Penns' Abramson Cancer Center rated as 'exceptional' by NCI

The University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center (ACC) has received an "exceptional" rating by the National Cancer Institute during an extensive peer-review process for its five-year competitive research support grant. The rating is the highest possible for an NCI cancer center.

The rating also signifies the renewal of the ACC's status as a "comprehensive" center, designated to institutions that demonstrate an added depth and breadth of multidisciplinary laboratory, clinical and population-based research, as well as substantial trans-disciplinary research that bridges these scientific areas.

The ACC, which is one of only 45 NCI-designated comprehensive centers in the U.S. and three in Pennsylvania, received the prestigious honor following scientific review and evaluation of essential features of a cancer center, including the high quality of cancer research, state-of-the art research and patient care facilities, experienced scientific leadership, and the level of collaboration and translation of science to innovative cancer care.

"This is an extraordinary recognition and further testimony to all of the efforts and hard work put forth every day by the cancer center's faculty, researchers, clinicians, nurses, and other staff," said Chi Van Dang, MD, PhD, director of the ACC. "This is an exceptional cancer center and importantly, one with a 'soul' and unmatched esprit-de-corps. We all should be heartened by this external validation and that our research is impactful in helping to decrease the burden of cancer."

The ACC and other NCI-designated cancer centers are funded through the Cancer Center Support Grant. These federal awards are given following a competitive, peer-review process that evaluates and ranks applications according to merit. Funding for the ACC grant is expected to be finalized in early 2016.

Since the last competitive renewal process in 2010, faculty physicians and researchers have authored more than 5,000 cancer-related publications. In addition, the ACC's research initiatives have been buoyed by an increase in NCI peer-reviewed funding. Today, ACC scientists are making unprecedented advances in cancer research with more than 1,000 active research projects and the largest portfolio of cancer clinical trials in the Philadelphia region, with over 550.

Advances and innovations during the past five years include:

--In 2012, the Basser Center for BRCA became the first comprehensive BRCA-focused center of its kind with research initiatives ranging from the basic biology of BRCA-related cancers to the communication of BRCA test results within families.

--With the launching of Penn's Center for Personalized Diagnostics in 2013 - a joint venture between Pathology and Lab Medicine and the ACC - special DNA sequencing is refining patient diagnoses with greater precision than standard imaging tests and blood work. This process, in turn, helps expand treatment options and improve their efficacy.

--The ACC established four Translational Centers for Excellence (TCEs), flagship, disease-specific medical programs unique to the center that bring together the most brilliant minds across campus from basic scientists to engineers, to inspire one another by working together to solve cancer's most complex challenges and creating solutions to the most pressing issues confronting patients. Researchers are investigating innovative and interdisciplinary ways to tackle pancreatic, blood, lung and recurrent breast cancers.

--The ACC has become home to the largest group in the world dedicated to cancer immunotherapy. The immunotherapy team designed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy, which uses genetically modified T cells to harness and program the immune system to kill cancer. This personalized immunotherapy technique has provided sustained remissions in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. More recently, trials of this approach have begun for patients with other blood cancers and solid tumors including pancreatic cancer, mesothelioma, and the brain cancer glioblastoma.

--In 2013, the ACC's Office of Diversity was also established, and has connected with more than 5,000 community members—talking to them about prevention, early detection and offering access to proven screenings, such as colonoscopy and mammography, through the Colorectal Cancer Screening Navigation Program and newer HealthyWoman Program-Penn Breast Health Initiative.

"This rating for the NCI Cancer Center Support Grant reflects the unparalleled scientific and leadership capabilities of our investigators and staff, and the stellar progress and impact they've made in the field and community," said Caryn Lerman, PhD, senior deputy director of the ACC and director of the ACC's Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Nicotine Addiction, a highly interconnected set of projects that seek to improve treatments for nicotine dependence.