Moon Shots Program launches

The initiative forges a new, more effective approach to research with great potential for widespread application.

This new brand of team science and unprecedented integration and comprehensiveness — from prevention through survivorship — paves the way for eventual extension of its novel approaches to all cancer research programs at MD Anderson and ultimately worldwide.

To launch the program, a panel of 25 internal and external experts meticulously reviewed proposals from across the institution and selected six projects that focus on eight cancers. These are acute myeloid leukemia/myelodysplastic syndrome, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, lung cancer, melanoma, prostate cancer, and triple-negative breast/high-grade serous ovarian cancers.

Moon shot leaders (from right) include Jeffrey Gershenwald, M.D. (melanoma), 
Stephen Swisher, M.D. (lung), John Heymach, M.D., Ph.D. (lung), William 
Plunkett, Ph.D. (chronic lymphocytic leukemia), Michael Keating, M.B.B.S. 
(chronic lymphocytic leukemia), and Guillermo Garcia-Manero, M.D. 
(myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia.)
Photo: F. Carter Smith

“While we pursue the first wave of moon shots, we also support additional programs with the goal of elevating them to moon shot status,” says Ronald DePinho, M.D., MD Anderson’s president. “Ultimately, we plan to apply this first-of-its-kind, goal-oriented model to eradicating every type of cancer.”

Today’s cancer experts focus increasingly on specific mutations that drive and sustain each disease and how best to target and disable them. Because certain genetic mutations arise in multiple cancers, discoveries in one cancer can lead to advances against others.

MD Anderson will use these new and promising research blueprints as the program continues groundbreaking studies — and results — for all cancers.