Despite the unprecedented challenges posed by COVID-19 to cancer communities everywhere, the pandemic did not keep us from advancing our mission. Groundbreaking research conducted by our scientists paved the way for the COVID-19 vaccines. Not only has the Abramson Cancer Center persevered through the pandemic’s obstacles, it has also become an even greater example of teamwork and innovation for cancer centers around the world.
Today’s messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines for COVID-19 — credited with averting 27 million cases, 1.6 million hospitalizations, and more than 235,000 deaths in the U.S. between December 2020 and September 2021 and counting — got their start at Penn Medicine.
Abramson Cancer Center researcher and Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research, Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, along with collaborator Katalin Karikó, PhD, Adjunct Professor and a Senior Vice President at BioNTech, invented the mRNA technology that serves as the foundation of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
See the Story Behind the mRNA COVID Vaccines
Drs. Karikó and Weissman’s discovery opened the floodgates for additional mRNA vaccines with the potential to eradicate countless other diseases-including cancer, dementia and genetic conditions like sickle cell, amongst others. As a result, they have received some of the world’s most prestigious prizes for their discovery science efforts, including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Breakthrough Prize and the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. Read the latest at PennMedicine.org/mRNA.
Penn Medicine is a place where collaboration is not only natural, it is expected and encouraged.
"For a long time, we’ve invested in profiling the immune system in patients with cancer and other diseases," says E. John Wherry, PhD, the chair of the department of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics and director of the Penn Institute of Immunology. "When COVID-19 arrived at our front door, we realized the immune profiling platform we had in place could also be used to carefully examine what was happening in COVID-19 patients. So, we really had an infrastructure ready to go. We just had to apply it to this novel disease. We call this Immune Health®."
To counter an environment of misinformation, Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center affirmed its position as a trusted source of science and medicine across the nation, hosting a virtual conference in October 2020 on "Cancer and COVID-19" with keynote speaker Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci and other experts spoke to 1,900 healthcare professionals across the country about the rising rates of COVID-19 (the country had just surpassed 200,000 deaths a few days prior), updates on vaccine trials and advice for the oncology field.
Dr. Fauci urged cancer centers to resume regular prevention and screening efforts.
"From a 40,000-foot look, you should try to get back to the normal type of screening that you have done as quickly as you possibly can," Dr. Fauci told conference attendees. "I would use [COVID-19] testing to get back to where you want to be."
Penn Medicine’s former Chief of Hematology-Oncology, Lynn M. Schuchter, MD, shared with participants the safety protocols our clinics had enacted.
"Our goal is to optimize patient and staff safety," she said. Penn Medicine has done just that through social distancing, mask-wearing and appropriate COVID-19 testing.
Clinical trials are crucial to the advancement of cancer care, allowing researchers to test not only new treatments but also prevention strategies and diagnostic techniques in clinical settings. They provide participants with access to the latest cancer drugs and treatment protocols. But, historically, it has been difficult to attract representative samples of the population to participate in trials. The need for frequent travel and visits to trial facilities has proven to be a significant barrier, especially for members of underserved communities.
Even before the pandemic, Abramson Cancer Center researchers were contemplating ways to improve access and increase diversity in their clinical trials. Yet government regulations made moving the needle difficult. If there was a silver lining to 2020, it’s that COVID-19 restrictions required federal regulators to allow researchers to test out practices that allowed them to continue their trials throughout the pandemic. That meant:
In addition to keeping patients safe by limiting interaction, these steps opened trials up to patients who would otherwise not be able to participate. Fewer required in-person visits means some patients only have to travel to the Abramson Cancer Center a few times a month as opposed to a few times per week.
Abramson Cancer Center Director Robert Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, says he is hopeful the new practices will become permanent.
"We’ve learned that certain demands we assumed to be the way a clinical trial has to work are challengeable," Dr. Vonderheide told the Association of American Medical Colleges. "We’re rethinking doing clinical research in ways that the pandemic showed us were possible, safe and effective — and probably more cost-effective."
FIT kits allow testing at home.
It is difficult to maintain social distance when conducting most cancer screenings. Yet, we knew that it was vitally important to continue to screen for colorectal cancer in our community. The Abramson Cancer Center’s solution: offer drive-thru clinics and partner with strong community organizations to publicize them and encourage people to use them.
The clinics, held between fall 2020 and spring 2021, provided free FIT (fecal immunochemical test) kits and flu vaccines to attendees from the comfort of their own cars. More than 93% of the attendees were Black, a group at increased risk for colorectal cancer as compared with other races.
