2010 Media Releases

2008 Media Releases

NCCS oncologists win prestigious awards by American Society of Clinical Oncology

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Singapore, 25 May 2010 – Two medical oncologists from the National Cancer Centre Singapore, namely, Dr Daniel SW Tan and Dr Iain BH Tan, have won the prestigious annual awards by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Cancer Foundation, the worldwide leading authority in Oncology.

The ASCO awards are given in recognition of high quality clinicians and researchers as a conduit to promote their career development by providing unique opportunities for them to pursue their research projects. They are given in several categories such as:

• Young Investigator Award - to provide funding to promising investigators to encourage and promote quality research in clinical oncology, and
• Merit Award - to promote clinical research by young scientists and to provide Fellows with an opportunity to present their research at scientific meetings.

This year, 45 investigators and 100 oncologists worldwide have received the Young Investigators and the Merit Award respectively. NCCS is the only institution in Asia to be honoured with two awards in the same year and is the fourth time that oncologists from NCCS have been conferred awards by ASCO Cancer Foundation. With the latest awards, it brings to five the number of awards that NCCS has received since 2005.

ASCO Merit Award : Dr Daniel Tan was awarded for his work in testing new anti-cancer compounds to further determine their efficacy and accuracy in hitting their intended target. During his NMRC Fellowship at Royal Marsden Hospital in the UK, which was completed in July 2009, Dr Tan ran a clinical trial to determine a safe and tolerable dose of a new drug targeting the mTOR pathway, a pathway which contributes critically to cancer growth. The drug, which was used on humans for the first time, was an improved design of the mTORC1 inhibitors that were already currently used in clinical practice. While earlier studies had proved that the agent was generating its intended efficacies, the trial had confirmed that the agent was hitting its intended target at the schedules explored. The success has marked the end of the widely-accepted notion of failure with new compounds at early stage trials because of their high attrition rates in terms of safety and toxicity (see abstract 1).

ASCO Young Investigator Award : The lack of reliable tests to select the most appropriate and optimal cancer drug treatment for individual patients has been the impetus behind Dr Iain Tan’s research in gastric cancer. Working on the premise that gastric cancer is the second leading cause of global cancer mortality and patients have varied response to current treatments, Dr Tan, who has the rare honour of being the only doctor to have attained this while doing his research in an institution outside of North America, has identified two genetic sub-types of gastric cancers with different responses to drugs. He will embark on further research to unravel the correlation between genetic profiles and treatment outcomes using cutting edge genomic tools (see abstract 2).

The fact that NCCS oncologists are the only home grown award recipients from Asia honoured twice this year augurs well for NCCS. Dr Toh Han Chong, Head and Senior Consultant, Department of Medical Oncology at NCCS applauds the joint successes of his two young charges.

Dr Toh adds: “It is a tremendous feat for both Daniel and Iain to have come this far at the early stage of their careers. It is a boost to the medical fraternity in Singapore and the world when our young doctors are already contributing to the value chain for patients with their exciting research. I am confident that their work will impact the lives of many cancer patients worldwide when translated from the bench to bedside and beyond. With five ASCO awards in our midst, NCCS has certainly made it to the World Cup Finals of cancer research. “

The year has marked the second consecutive occasion where Dr Daniel Tan has been honoured by the ASCO. In 2009, he was conferred the ASCO Young Investigator Award.

Other NCCS awardees from the ASCO stellar list of awardees that have been honoured in two consecutive years included Dr Tan Min-Han, Consultant, Department of Medical Oncology. He was conferred the Merit Award in 2005 and 2006. This bring NCCS ASCO award tally to five since 2005.

For further information, please contact:

Ms Veronica Lee
Senior Executive, Corporate Communications
Tel: 6236 9429 / 9450 4017
Email: Veronica.Lee.H.E@nccs.com.sg

Ms Carol Ang
Executive, Corporate Communications
Tel: 6236 9424 / 9845 5354
Email: Carol.Ang.S.Y@nccs.com.sg

Mr Joshua Tan
Corporate Communications Officer
Tel: 6236 9462
Email: Joshua.Tan@nccs.com.sg

About National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS)

The National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) is the premier cancer research and treatment facility in Singapore and in the region. It was established in 1999 and sees about 68 per cent of the public sector medical oncology cases and about 65 per cent of radiation oncology cases. NCCS not only houses the most number of oncologists in Singapore but is also equipped with the largest number of equipment to provide the latest radiation oncology care in Singapore.


Abstract 1: First-in-human phase I study exploring three schedules of OSI-027, a novel small molecule TORC1/TORC2 inhibitor, in patients with advanced solid tumors and lymphoma (Daniel Tan).

