The lobby of Building 549 at NCI at Frederick bustled with activity for two hours on Tuesday, May 1, as several dozen scientists and staff gathered for the NCI Core Open House. The event aimed to encourage discussion and educate visitors about the capabilities of the cores, laboratories, and facilities that offer support to NCI’s Center for Cancer Research.

At the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Spring Town Hall, new director Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, M.D., summarized his goals for NCI’s role in cancer research. The event, which was held at NCI Shady Grove and livestreamed to eight other major NCI locations, was Sharpless’ first town hall since his six-month “listening and learning tour” concluded.

A collaboration between the National Cancer Institute (NCI); the Frederick National Laboratory (FNL); and the National University of Ireland, Galway, has shown that two key biomarkers are co-expressed in an aggressive subtype of breast cancer and that inhibiting those two molecules can significantly improve patient survival outcomes.

Last week, Director Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless spoke with Paul Goldberg, editor and publisher of The Cancer Letter, regarding his six-month “listening tour,” a project he embarked on after being named the new director, as well as his vision for the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

(Updated May 8) A study led by the Baylor College of Medicine and supported by NCI’s Center for Cancer Research (CCR) has demonstrated that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy can be used to treat solid triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumors. The investigation is the first work using CAR T-cell therapy against TEM8, a cell surface protein that is frequently overexpressed both in TNBC cells and cells lining the blood vessels that sustain TNBC tumors.