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AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) Annual Meeting 2025 Chicago.The American Association for Cancer Research will host its annual meeting in Chicago, April 25-30.

Nearly 30 UNC Lineberger and UNC faculty and trainees will be presenting findings, chairing sessions, leading session discussions and sharing their perspectives in topical forums and education sessions during the meeting, which typically attracts more than 20,000 attendees globally.

The meeting’s theme, “Unifying Cancer Science and Medicine: A Continuum of Innovation for Impact,” reflects AACR’s focus on advancing cancer research from the bench to the clinic and back to the bench. More than 7,000 abstracts will be presented in person and digitally.

 The UNC presentations include:

Saturday, April 26

Education Session

2:30 – 4 p.m. CT  |  Room S402 – McCormick Place South

Session ED19 – GLP-1: From Diabetes to Weight Loss to Cancer

2:31 – 2:51 p.m. CT: Breaking the obesity-cancer link: Preclinical evidence for the anticancer effects of GLP-1Ras

Presenter: Stephen D. Hursting, PhD


Sunday, April 27

Clinical Trials Plenary

1 – 3 p.m. CT  |  Arie Crown Theater – McCormick Lakeside Center (Level 2)

CTPLO1 – Advances in Immunotherapy

1:15 – 1:25 PM CT  Discussant: Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD


Poster Session

2 – 5 p.m. CT

PO.MCB06.04 – Comprehensive Multiomic Profiling of Chromatin Dynamics, DNA Methylation, and Tumor Microenvironments (Section 9)

212 / 6 – Disruption of the menin-MLL complex impedes HCC maintenance and increases sensitivity to NF-Y loss

Presenter: Margarita M. Dzama, PhD

 

PO.ET06.04 – Molecular Classification of Tumors for Diagnostics, Prognostics, and Therapeutic Outcomes (Section 22)

493 / 5 – Cingulin plays a role in PDAC organoid polarity and subtype

Presenter: Mariaelena Nabors

 

494 / 6 – Identifying vulnerabilities in basal-like pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC)

Presenter: Sandra Zarmer


Major Symposium

3 – 4:30 p.m. CT  |  Room S402 – McCormick Place South (Level 4)

DC15 – Patient Advocate Poster Symposium

Chair: Patricia Spears


Monday, April 28

Poster Session

9 a.m. – 12 p.m. CT

PO.MCB07.03 – Gene Regulation and Transcription Factors 3 (Section 11)

1452 / 21 – DVL1 regulates global transcriptomic changes and associates with the transcription factor ETS1

Presenter: Dalia Martinez-Marin, PhD

 

PO.ET09.01 – Kinase and Phosphatase Inhibitors 1 (Section 21)

1730 / 5 – Onvansertib in combination with carboplatin demonstrates enhanced anti-tumorigenic effects in pre-clinical models of serous endometrial cancer

Presenter: Glenn P. Boyles, MD

 

1731 / 6 – Combination therapy with onvansertib and carboplatin demonstrate anti-tumorigenic effects in endometrioid endometrial cancer cell lines

Presenter: Chelsey Vranes, MD

 

PO.BCS01.14 – Application of Bioinformatics to Cancer Biology (Section 44)

2394 / 12 – Survival and response modeling using diverse mouse mammary tumor models

Presenter: Matthew D. Sutcliffe

 

2 – 5 p.m. CT

PO.MCB06.01 – Epigenetic Mechanisms of Cancer Resistance and Progression (Section 10)

2740 / 8 – Mechanisms of phase-separation driven chromatin looping in acute myeloid leukemia

Presenter: Tooba Rashid

 

PO.ET03.02 – Novel Drug Resistance Mechanisms (Section 22)

3086 / 23 – TFAP2C promotes mitochondrial fitness required for sustained kinase reprogramming in endocrine therapy resistance in breast cancer

Presenter: Attila Szenasi, MD, PhD

 

PO.CL06.08 – Immune Checkpoints (Section 28)

3218 / 14 – The Secretome: a multigene biomarker for the prognosis and selection of solid tumor patients evaluated for treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors

Presenter: Alessandro Porrello, PhD

 

PO.CL01.03 – Liquid Biopsy: Circulating Nucleic Acids 1 (Section 29)

3262 / 27 – Whole genome sequencing of ctDNA enables disease monitoring and residual disease detection in head and neck cancer patients

Presenter: Shetal A. Patel, MD, PhD

 

PO.PR01.03 – The Role of Physical Activity, Diet, Microbiome, Obesity, and Energy Balance in the Cancer Continuum (Section 48)