The mTOR pathway regulates cell growth, proliferation and survival; and is a clinically validated target for cancer therapy. Current rapamycin analogs preferentially target TORC1, with therapeutic efficacy limited by compensatory feedback loops resulting in AKT and ERK activation. OSI-027 is an oral inhibitor of TORC1 and TORC2 kinase activity and may have additional clinical activity over TORC1 selective inhibitors.

Patients (pts) with advanced solid tumors or lymphoma received escalating doses of OSI-027 in 3 schedules (S1: days (d) 1-3 q7d, S2: once weekly, and S3: continuous once daily) to determine safety, maximum tolerated dose, pharmacokinetics (PK) and preliminary antitumor activity. Pharmacodynamic (PD) effects on phosphorylation of 4E-BP1 at threonine 37/46, a rapamycin insensitive, mTOR-dependent phosphorylation site, were examined.

To date, 34 pts have been enrolled (13M/21F, median age 59 yrs) and 31 treated (S1 11 pts, S2 12 pts, S3 8 pts). S1 and S2 pts were dosed at 10, 15 and 20 mg, S3 pts at 5, 10 and 20 mg. Median number of weeks on study was 6 (range <1-34). Three DLTs have been reported: grade (G) 2 decreased LVEF (10mg S1), and 2 pts with G3 fatigue (15 mg S2 and 20 mg S3). Other drug-related toxicities included G3 nausea and vomiting (1), G3 pneumonia (1); G1/2 fatigue (4), nausea (2), diarrhea (1), anorexia (1), elevated creatinine (1), and reversible increase in QTc (1). Preliminary PK indicate exposure (AUC, C max) of OSI-027 increased with dose. The median T max and terminal T 3 /4 were 2-6 hrs and 6-17 hrs, respectively. Preliminary PD data indicate that substantial decreases in 4E-BP1 (T37/46) phosphorylation were observed in PBMCs from 13 of 23 pts following OSI-027 treatment. Eight pts have had SD lasting ≥ 12 wks (26% of pts treated, range 12-33 wks); tumor types were colorectal (3 pts), melanoma, neuroendocrine, endometrial, renal, and cervical cancer (1 pt each).

OSI-027 is a potent TORC1/2 kinase inhibitor. Preliminary evidence of pharmacological activity has been observed. It is well tolerated at the doses and schedules tested to date. MTD has not been reached and dose escalation is ongoing.

Abstract 2: Predicting benefit of 1st line chemotherapy regimens in gastric cancer molecular subclasses by performing whole genome expression profiling on fixed archival tissues (Iain Tan).

Gastric cancer is the world's second leading cause of cancer death. Most patients already have advanced cancer when they are diagnosed, which cannot be cured by surgery. The main treatment option is chemotherapy. Whilst not curative, these treatments lead to prolongation of survival and more importantly, control of symptoms and improvements in quality of life, especially in the 40% of patients whose tumors shrink with standard upfront (1st line) chemotherapy regimens. However, for those patients whose tumors grow despite chemotherapy, their condition deteriorates rapidly and they become unfit for subsequent treatment.

Cancer research has demonstrated marked heterogeneity among individual gastric cancers. Every cancer is different. There are several chemotherapy regimens available. Whilst some molecular characteristics are used to tailor the use of targeted drugs,chemotherapy remains the mainstay of treatment for a majority of cancers. There is at currently no reliable biological marker (biomarker) that allows the oncologist to match the correct chemotherapy regimen for an individual patient.

To address this unmet need in the most expedient fashion, we capitalize on two opportunities. Firstly, all patients require a sampling of tissue for their diagnosis. After the diagnosis has been ascertained from the sample, it is routinely stored in hospital pathology archives around the world. A recently technological advance called DASL (cDNA-mediated Annealing, Selection, extension, and Ligation assay) has overcome previous technical barriers to enable scientist to generate detailed molecular profiles of the cancer from these samples. Secondly, through previous work, we have identified important molecular aspects of the cancer that could potentially influence both the biological behavior of the cancer as well as its response to different treatments.

We are able to pair these molecular insights with detailed molecular profiles generated from clinical material that is widely and easily available to discover and validate with potential biomarkers that could guide treatment choice. This strategy provides us with both the necessary high-resolution molecular information as well as mature clinical data to allow rapid develop of biomarkers. This could lead us towards the goal of personalized medicine in which the distinguishing biological characteristics of a patient's cancer guides the physician to choose the drug for which the patient is most likely to derive benefit.