Out of 192 participants:
The participants with positive results were referred for diagnostic colonoscopies, during which precancerous polyps were removed. Abramson Cancer Center staff assisted some patients who did not have health insurance in finding programs to help pay for their potentially lifesaving procedures.
Exceptional courage, compassion and commitment exists across every domain of our mission. Over the years, our care teams have developed innovative ways to support patients both in our hospitals and via telemedicine platforms, ensuring extra layers of safety across hospitals and practices.
The Abramson Cancer Center has:
Did you know that a shared resource represents an extensive lab/technology infrastructure related to cancer, used by experts throughout an institution?
Abramson Cancer Center members hold $170.1M in annual research funding, of which $103.2M comes from the NIH and $59.2M from the NCI. Philanthropy provided an additional $102M in 2020 and 2021.
Abramson Cancer Center members have 267 R01 equivalents
4,000+ publications in peer-reviewed journals
12,931 participants in 43 Patient and Family Education Conferences
Did you know that an R01, or Research Project Grant, is the original and historically oldest grant mechanism used by NIH?
Data represent Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Hospital, Presbyterian Medical Center and, unless otherwise stated, reflect statistics between 2015-2019 (as reported to NCI for CCSG).
Access is not the only barrier to enrollment in clinical trials in the United States. Many people — especially people of color — are never told that clinical trials are an option. Others are hesitant to participate in trials because of misconceptions or mistrust in research given this country’s multiple and tragic instances of unethical, inhumane medical research involving the Black community. The impact of that terrible legacy of research abuses is with us to this day:
While Black people account for 13% of the U.S. population, they made up only 5% of oncology clinical trial participants in 2020 across the country.
Armenta Washington, MS, senior research coordinator (pictured above), has made it her mission to change that. Soon after joining the Abramson Cancer Center in March 2020, Washington, in collaboration with Associate Director of Diversity and Outreach, Carmen Guerra, MD, MSCE, FACP, started developing the curriculum for the Abramson Cancer Center’s inaugural Clinical Trials Ambassador Program. The goal of the program is to educate lay volunteers on cancer and cancer research — and train them to be ambassadors for clinical trials in their communities.
After completing the 10-week program, the first cohort of 19 ambassadors graduated on Oct. 14, 2021. The graduates represent a diverse group of cancer patients, survivors and caregivers representing a wide variety of education levels and socioeconomic backgrounds. Washington, along with colleagues from Abramson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) led the eight weekly two-hour virtual sessions, during which participants learned:
The program also created clinical trial brochures with messaging tailored specifically to Black people with cancer. A significant portion was dedicated to training participants on how to talk to people in their communities about cancer research, using the brochure to supplement the conversation.
"The expectation is that they will, in their natural networks when the conversation comes up, be prepared to engage and talk about what they’ve learned about clinical trials and encourage patients to have a conversation with their physician," Washington says.
Washington and Dr. Guerra are also working on other opportunities for the ambassadors to make a difference, such as inviting them to mentor cancer patients, speaking on panel discussions or providing a patient perspective for grant proposals.
While Black people account for 13% of the U.S. population, they made up only 5% of oncology clinical trial participants in 2020 across the country.
In 2013, Sharon was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. After receiving treatment and participating in a clinical trial, the mother of four was one of two women of color enrolled in Abramson Cancer Center’s CLEVER study, a Phase II trial looking into the ability of two drugs (hydroxychloroquine and everolimus) to prevent breast cancer recurrences in patients with Disseminated Tumor Cells — dormant cells that put patients at increased risk for relapse — by targeting and hopefully destroying them.
"That’s when I started looking at data related to race," Sharon recalls. "I discovered that the majority of cancer trial participants are white women."
This wasn’t a surprise to the Abramson Cancer Center, which has been working for years to increase the number of Black participants in clinical trials. Those efforts have begun to pay off — the number of Black cancer treatment trial participants has almost doubled, from 12.2% to 23.9% in recent years.
Sharon is determined to help increase those numbers. She has founded two non-profits — Saving Pennies 4 a Cure, which gives household and personal care items to patients actively receiving chemotherapy; and Trials of Color, whose aim is to bridge the gap between clinical research and people of color through advocacy, education and giving back to the cancer community.
Sharon is also a graduate of the Ambassador Program’s inaugural cohort, and says the best advice she can give to women of color who have been diagnosed with cancer is to get involved.
"Don’t just sit and wait," she says. "When you get involved, you’re making a difference and potentially improving your outcome at the same time."
