What does a year look like for the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center?
It’s exciting discoveries and cutting-edge research that bring new cancer treatments to our clinics. It’s compassionate and personalized patient care. It’s the many inspiring stories of strength, innovation, curiosity and hope lived by our patients and their families, and our physicians, researchers and staff.
Join us as we reflect on stories from 2024 that inspired us throughout the year.
Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, appointed executive director of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center
Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD, a head and neck surgical oncologist, leading expert in cancer immunotherapy and cancer center chief executive, stepped into his role as the executive director of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and UNC system chief of oncology services effective October 1, 2024.
Ferris comes to UNC from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), where he was the director of the Hillman Cancer Center.
“Bob Ferris is an exceptional cancer physician-scientist, a highly skilled health executive with deep experience leading a NCI comprehensive cancer center, and a person with a genuine passion for service to others.”
—Wesley Burks, MD, dean of the UNC School of Medicine and CEO of UNC Health
UNC researchers awarded up to $10M to leverage data science to accelerate cancer diagnosis and optimize delivery of precision oncology
A team of UNC-Chapel Hill researchers has received nearly $10 million in Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) funding to develop the Cancer Identification and Precision Oncology Center (CIPOC).
The project is designed to improve cancer diagnosis and support personalized treatments by quickly aggregating and analyzing a wide range of health data, including electronic health records, histopathological and radiological images, insurance claims and geographic information.
“We want to make precision oncology more widely available to North Carolinians. This project aims to develop tools that will use common medical record data to define care that responds to each patient’s unique tumor biology, reducing the need for additional, costly testing.”
—Melissa Troester, PhD, MPH
UNC Lineberger joins national initiative to advance cervical cancer screening through HPV self-testing
UNC Lineberger is the first cancer center to enroll participants in a national study focused on expanding access to cervical cancer screening through HPV self-testing. This approach could help reduce the number of women diagnosed with cervical cancer due to underscreening.
The National Cancer Institute launched the “Last Mile” initiative as part of the Self-collection for HPV testing to Improve Cervical Cancer Prevention (SHIP) trial network in January.
UNC Lineberger’s Lisa Rahangdale, MD, MPH, professor of general obstetrics, gynecology, and midwifery at UNC School of Medicine, is the study’s lead investigator at UNC.
“Around half of people who are diagnosed with cervical cancer are those who are underscreened. The reasons for not screening are complex, but some barriers may be overcome with HPV self-testing. This study holds significant potential to impact our patient population — we could identify more at-risk individuals earlier and prevent cancer.”
—Lisa Rahangdale, MD, MPH
Harnessing natural killer T-cells to advance cancer immunotherapy for solid tumors
In the fight against cancer, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has achieved notable success in treating blood cancers. However, it has been largely ineffective against solid tumors.
But now, as reported in a study published in Nature Cancer, Gianpietro Dotti, MD, and colleagues demonstrated that a different immunotherapy approach utilizing natural killer T (NKT) cells produced significant antitumor activity in preclinical models of solid tumors.
“CAR-NKT cells have been already safely used in clinical trials. However, the manufacturing of CAR-NKT for clinical use is more complex than the manufacturing of CAR-T cells. We are working on simplifying the manufacturing of CAR-NKT.”
—Gianpietro Dotti, MD
UNC Lineberger, V Foundation launch multimedia initiative to boost diversity in clinical trials
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and the V Foundation for Cancer Research have created a multimedia campaign to promote equity in cancer clinical trial participation. This initiative was designed to reduce disparities in clinical trial enrollment among racial and ethnic minority populations.
Research has demonstrated that clinical trials have a critical role in advancing cancer treatments and improving patient outcomes, yet minority groups remain significantly underrepresented in the studies.
“It’s important for clinical trials to enroll patients of all different ages, races and gender identities so that the information we learn from clinical trials can benefit everyone, not just a subset of the population. Many patients are very open to participating in clinical trials once they are asked – they just don’t know a clinical trial could be an option for them. We, as cancer care providers and researchers, need to do a better job approaching everyone about clinical trial participation.”
