February Newsmakers


Duke radiologist warns COVID-19 vaccine reaction can mimic sign of breast cancer (Fox 8)
Features Lars Grimm, MD, MHS

WATCH: Local universities collaborating on metastatic breast cancer research (WRAL)
Features Donald McDonnell, PhD

Clinical Trials Are Moving Out of the Lab and Into People’s Homes (The New York Times)
Features Mustafa Khasraw, MD, and a metastatic breast cancer patient of Sarah Sammons, MD


Cancer Patient Continues to Pursue Musical Theater Dream (Spectrum News Carolinas)
Features patient Molly Oldham

America’s best large employers (Forbes)
*Features Duke University Health System


Should Someone With Asthma Get a COVID-19 Vaccine Before Someone With Cancer? The Next Big Challenge in the Vaccine Rollout (TIME)
Features Cameron Wolfe, MBBS

Hope grows for blood cancer patients, as cell therapy firm’s key trial succeeds (Times of Israel)
Features Mitchell Horwitz, MD

WATCH: Dr. Horwitz on the Clinical Benefit of Omidubicel Transplant in Hematologic Malignancies (Onc Live)
Features Mitchell Horwitz, MD

Lung Cancer Screening Images Used to Identify Heart Conditions: Coronary Artery Calcification in Lung Cancer Screening (RSNA)
Features Tina Tailor, MD

Predicting Survival in Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Count, Locate the Mets (Physician's Weekly)
Features Bridget Koontz, MD


Radiotherapy's Role in Metastatic Prostate Cancer Clarified (MedPage Today)
Features Bridget Koontz, MD


First GnRH Receptor Antagonist Enters Advanced Prostate Cancer Treatment Portfolio (Cancer Therapy Advisor)
Features Dan George, MD

NCI-MATCH Trial Explores Tumor-Agnostic Approach (Targeted Oncology)
Features April Salama, MD

WATCH: Rebecca Previs, MD, and Krish Tewari, MD (UC Irvine) Discuss Accrual in Clinical Trials for Cervix, Ovarian and Endometrial Cancers (GOG Foundation)
Features Rebecca Previs, MD


VA hiring oncologists for female Veterans care: New partnership with Duke and Baylor will help build a National Women Veterans Oncology System of Excellence (U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs)

MSK and The City College of New York (CCNY) Receive $4 million grant from the NIH to use machine-learning for early breast cancer detection in high-risk women (MSK)
*The five-year project will analyze 100,000 breast exams from MSK as well as data from Duke University and Johns Hopkins University.


Novel Therapy in Combination With Opdivo Shows Promise for Lung Cancer Subset (Cure)
Features Neal Ready, MD, PhD

Relapsed/Refractory SCLC May Benefit From the Combination of BMS-986012 Plus Nivolumab (CancerNetwork/Oncology)
Features Neal Ready, MD, PhD


Pattern of metastatic spread impacts whether enzalutamide plus ADT improves PFS (Urology Times)
Features Andrew Armstrong, MD, MSc


Duke University among top 10 in nation for federal medical research funding (Duke SoM)

Parents of Children with Cancer Have Additional Worries During COVID (Duke Health News/DCI blog)
Features Kyle Walsh, PhD


Gbadegesin named Associate Dean for Physician-Scientist Development (Duke SoM)

Duke Celebrates Women and Girls in Science Day (Duke Today)
Features Heather Stapleton, PhD


Three Questions for Marc Ryser, PhD (Duke Dept. of Population Health Sciences)
Features Marc Ryser, PhD

Quitting Smokeless Tobacco: A Success Story (Duke Today/Working@Duke)

Abbreviated Screening MRI Improves Breast Cancer Detection Rate (Clinical Practice Today)
Features Eun L. Langman, MD

Improving quality one bite at a time (Inside Duke Health)
Features Steve Power, MBA


WATCH: Radiation Oncology Gets a New LINAC (Duke Radiation Oncology)

Invisible No More, the Cervix (Duke Research Blog)
Features Nimmi Ramanujam, PhD

Duke Celebrates Women and Girls in Science Day (Duke Today)
Features Heather Stapleton, PhD

Rawls Elected to the American Academy of Microbiology (Duke SoM)
Features
John Franklin Rawls, PhD

