More than 60 of the nation’s top gastrointestinal (GI) cancer clinical translational researchers from 19 institutions braved a winter storm to convene in Chapel Hill on Jan. 9 and 10 for the 2025 GI Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) Investigators Meeting, with an additional 40 joining virtually.
Led by an institution funded by a GI SPORE P50 award from the National Cancer Institute, the annual meeting is an important opportunity for project leaders and junior investigators to present recent findings and to address cancers that are among some of the most difficult to treat.
Jen Jen Yeh, MD, the principal investigator of the Selective Targeting of Pancreatic Cancer (SToP) SPORE at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and director of the UNC Lineberger Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence, and her team helped organize this year’s meeting.
The day-and-a-half meeting featured 35 presentations on findings from SPORE-supported research focused on GI cancers, including pancreatic and colon cancers, hepatocellular carcinoma and hepatobiliary cancer, as well as cancer health disparities.
“It will be exciting to see the development of many of the presented preclinical studies and outcomes from the clinical trials,” said Toby Hecht, PhD, deputy director of the Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis and Associate Director of the Translational Research Program at the National Cancer Institute. “Particularly significant were the presentations from those investigators supported by the SPORE’s Career Enhancement Programs and the Developmental Research Programs, as well as from the young investigators who hold the cancer research future in their hands.”
—Tyler Rice, UNC Lineberger Pancreatic Cancer Center of Excellence