—Carrie Lee, MD, MPH
Improving health of military personnel and families through collaboration, research
UNC Lineberger is leading an innovative cancer prevention partnership at Fort Liberty that is designed to reduce tobacco use and promote HPV vaccination.
The Fort Liberty Public Health Partnership is deploying evidence-based public health protocols – especially in cancer prevention – and has grown its vision for the health and well-being of Army families and nearby communities in Cumberland County in southeast North Carolina.
“One of the reasons this partnership is so valuable is that it keeps us in a coordinated approach on work that is affiliated with the military. The team at Fort Liberty does a great job of highlighting the needs on base, and our community health assessments help our department identify needs in our county. Having UNC as an academic partner keeps us tied together, helping with data and research and thinking strategically about bringing in funding. We are driving all of that into something actionable, tangible and meaningful to the public.”
—Jennifer Green, PhD, MPH, Cumberland County health director
Helping patients navigate cancer through treatment and beyond
Using real-world data to transform cancer care to help make patients’ health care journeys smoother and less stressful – and then, putting that new model, called a centralized navigation system, into practice in UNC Health hospitals across the entire state – is a challenging job.
Led by Bill Wood, MD, MPH, this new model which is designed to improve the delivery of care for all our patients. Proactive patient outreach is becoming increasingly common nationally.
UNC Health’s navigation system is unique, though, in the way it leverages population-level datasets and informatics tools to create a more personalized treatment and support plan for each individual patient.
“The need for navigation reflects the types of needs that we, as clinicians, see in our patients. We provide high-quality care, but there is so much more we could be doing to support all our patients’ needs.
Through investigation, research and a rational approach, we can use our findings to improve the delivery of care for all our patients.”
—Bill Wood, MD, MPH
Making virtual a reality: Online cancer course students, faculty come together for tours and talks
UNC Lineberger hosted students from NCCU and NC A&T who were enrolled in an online course about career and academic opportunities in cancer care and research. The Exploring Cancer event provided an opportunity for students, staff and faculty from the three universities to meet in person.
Molecular pathway that impacts pancreatic cancer progression and response to treatment detailed
Channing Der, PhD, and colleagues reported in two papers published in Science that they have established the most comprehensive molecular portrait of the workings of KRAS, a key cancer-causing gene or “oncogene,” and how its activities impact pancreatic cancer outcomes.
Their findings could help to better inform treatment options for pancreatic cancer, which is the third leading cause of all cancer deaths in the United States.
“Because less than 40% of pancreatic cancers respond to treatment with KRAS inhibitors, if we can establish molecular markers to predict which patients will respond, we can better provide them with specific treatments, which should improve their outcomes. Our next steps are elucidating more aspects of basic and foundational research regarding KRAS. We will continue to mine the growing body of scientific knowledge we have developed, with the ultimate goal of helping advance the clinical development of newer and better KRAS inhibitors.”
—Channing Der, PhD
UNC Lineberger named as a national research hub for NIH cancer screening study
UNC Lineberger is one of nine national research sites for the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Screening Research Network (CSRN), which will evaluate promising and emerging cancer screening technologies.
The CSRN will conduct large, multi-center cancer screening studies with diverse populations in a variety of healthcare settings. The studies are designed to identify technologies that can detect cancers and pre-cancerous lesions before symptoms develop, and thereby reduce cancer incidence and cancer-related morbidity and mortality.
“In our role, we will build on UNC Lineberger’s depth and breadth in designing and conducting innovative interventional cancer screening studies and clinical trials, and developing and analyzing large, complex data sets related to cancer screening. By partnering with clinical sites from across the state of North Carolina, we’ll be able to include a diverse population, and one that has a large rural component. This will help the research findings to be more widely applicable to populations and communities across the U.S.”
—Dan Reuland, MD, MPH
As we prepare to enter a new year, we look forward to telling many more stories of hope and healing. We look forward to sharing the next big breakthrough in cancer research and treatment. And, most importantly, we look forward to growing and continuing to serve as a beacon of cancer care and research in North Carolina and beyond.