Andrea N. Orsher, VMD, and Robert J. Orsher, VMD, know just how important breast cancer research is. After their daughter Rebecca was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, clinical trials gave their family more time together. When Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE, Jill and Alan Miller Professor in Breast Cancer Excellence, spoke with them about expediting the pace of research and expanding access to innovative breast cancer clinical trials, they jumped at the chance to help.
Angela DeMichele, MD, MSCE
Thanks to a $2.5 million donation from the Orsher family, the Abramson Cancer Center is expanding access to cutting-edge clinical trials, across all Penn Medicine sites, for people with metastatic breast cancer.
The gift also fueled the establishment of a Metastatic Breast Cancer Collaborative (MBCC) to build a network of clinical trials across the Penn system. A bi-monthly Metastatic Breast Cancer Conference will also help bring together breast cancer specialists from all five hospitals and satellites in the Penn Cancer Network.
Tisagenlecleucel for advanced leukemia in children and young adults. This was the first cancer gene therapy to be FDA-approved for use in the U.S., and is now available across the globe.
Tocilizumab for CAR-T-related treatment toxicity known as a cytokine storm
Gilteritinib for relapsed/ refractory acute myeloid leukemia
Iobenguane I 131 for rare adrenal gland tumors in adolescents and adults
Olaparib for BRCA+ metastatic breast cancer
Tisagenlecleucel for large B-cell lymphoma in adults (2nd indication)
Entrectinib for cancers with neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK) mutations
Selinexor for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma
TORS for head and neck cancers (2nd indication)
Fluoroestradiol F18 for the visual detection of recurrent breast cancer on PET imaging
Belantamab mafodotin for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma
Belzutifan, an oral HIF-2alpha inhibitor, for treatment of patients with certain types of von Hippel Lindau (VHL) disease-associated tumors, including renal cell carcinoma, central nervous system hemangioblastomas, and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors
Cabozantinib for patients with previously untreated radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer
Crizotinib for relapsed/refractory anaplastic large cell lymphoma
Pafolacianine, an imaging drug that targets and illuminates ovarian cancer tissue when exposed to fluorescent light during surgery
Olaparib as an adjuvant therapy for high-risk, early-stage BRCA+ breast cancer (2nd indication)
Crizotinib for adult and pediatric patients with unresectable, recurrent, or refractory inflammatory anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive myofibroblastic tumors (IMT) (2nd indication)
Tisagenlecleucel for adult patients with relapsed or refactory follicular lymphoma (3rd indication)
Teclistamab for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, offering an effective and accessible new option
Pafolacianine, for use in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) surgery, which accounts for the vast majority of lung cancer surgery (2nd indication)
Mosunetuzumab-axgb for adult patients with relapsed or refractory follicular lymphoma
Throughout the Abramson Cancer Center network, the work may be complex, but our mission is simple: to eliminate cancer. Our leadership team dedicates their experience and expertise to this goal in everything they do. As a result, the Abramson Cancer Center is a world leader in cancer research, patient care and education.
Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil
Director; Vice President and Vice Dean for Cancer Programs
Katherine L. Nathanson, MD
Deputy Director
David W. Dougherty, MD, MBA
Deputy Director of Clinical Services
Joseph R. Carver, MD
Chief of Staff
David B. Miller, MBA
Chief Administrative Officer,
Cancer Service Line
Robert F. Wynne
Executive Director of Administration
Mehrin ("Mir") Masud-Elias, JD, MBE
Executive Director of Legal Affairs & Immunotherapy Collaborations
Lindsey Zinck, MSN, RN, OCN, NEA-BC
Chief Nursing Officer for the Abramson Cancer Center
Ravi K Amaravadi, MD
Associate Director for
Translational Research
Lewis A. Chodosh, MD, PhD
Associate Director for Basic
Research
Peter E. Gabriel, MD
Associate Director for Clinical
Informatics
Carmen E. Guerra, MD, MSCE, FACP
Associate Director for
Diversity and Outreach
Stephen P. Hunger, MD
Associate Director for Pediatric
Research
David A. Mankoff, MD, PhD
Associate Director for Education
and Training
Daniel Pryma, MD
Associate Director for Clinical
Research
Erle S. Robertson, PhD
Associate Director for Global
Oncology
Cecilia Scavelli
Associate Director for Research
Administration
Robert A. Schnoll, PhD
Associate Director for
Population Science
M. Celeste Simon, PhD
Associate Director for Shared
Resources
