December 2024

There’s a small, fenced enclosure a stone’s throw from NCI Frederick’s pavilion, just across the street from Building 538. Drawing near to it, you’d see two layers of fence encircling a sapling. If you’re botanically inclined, you might recognize the sharp, five-lobed leaves marking the tree as a Liquidambar styraciflua, a sweetgum—a common species in Maryland. You could be forgiven, then, if you’d think the fences are overkill. Yet this sweetgum is particularly worth protecting.

Researchers from around the world met in October to mark progress their field has made in developing drugs to treat cancers driven by the RAS oncogene, and to map out even more ways they can help cancer patients. “This is a great story about tackling an intractable disease that was said to be an impossible task,” said National Cancer Institute Director W. Kimryn Rathmell, M.D.