3727 / 3 – Physical activity patterns according to demographic, social, and clinical correlates among breast cancer survivors

Presenter: Michael Kebede, MPH

 

LBPO.CL01 – Late-Breaking Research: Clinical Research 1 (Section 53)

LB221 / 18 – Clinical significance of ALDH1L1 expression in hormone receptor positive breast cancer

Presenter: Amira A. Abdellatef, PhD, MS


Mini-Symposium

2:30 – 4:45 p.m. CT  |  Room S103 – McCormick Place South (Level 1)

MS.ET09.02 – Novel Antitumor Agents

3 – 3:25 p.m. CT  3786 – Combination of MTA-cooperative PRMT5 inhibitor BMS-986504 and KRAS inhibitors for the treatment of MTAP-deleted KRAS-mutant pancreatic cancer

Presenter: Kristina Drizyte-Miller, PhD


Forum

5 – 6:30 p.m. CT  |  Room E352 – McCormick Lakeside Center (Level 3)

FO05 – The Role of Surgery in Modern Cancer Treatment: Opportunity for Patient-derived Models or Simply an Art of Diminishing Return

5:40 – 6 p.m. CT  Pancreatic cancer

Presenter: Jen Jen Yeh, MD


Tuesday, April 29

Poster Session

9 a.m. – 12 p.m.

PO.IM02.04 – Epigenetic Regulation of Tumor Immunity (Section 38)

4847 / 17 – Dishevelled 2: A key regulator of tumor immunity in breast cancer

Presenter: Geetha P. Boligala

 

LBPO.ET03 – Late-Breaking Research: Experimental and Molecular Therapeutics 3 (Section 52)

LB288 / 11 – Determination of the MYC- and TEAD-dependent transcriptome in pancreatic cancer

Presenter: Brandon L. Mouery, PhD

 

LBPO.PS01 – Late-Breaking Research: Population Sciences (Section 54)

LB334 / 9 – Associations between adherence to American Cancer Society physical activity guidelines and long-term quality of life among breast cancer survivors in the black women’s health study

Presenter: Natasha Renee Burse, DrPH, MS

 

Advances in Technologies

10:15 – 11:45 a.m. CT   |  Room S406 (Vista Ballroom) – McCormick Place South (Level 4)

AT01 – Reality check: AI in Drug Discovery

10:42 – 11:02 a.m. CT  Reminiscing about the future of AI in drug discovery

Presenter: Alexander Tropsha, PhD

  

Advances in Organ Site Research

10:15 – 11:45 a.m. CT  |  Room S103 – McCormick Place South (Level 1)

Chair: Charles M. Perou, PhD

 

AOS02 – Updates from SABCS 2024

11:20 – 11:35 a.m. CT  Paired DNA and RNA analysis of CALGB 40603 (Alliance) reveals insights into the molecular and prognostic landscape of stage II-III triple-negative breast cancer

Presenter: Brooke Felsheim

11:40 – 11:45 a.m. CT

Closing remarks: Charles M. Perou, PhD


Poster Session

2 – 5 p.m. CT

PO.MCB01.02 – S/G2/M phase (Section 13)

5408 / 3 – Unraveling c-MYC role in DNA replication origin licensing through non-canonical pathways

Presenter: Dalia Fleifel

 

PO.CL08.03 – Targeted Therapies and Combinations 3 (Section 34)

5997 / 24 – Patient-derived cell line and organoid drug screening identifies synergistic PLK1 inhibitor in combination with senolytic ABT-263 for pancreatic cancer

Presenter: Madison Jenner

 

LBPO.IM03 – Late-Breaking Research: Immunology 3 (Section 54)

LB388 / 10 – Innate immunity-independent roles of 2’3′-cGAMP in tumor metastasis control

Presenter: Pengda Liu, PhD


Forum

5 – 6:30 p.m. CT  |  Room S401 – McCormick Place South (Level 4)

FO04 – Unlocking the Power of PROs to Assess Tolerability in Cancer Clinical Trials

5:32 – 5:52 p.m. CT  Chronic low-grade AEs and treatment discontinuation: Challenging assumptions about tolerability

Presenter: Lynne Wagner, PhD


Wednesday, April 30

Poster Session

9 a.m. – 12 p.m. CT

PO.ET09.15 – Novel Antitumor Agents 4 (Section 21)

6872 / 16 – Repurposing the DNA labeling agent EdU for glioblastoma treatment

Presenter: Humeyra Kaanoglu