The 7th Annual Meeting of The US Chinese Anti-Cancer Association (USCACA) at AACR 2015 in Philadelphia

Philadelphia, PA — (May 6, 2015) On April 19, 2015, more than 100 cancer researchers worldwide from academia, industry, and government agencies attended the 7th Annual USCACA Meeting at AACR 2015, organized by a committee consisting of sixteen Executive Members of the USCACA.

USCACA is committed to bridging Chinese and American professionals in the field of cancer research, treatment and prevention. The mission of this non-profit organization is to facilitate collaborations between the United States and China, to promote knowledge and information exchange, and also to provide educational information to serve cancer patients, their families, and the oncology community in both countries.
The theme of this year’s USCACA annual meeting was “Bridging New Targets to New Therapies for GI Cancers”, highlighted through presentations by five well-recognized researchers in GI cancer field, followed by a panel discussion on R&D efforts in GI cancer treatment and the impact on development of translational research in China. The panel was composed of seven invited specialists whose expertise cover multiple areas, including cancer drug R&D, clinical practice and patient management, particularly in GI cancers. The meeting also updated successes in collaborations among USCACA, Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology (CSCO), National Foundation of Cancer Research (NFCR), US National Cancer Institute, Tyler Institute for Genomic Medicine (TIGM), Xinxiang Medical University, China, and several major Chinese pharmaceutical companies (Figure 1). In this meeting, two special events were presented as examples for the USCACA-Sponsor Collaboration Model, including a) the donation ceremony for a $30,000 fund sponsored by Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd. (Figure 2), to benefit the USCACA-Hengrui Scholarship Program for Early Phase Oncology Research Training (EFFORT), which will support young Chinese clinician and clinical research staff for training in the United States; and b) a ceremony of signing contract of a partnership between the USCACA and Cloud Health Medical Group Ltd. (Shanghai, China) (Figure 3).

USCACA thanks five speakers (Figure 4) to share their cutting edge research in their outstanding presentations: 1) Targeted Agents for Gastric and Other Cancers – Hengrui Oncology Pipeline (by Dr. Li Xu, Vice President and Head of Oncology Business, Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine Co., Ltd., China); 2) The Advances in Immuno-Oncology: Checkpoint Inhibitors in Gastric Cancer (by Dr. Sun Young Rha, Professor of Medical Oncology, Yonsei Cancer Center, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Korea); 3) FPA144: Antibody for Gastric Cancer (by Dr. Dr. Julie Hambleton, Chief Medical Officer, Five Prime Therapeutics, USA); 4) Monitoring GIST Specific Gene Mutations in Circulating Tumor DNA for Targeted Therapy (by Dr. Aiguo Zhang, Founder and CEO of DiaCarta, Inc., USA); and 5) Clinical Application and Challenges of Targeted Therapy in Gastric/GEJ Adenocarcinoma (by Dr. Weijing Sun, Professor of Medicine, Director of GI Medical Oncology, Co-Director of UPMC GI Cancer Center of Excellence, University of Pittsburgh, USA).
USCACA also thanks the panelists for their up-to-date insights into R&D of GI Oncology. The panel included Drs. Li Xu (Vice President of Oncology Hengrui, Executive Committee, USCACA,), Lianshan Zhang (Vice President and Global Head of R&D of Hengrui), Chris Takimoto (Vice President, Head of Oncology Translational Medicine & Early Development, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.), Helen Chen (Associate Chief and Senior Investigator, Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program, National Cancer Institute), Roger Luo (Director of Oncology Janssen, Executive Committee, USCACA), Drew Rasco (Investigator, South Texas Accelerated Research Therapeutics/START), and Ms. Mary-Margaret Killmeyer (Patient Resource Manager, on behalf of Ms. Debbie Zelman, Debbie’s Dream Foundation – AACR Gastric Cancer Fellowship) (Figure 5).
The program, which covered several important aspects of GI oncology research, would not have been possible without the vision and dedication of the members of the Annual Meeting Organizing Committee and all members of the USCACA Executive Committee. We also express our heartfelt appreciation to all sponsors that have provided generous financial support for the USCACA Annual Meeting 2015. These valued contributions helped to make possible this critical forum for the exchange of ideas that will lead to fruitful, innovative collaborations between US and China and advances in the GI cancer field.
USCACA wants to take this opportunity to thank the following individuals for their support the Hengrui-USCACA Scholarship:

Dr. George Wilding and Ms. Dona Alberti, University Wisconsin Comprehensive Cancer Center
Drs. Wei Sheng and Dan Sullivan, Moffitt Cancer Center
Drs. Helen Chen and Pamela Harris, CTEP/NCI
Drs. David Hong, Funda Meric-Bernstam, Denise De La Cruz, and Sarina Anne Piha-Paul, MDACC

The 8th USCACA Annual Meeting will be held in May of 2016. We look forward to your continuous support and please joining us at ASCO 2016, Chicago, USA.