News

The first patient in the world to be enrolled on a clinical trial of a new investigational drug, AN0025, was treated at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah earlier this year. The drug is being studied for use in patients with non-small cell lung cancer and other solid tumors who have previously been treated with immunotherapy and whose cancers later developed ways to resist immunotherapy.

Researchers at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah have identified a potential drug combination to treat uveal melanoma, a type of eye cancer. Lead author Amanda Truong, trainee in the McMahon Lab at HCI, explains uveal melanoma patients frequently have changes in genes called GNAQ and GNA11, which are key targets for these drugs. This study was published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

For Siwen Hu-Lieskovan, MD, PhD, it was the promise of immunotherapy—that is, harnessing the body’s own immune system to fight cancer—that inspired her to get into cancer research. Training under one of the pioneers of immunotherapy, she witnessed amazing survival stories of patients. The project Hu-Lieskovan proposed for the 5 For The Fight grant is to tackle the immune-related adverse events when adding different immunotherapies.

Siwen Hu-Lieskovan, PhD, MD, physician scientist at Huntsman Cancer Institute and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Utah, has received the National Cancer Institute 2020 Cancer Clinical Investigator Team Leadership Award. The award recognizes outstanding clinical investigators at NCI-designated Cancer Centers who participate extensively in NCI-funded clinical trials, and whose leadership and activities promote a successful culture of collaborative clinical research.

Heloisa Soares, MD, PhD, a gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine tumor medical oncologist and researcher at Huntsman Cancer Institute and assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Utah, received two awards from external organizations honoring her contributions to the field of cancer. Soares was named an Advocacy Champion by the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Soares also received the 2020 North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society Theranostics Investigator Grant.

Dear patients, please know this as you go through your breast cancer treatment journey. The dedicated technical staff, PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows in the Welm Labs continue to work hard every day (and night!) to bring new hope to people with metastatic breast cancer through innovative research, always with patients in mind.

“I just love taking care of them, helping make them better,” says pediatric neurosurgeon Samuel Cheshier about the children he treats at Huntsman Cancer Institute and Primary Children’s Hospital. He talks about what he has learned from these kids and their parents, what patients should know about Huntsman Cancer Institute, and what he reads about in his spare time.

When Samuel Cheshier was 13 years old, his favorite cousin died of colon cancer. “I always think of him when I do cancer research,” Cheshier says. As a pediatric neurosurgeon, he witnesses firsthand the devastation that malignant brain tumors cause patients and their families. The desire to help them motivates his basic science research, with the goal of translating experiments into therapies. The 5 for the Fight Fellowship will help speed up the pace of his research, allowing him to start a new project.