Inova Leaders in Gynecologic Cancer and Proteomic Research to Spearhead Cancer Moonshot’s APOLLO Program

APOLLO will accelerate the understanding and application of proteogenomics in cancer treatment

FALLS CHURCH, VA – October 17, 2016 – Earlier today, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden announced updates related to the federal Moonshot for Cancer program, which aims to make a decade’s worth of progress in the fight against cancer in five years. As part of the Cancer Moonshot, the Applied Proteogenomics Organizational Learning and Outcomes (APOLLO) program, which represents a tri-federal agreement between the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the Veterans Administration (VA), and the Department of Defense (DoD), will focus on genetic sequencing and proteomic analysis of tumors to develop clinically actionable molecular panels for precision medicine and personalized health.

G. Larry Maxwell, MD (COL, ret.), Associate Director of Translational Sciences for the Inova Schar Cancer Institute (ISCI) and a co-Principal Investigator of the DoD Gynecologic Cancer Center of Excellence (GYN-COE), will be one of the leaders spearheading this research in gynecologic cancer and helping to organize investigative efforts in breast, prostate, lung and other cancers. Thomas P. Conrads, PhD, Associate Director of Scientific Technologies for the ISCI and a co-investigator of the GYN-COE, will be supporting these transformative research efforts by overseeing aspects of the DoD Proteomics Platform in the proteogenomic analysis of all sites of cancer that will be evaluated under the APOLLO program.

“We are thrilled to be collaborating with our colleagues at the DoD, NCI and the VA on this important work,” said Dr. Maxwell. “Genomic research has very rapidly begun to change the way we approach treating cancer and other diseases. Our work with APOLLO will add proteomic research to the mix, and provide a critically important dataset that will shape how we predict, prevent and treat disease in the future.”

“Proteins comprise most of the biomarkers that are measured to detect cancers, they constitute the antigens that drive immune response and inter- and intra-cellular communications, and they are the drug targets for nearly every targeted therapy that is being evaluated in cancer trials today,” reminds Dr. Conrads. “We believe that a combined systems biology view of the tumor microenvironment that orients cancer studies back to the functional proteome, phosphoproteome and biochemistry of the cell will be essential to delivering on the promise of the Cancer Moonshot program.”

Media Contacts: Kelly Schlageter, kelly.schlageter@inova.org, 571-472-0200