our faces and wrote LLF up and down our arms and legs, they couldn’t help but smile for we were exuding such energy and such spirit.

We all ran that race with Louie in our hearts.  I know those from our team who ran the half marathon on this particularly humid Sunday morning were grateful to have more than a finish line to run towards.  After, we proudly took photos under the LLF banner and then went to the diner to celebrate our efforts. Yum. Chocolate milk.  I personally cannot wait for the 5^th annual Little Louie walk on July 11^th.  It’s such an honor to be a part of this great foundation.