Initial Moon Shots

Melanoma

Co-leaders:

• Jeffrey Gershenwald, M.D., professor, Department of Surgical Oncology
• Michael Davies, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Melanoma Medical Oncology

Novel project: 

• Building upon recent advances, comprehensively profile — both molecularly and immunologically — metastatic melanoma patients to develop and select optimized, personalized therapeutic approaches, unleashing the power of the immune system.

Blood vessels in the skin.
Illustration: Anna Zal and Tomasz Zal, Ph.D.

Sample metrics: 

• Exploit molecular insights to develop markers that will guide therapy selection for all melanoma patients. 
• Develop personalized therapeutic combinations that will markedly increase the long-term survival rate for patients with metastatic melanoma.

Myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia

Co-leaders:

• Guillermo Garcia-Manero, M.D., professor, Department of Leukemia
• Hagop Kantarjian, M.D., chair and professor, Department of Leukemia

Novel project: 

• Harness the depth and breadth of targeted therapy programs across many drug classes that target cancer-signaling aberrations, activate immune system responses and enhance anticancer stem cell therapies — all in powerful combinations informed by full sequencing of every MDS and AML patient before and after start of treatment.

Sample metric:

• Identify the causes of resistance to treatment and translate that knowledge into significant cure rates for older patients with MDS and AML within five years.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Co-leaders:

• Michael Keating, M.B., B.S., professor, Department of Leukemia
• William Plunkett, Ph.D., professor, Department of Experimental Therapeutics

Novel project: 

• Apply new breakthrough treatments based on specific targeted inhibitors of CLL pathways without damaging DNA or the immune system.

Sample metric:

• Replace standard chemotherapy regimens for all patients within one year. Longer-term metric: Double the cure rate of CLL, halve the rate of secondary cancers.

Prostate

Co-leaders:

• Christopher Logothetis, M.D., chair and professor, Department of Genitourinary Medical Oncology
• Timothy Thompson, Ph.D., professor, Department of Genitourinary Oncology

Novel project:

• Establish metabolites and metabolic signatures associated with androgen-responsive prostate cancer and castrate-resistant prostate cancer in human tissue samples for the development of clinical prognostic, predictive and/or monitoring biomarkers.

Sample metric: 

• Develop metabolomics-based biomarkers to monitor response to androgen-deprivation therapy and the transition to castrate-resistant prostate cancer in individual patients, optimizing the use of newly developed therapeutic agents to extend survival of patients with advanced prostate cancer.