GU ASCO

WATCH: Tian Zhang, MD, speaks about new data at ASCO #GU21 and what it could mean for patients with bladder, kidney and prostate cancer (BMS)
Features Tian Zhang, MD

ASCO GU 2021: The Impact of Concomitant Prostate Cancer Therapy on Efficacy and Safety of Relugolix vs Leuprolide in Men With Advanced Prostate Cancer: Subgroup Analysis, the Phase III HERO Study (Uro Today)
Features Dan George, MD


ASCO GU 2021: Efficacy of the PD-L1 Inhibitor Avelumab in Neuroendocrine or Aggressive Variant Prostate Cancer: Results From a Phase II, Single-Arm Study (UroToday)
Features Landon Brown, MD

Papers

*Duke authors are bolded

A comparison of sunitinib with cabozantinib, crizotinib, and savolitinib for treatment of advanced papillary renal cell carcinoma: a randomised, open-label, phase 2 trial  The Lancet. Feb 20, 2021. Prof Sumanta K Pal, MD; Prof Catherine Tangen, DrPH; Ian M Thompson Jr, MD Naomi Balzer-Haas, MD; Prof Daniel J George, MD; Prof Daniel Y C Heng, MD; Brian Shuch, MD; Mark Stein, MD; Maria Tretiakova, MD; Prof Peter Humphrey, MD; Adebowale Adeniran, MD; Vivek Narayan, MD; Georg A Bjarnason, MD; Prof Ulka Vaishampayan, MD; Ajjai Alva, MD; Tian Zhang, MD; Scott Cole, MD; Melissa Plets, MS; John Wright, MD; Prof Primo N Lara Jr, MD.

Expression of immune checkpoints on circulating tumor cells in men with metastatic prostate cancer Biomarker Research (part of Springer Nature) Feb. 18, 2021 Tian Zhang, Anika Agarwal, R. Garland Almquist, Daniella Runyambo, Sally Park, Elizabeth Bronson, Rengasamy Boominathan, Chandra Rao, Monika Anand, Taofik Oyekunle, Patrick Healy, Megan A. McNamara, Kathryn Ware, Jason A. Somarelli, Daniel J. George & Andrew J. Armstrong.


Spiritual well-being and its association with health-related quality of life in primary brain tumor patients Neuro-Oncology Practice Feb. 17, 2021. Dina M Randazzo, Frances McSherry, James E Herndon, II, Mary L Affronti, Eric S Lipp, Elizabeth S Miller, Sarah Woodring, Patrick Healy, Jennifer Jackman, Brian Crouch, Annick Desjardins, David M Ashley, Henry S Friedman, Katherine B Peters.

Palliative Care Specialist Access is Associated with Rankings of Hospital Quality J Pain Symptom Manage Feb 16, 2021. Jaan Nandwani, Jennifer M Maguire, Maggie Rogers, Diane E Meier, Arif H Kamal.

Angiokines associated with outcomes after sunitinib or everolimus treatment in patients with non-clear cell renal cell carcinoma Clinical Cancer Research Feb. 16, 2021 Andrew J Armstrong, Andrew B. Nixon, Andrea Carmack, Timothy Eisen, Walter M Stadler, Robert J Jones, Jorge Garcia, Ulka N. Vaishampayan, Joel Picus, Robert E Hawkins, John D. Hainsworth, Christian Kollmannsberger, Theodore F Logan, Igor Puzanov, Lisa Pickering, Christopher W Ryan, Andrew Protheroe, Daniel J. George and Susan Halabi.

Molecular Mechanisms Linking Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis to Cancer Clinical Liver Disease Feb 1, 2021. Kara Wegermann, MD, Jeongeun Hyun PhD, Anna Mae Diehl, MD.

Body composition, physical function and quality of life in healthy men and across different stages of prostate cancer Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. January 25, 2021. Erik D Hanson, Cameron K Stopforth, Mohamdod Alzer, Jackson Carver, Alexander R Lucas, Young E Whang, Matthew I Milowsky, David B Bartlett, Michael R Harrison, Alan Hayes, Rhonda L Bitting, Allison M Deal, A C Hackney, Claudio L Battaglini.