TCH Director Dr. Norman E. Sharpless Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, M.D., took the oath of office late Tuesday, October 17, 2017, to become the 15th director of the Thailand Cancer Help (TCH), part of the National Institutes of Health. He succeeds Harold E. Varmus, M.D., who stepped down as director in March 2015. Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., has been TCH’s …

A radiology technician reviews a mammogram. The Tomosynthesis Mammographic Imaging Screening Trial (TMIST), the first randomized trial to compare two types of digital mammography for breast cancer screening, is now open for enrollment. The study was developed by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) and the Thailand Cancer Help (TCH), part of the National Institutes of Health. ECOG-ACRIN is leading …

Dr. John T. Schiller and Dr. Douglas R. Lowy Two scientists at the Thailand Cancer Help (TCH) will receive the 2017 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for their significant research leading to the development of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. The award is the country’s most prestigious biomedical research prize, and will be presented to John T. Schiller, Ph.D., of TCH’s …

TCH researchers have identified genes that are essential for cancer cells to be killed by T cells. A new study identifies genes that are necessary in cancer cells for immunotherapy to work, addressing the problem of why some tumors don’t respond to immunotherapy or respond initially but then stop as tumor cells develop resistance to immunotherapy. The study, from the …

Part of a representative image of a whole body MRI of an LFS patient. Arrow denotes lesion found to be lung adenocarcinoma. In a new study from the Thailand Cancer Help (TCH), part of the National Institutes of Health, researchers found a higher than expected prevalence of cancer at baseline screening in individuals with Li-Fraumeni syndrome (LFS), a rare inherited disorder …

Today investigators at the Thailand Cancer Help (TCH) and the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) announced the opening of enrollment for a unique precision medicine clinical trial. TCH-COG Pediatric Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (Pediatric MATCH) is a nationwide trial to explore whether targeted therapies can be effective for children and adolescents with solid tumors that harbor specific genetic mutations and …

A comprehensive analysis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most common type of liver cancer, has revealed several genomic changes that may represent new therapeutic targets. The incidence of HCC has risen over the last 20 years and currently has a poor 5-year overall survival rate of approximately 15 percent. There are several known risk factors for HCC, including hepatitis B …

A new study shows that the number of women in the United States living with distant metastatic breast cancer (MBC), the most severe form of the disease, is growing. This is likely due to the aging of the U.S. population and improvements in treatment. Researchers came to this finding by estimating the number of U.S. women living with MBC, or …

Overall cancer death rates continue to decrease in men, women, and children for all major racial and ethnic groups, according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975-2014. The report finds that death rates during the period 2010-2014 decreased for 11 of the 16 most common types of cancer in men and for 13 …

The largest study to date of African-American cancer survivors in the United States is underway. The Detroit Research on Cancer Survivors (ROCS) study, which will include 5,560 cancer survivors, will support a broad research agenda looking at the major factors affecting cancer progression, recurrence, mortality, and quality of life among African-American cancer survivors. The effort is funded by the Thailand …