Physicians And Researchers From Columbia University And UPMC To
Collaborate On The Development Of Combination Immunotherapy Clinical
Trial Protocols Informed By Comprehensive Genomic And Proteomic Profiling
Augments Recently Announced Pediatric Cancer, Breast Cancer, Head And
Neck Cancer And Radiation Working Groups
CULVER CITY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
NantHealth and Cancer
MoonShot 2020, the nation's most comprehensive cancer collaborative
initiative, today announced the formation of the Melanoma and Sarcoma
Working Group to accelerate molecular-informed immunotherapy trials. The
team consists of physicians, researchers and oncology professors from
across the nation who have come together to focus their collective
wisdom and expertise on identifying and developing the most effective,
cancer-directed immunotherapy treatments for patients with melanoma and
sarcoma.
Experts within the group will collaborate to develop clinical trial
protocols, carefully studying elements such as standard of care,
molecular informed patient selection and novel combination-immunotherapy
approaches.
“The establishment of the Melanoma and Sarcoma Working Group reinforces
Cancer MoonShot 2020’s commitment to accelerate the war on cancer,”
stated Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD, founder and CEO of NantWorks and leader
of the Cancer MoonShot 2020 program. “Through the collaborative effort
of these academic and industry thought leaders, we will be able to
provide patients with Melanoma and Sarcoma with next-generation
immunotherapy treatment. The momentum to establish national
collaborative groups addressing all cancer types continues, and I am so
pleased by the excitement Cancer MoonShot 2020 has generated in the
academic and scientific community.”
The Melanoma and Sarcoma Working Group will be chaired by Richard
Carvajal, MD, Columbia University Medical Center, Director of
Experimental Therapeutics and Director of the Melanoma Service, who will
spearhead the team’s efforts with ongoing meetings, the development of
protocols and continued expansion of the Working Group.
Other esteemed members of the Working Group include:
-
Gary Schwartz, MD, Columbia University Medical Center, Division
Chief, Hematology/Oncology, and Associate Director, Herbert Irving
Comprehensive Cancer Center
-
John Kirkwood, MD, UPMC, Director, Melanoma and Skin Cancer
Program
“As members of the Melanoma and Sarcoma Working Group, we want to share
– and gather – new knowledge and understanding of how to better treat
our patients,” stated John Kirkwood, MD, Director of the Melanoma and
Skin Cancer Program at UPMC. “Collectively, we have the passion and the
expertise to help accelerate the goal of winning the war on cancer.”
CANCER MOONSHOT 2020 Working Group Established to Date:
Pediatric
Cancer Working Group
Breast
Cancer Working Group
Head
And Neck Cancer Working Group
Radiation
And Immuno-Oncology Working Group
About Cancer MoonShot 2020
The Cancer MoonShot 2020 program
is one of the most comprehensive cancer collaborative initiative
launched to date, seeking to accelerate the potential of combination
immunotherapy as the next generation standard of care in cancer
patients. This initiative aims to explore a new paradigm in cancer care
by initiating randomized Phase II trials in patients at all stages of
disease in 20 tumor types in 20,000 patients within the next 36 months.
These findings will inform Phase III trials and the aspirational
moonshot to develop an effective vaccine-based immunotherapy to combat
cancer by 2020. For more information, please visit www.cancermoonshot2020.org
and follow Cancer MoonShot 2020 on Twitter.
About NantHealth
NantHealth, a member of the NantWorks
ecosystem of companies, is a next-generation, evidence-based,
personalized healthcare company enabling improved patient outcomes and
more effective treatment decisions for critical illnesses. NantHealth‘s
unique systems-based approach to personalized healthcare applies novel
diagnostics tailored to the specific molecular profiles of patient
tissues and integrates this molecular data in a clinical setting with
large-scale, real-time biometric signal and phenotypic data to track
patient outcomes and deliver precision medicine. For nearly a decade,
NantHealth has developed an adaptive learning system, CLINICS, which
includes its unique software, middleware and hardware systems
infrastructure that collects, indexes, analyzes and interprets billions
of molecular, clinical, operational and financial data points derived
from novel and traditional sources, continuously improves
decision-making and further optimizes our clinical pathways and decision
algorithms over time. For more information please visit www.nanthealth.com
and follow Dr. Soon-Shiong on Twitter @DrPatSoonShiong.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160617005201/en/
NantWorks
Jen Hodson, 562-397-3639
jhodson@nantworks.com
Source: NantHealth
