Next Generation Precision Oncology Symposium Celebrates Survivors, Current and Future

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The Next Generation Precision Oncology Symposium, a novel meeting of industry and academic leaders in cancer science and medicine, will be held February 21, 2019 at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center.

Now in its 15th year, the annual symposium was created to bring together scientists, doctors and experts to share data and ideas, with presentations on the latest developments in clinical treatments, new therapeutic options, promising drugs and more. The event also features personal stories of cancer patients and survivors, and honors luminaries in the field of oncology.

“The symposium is a forum uniting life science innovators from around the world to brainstorm translational oncology research,” said Ida Deichaite, PhD, director of UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center’s Office of Industry Relations and an organizer of the symposium. “We are proud to hear from past attendees about a high number of collaborations and alliances stemming from the event that address the needs for accelerated research.”

This year, patient-advocate and cancer survivor Teresa McKeown will talk about how doctors at Moores Cancer Center, including Shumei Kato, MD, medical oncologist and assistant professor of medicine in the UC San Diego School of Medicine, treated her aggressive, recurring case of breast cancer with a form of precision medicine that targeted unique genetic abnormalities in her tumors. Kato will also speak.   

Patient-advocate Derek Johnston will discuss his experience being treated in a clinical trial using immunotherapy, along with Rana McKay, MD, medical oncologist and assistant professor of medicine and principal investigator for the trial, and J. Michael Randall, MD, Johnston’s treating physician.

The symposium, formerly known as the Industry/Academia Translational Oncology Symposium, will also honor Susan Band Horwitz, PhD, Distinguished Professor and Rose C. Falkenstein Chair in Cancer Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, with the 2019 Duane Roth Endowed Award. Horwitz, who will give a lecture, helped pioneer understanding and development of key chemotherapeutic drugs, most notably paclitaxel, which is marketed as Taxol and broadly prescribed for a number of cancer types, including breast, ovarian, lung, cervical and pancreatic.

Gordon Mills, MD, PhD, director of precision oncology at Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health and Science University, will also present a lecture about delivering on the promise of precision oncology.

A full schedule for the symposium with details on presenting individuals is available online at www.ucsdmccindustryrelations.com/symposium

About the Duane Roth Endowed Award Lecture

The Duane Roth Endowed Award Lecture is bestowed upon patient-focused leaders in health care whose work has overcome numerous scientific, financial, institutional, political and cultural obstacles to create new paradigms in research and treatment. Named after Duane Roth, an esteemed leader in the biotech industry who was tragically killed following a bicycle accident in 2013, the award is given to those who demonstrate his deep commitment to innovation and the patient. Past recipients include: Carl June, MD, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine; Sandra Horning, MD, head of global product development and chief medical officer, Genentech; Dennis Slamon, MD, PhD, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center; Brian Druker, MD, Knight Institute at Oregon Health and Science University; and Laura Esserman, MD, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Biographies of past winners and their accomplishments are available online.

About the Industry/Academia Translational Oncology Symposium

Since 2005, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center’s Office of Industry Relations annually organizes the Industry/Academia Translational Oncology Symposium — a unique forum where distinguished investigators, scientists, and clinicians join top industry decision-makers to discuss the latest breakthroughs in translational oncology research. Talks include personalized medicine, targeted therapy discoveries, collaborative clinical trials paradigms and case studies of previous successful collaborative projects. An interactive panel session comprised of industry and academia panelists and the concluding networking reception allow for further dialogue of ideas and the fostering of collaborative relationships.

About the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center’s Office of Industry Relations

Industry Relations at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, a NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, builds relationships for collaborative translational oncology projects. With the power of industry/academia collaboration, the lead time and enormous costs of cancer therapy development are significantly reduced, overcoming numerous translational gaps that often cause clinical trials to fail. Industry Relations unifies the efforts of the sciences within cancer research to better stratify patients according to their biomarker profiles, reducing toxicity, improving drug development efficiency, minimizing extraneous costs and meeting patients' specific needs quickly.