PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Worldwide Innovative Networking - WIN Consortium announces today the appointment of Professor Waun Ki Hong from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, as Special Advisor and member of the Executive Committee. Professor Waun Ki Hong will oversee the new strategy of WIN consortium and the next generation of clinical trials aiming to significantly impact the overall survival of lung cancer patients. These programs will be disclosed at the WIN 2015 symposium, to be held on June 29-30 in Paris, France.
The goal of WIN is to bring precision cancer medicine to patients, world wide, as rapidly and effectively as possible. We are focusing on lung cancer because of its major importance as a cause of death, and because progress in prolonging some patient’s lives has been made with therapies targeting aberrant genes in this form of cancer over the past few years. The pillars of the WIN strategy will be the triple targeted therapy combinations clinical trials in metastatic lung cancer patients and the discovery and validation of non-invasive biomarkers for the diagnosis of lung cancer in stage I to enable earlier diagnosis for an increased number of patients.
“WIN Consortium proudly announces that Professor Waun Ki Hong, who pioneered personalized cancer therapy with BATTLE trials in lung cancer will oversee and coordinate the strategy of combinations of targeted therapies and next generation of clinical trials of WIN Consortium in his role of Special Advisor and lung expert.” said Dr. John Mendelsohn, Chairman of WIN. “During the WIN symposium 2015 the results and the learnings from WINTHER, the first trial of WIN Consortium, will be presented. It will also be the occasion to disclose the concept underlying the WIN Consortium global and exhaustive approach towards Non Small Cell Lung Cancer and present the design of the trials based on a new scientific rationale aiming to significantly impact survival of lung cancer patients.’’ added Dr. John Mendelsohn.
“I am thrilled to contribute to this unique and unprecedented innovative approach initiated by this wonderful assembly of cancer stakeholders gathered in WIN consortium. The novel approach proposed to be tested by WIN has been recently published in Oncotarget. It consists in a new modelling of the lung disease with a pragmatic matching process of the biology of each patient to the best combination of triple targeted therapies. It brings to the concept of Precision Cancer Medicine an unprecedented dimension.’’ said Professor Waun Ki Hong.
“Following the historical success of the triple-therapy approach in AIDS and tuberculosis, it has become urgent to test this hypothesis in lung cancer. Lung cancer remains today one of the most devastating of cancers. The current therapeutic approach with targeted monotherapies produce high regression rates, albeit for limited patient subgroups, who inevitably succumb. Customized combinations that incorporate breakthroughs in immunotherapy and matched targeted therapies are the next step” says Razelle Kurzrock, Head of Clinical Trials Committee of the WIN Consortium and global Principal Investigator of the future combination trial of the WIN Consortium.
“Join the greatest experts invited to debate and reshape the future of oncology. We count on your attendance and active participation in this unprecedented forum of discussion and round tables.“, said Alexander Eggermont, Vice Chair of the WIN Consortium.
Catherine Bresson, Director of operations of WIN added: “All stakeholders of cancer care are expected. We encourage patients’ associations and cancer research associations as well as philanthropists to join us in the battle against lung cancer. Their involvement and contribution are essential to help WIN bringing progress more quickly to patients”.
About Waun Ki Hong:
Waun Ki Hong, MD, FACP, DMSc (Hon) is an American Cancer Society Professor, the Samsung Distinguished University Chair in Cancer Medicine emeritus, and Professor of Cancer Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he served as Chairman of the Department of Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology from 1993-2005 and as Head of the Division of Cancer Medicine from 2001-2014. Dr. Hong is a leading authority on head/neck and lung cancers. His specialty is medical oncology with expertise in the areas of molecular therapeutics, cancer prevention, clinical investigation, and personalized targeted therapy.
Dr. Hong is the recipient of numerous distinguished national and international awards including, election to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies and election as an Inaugural Fellow of the AACR Academy. He is also a recipient of The American Cancer Society Medal of Honor for Clinical Research; the AACR Joseph A. Burchenal and Rosenthal Foundation Awards; the ASCO David Karnofsky Award; and the Ho-Am Prize in Medicine from South Korea.
A national and international leader in medical oncology, Dr. Hong has trained clinical oncologists throughout the world and participated in creating national cancer policy through the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB), the US FDA Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee, the NCI Board of Scientific Advisors, the American Society of Clinical Oncology Board of Directors, and as past president of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Dr. Hong has served on the editorial boards of 17 scientific journals. He has authored more than 689 scientific papers and edited 11 books, including the 7th and 8th editions of Holland-Frei Cancer Medicine.
About WIN 2015 Symposium:
Novel Targets, Innovative Agents, Advanced technologies: A WINning strategy!
June 29-30, 2015 Paris: Here are the five top reasons to attend this exceptional scientific event:
- Contribute building the WINning strategies for personalized cancer care
- Hear the latest about groundbreaking technologies big trials and “big data”
- Learn about WIN Consortium, its strategy and its global clinical trials
- Meet global leaders: network with top executives from the academic, pharma/biotech and regulatory environment
- Discuss your own data with an international audience of peers and receive CME credits
With renowned participation of: James Allison, Andrea Califano, James Doroshow, Alexander Eggermont, Waun Ki Hong, Razelle Kurzrock, John Mendelsohn, Richard L. Schilsky, Ton Schumacher, Jean-Charles Soria, Ralph Weichselbaum, Antoine Yver and many others.
About WIN Consortium:
WIN Consortium was founded on the premise that we can accomplish more together than what any one organization can accomplish alone: to significantly improve cancer patients’ survival and quality of life. WIN members include organizations representing all stakeholders in personalized cancer medicine: cancer centers in 16 countries and 4 continents, major technology and pharmaceutical industries, cancer charities and health payer.
Industries
Agilent Technologies | Ariana Pharma| AstraZeneca| Blue Cross Blue Shield Association | Foundation Medicine| GE Healthcare| Oracle | Pfizer | Takeda
Non-Profits
ARC Foundation| Cancer Research UK | CEO Roundtable on Cancer | EORTC | Sage Bionetworks
Academics
ASAN Medical Center, Korea | Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel | Cambridge Cancer Centre, UK | Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Israel | DKFZ/NCT, Germany | Fudan University, China | Gustave Roussy, France | Hadassah University, Israel | Hospital Cancer de Barretos, Brazil | INCLIVA, Spain | IOCN & UMF, Romania | Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Italy | King Hussein Cancer Center, Jordan | Memorial Sloan Kettering, USA | McGill Segal Cancer Center, Canada | National Cancer Centre Singapore | NYU, USA | Princess Margaret Hospital, Canada | TATA Memorial Hospital, India | UC San Diego, USA | UT MDAnderson, USA | Vall d’Hebron, Spain | Yonsei Cancer Center, Korea
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