Neuroendocrine cancer researchers from around the world gathered in Krakow, Poland for the 22nd Annual ENETS Conference in early March. The European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society meeting focuses on the latest in basic and clinical research. More than 1000 researchers and patient advocates attended the three-day conference.
NETRF grantees had a significant presence at ENETS. More than 20 presented their work, moderated sessions, and received awards for research excellence. Dr. Jennifer Chan, from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, was awarded a Hakan Ahlman Award for the best scientific paper of 2024. Dr. Chan was the principal investigator for the phase III Cabozantinib clinical trial. She was awarded a NETRF grant in 2018 to evaluate data and patient samples from the phase II clinical trial of cabozantinib.
Shani Avniel-Polak, from Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel, was also awarded a Hakan Ahlman Award for her pioneering research on the enhancer landscape of lung neuroendocrine tumors, revealing key regulatory and developmental signatures with potential theranostic applications. Dr. Avniel-Polak is a collaborator of NETRF grantee Yotam Drier.
Dr. Iacovos Michael from the University of Toronto received an award for best basic science presentation. He discussed BH3-mimetic drugs that elicit cell death of neuroendocrine tumors in preclinical models, an emerging therapeutic strategy for NETs. Dr.James Yao of MD Anderson Cancer Center presented the finding of his NETRF-funded project, “Developing innovative, genetically modified, proliferation-regulated patient-derived models representing human well-differentiated GEP-NETs for drug screening” and received a second place award for basic science presentations.
NETRF is grateful to all the participants for their dedication to neuroendocrine cancer research and congratulates the award winners for this well-deserved recognition. Once again, this year, NETRF supported the awards through a grant to ENETS.