EDRN Steering Committee Meeting

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Present (in BOLD):

• Arizona State University: Karen Anderson
• NCI: Sudhir Srivastava, Felicia Evans-Long, Sidney Fu, Nick Hodges, Indu Kohaar, Amit Kumar, Guillermo Marquez, Richard Mazurchuk, Mark Miller, Christos Patriotis, Angela Petruzzelli, Neeraj Saxena, Amanda Skarlupka, Paul Wagner, Wendy Wang, Matt Young
• Baylor: Fasiha Kanwal, Erich Sturgis
• Boston University: Marc Lenburg, Jennifer Beane, Erin Kane
• Dana-Farber Cancer Institute: Sapna Syngal
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center: Jackie Dahlgren, Ziding Feng, Andy Hoofnagle, Christopher Li, Royce Malnik, Amanda Paulovich, Lesley Wilkerson, Cecilia Yeung, Yingye Zheng
• George Washington University: Laura Rozek
• Icahn School of Medicine Mt. Sinai: Pei Wang
• JPL: Daniel Crichton, Heather Kincaid
• Johns Hopkins University: Daniel Chan Ie-Ming Shih, David Sidransky, Victor Velculescu, Hui Zhang, Zhen Zhang
• Massachusetts: Steven Skates, Alan Cha
• Meso Scale: Anu Mathew, Martin Stengelin, Mingyue Wang
• Moffitt: Antonio Amelio, Anna Giuliano, John Heine, Matt Schabath
• NIDCR: Zhong Chen, Amanda Melillo
• NIST: Hua-Jun He
• New York University: Harvey Pass, Leopoldo Segal
• PNNL: Tao Liu
• University of California, Los Angeles: William Hsu, Mike Palazzolo
• University of Colorado: Sachin Wani
• University Health Network: Thomas Kislinger
• University of Maryland: Sanford Stass
• University of Michigan: Neehar Parikh
• University of North Carolina: Nicholas Shaheen
• University of Nebraska: Surinder Batra
• University of Pittsburgh: Randall Brand, James Herman
• University of Texas MD Anderson: Robert Bast, Robert Bresalier, Anirban Maitra, Ed Ostrin, David Wilson
• University of Texas Southwestern: Amit Singal
• University of Washington: William Grady, Savannah Partridge
• Vanderbilt: Stephen Deppen, Eric Grogan, Michael Kammer, Jeff Tosoian
• Yale University: Sara Pai, Abhijit Patel

Action Items from this call:

1. Anirban Maitra will send Sudhir Srivastava the email of Dr. Marcia Cruz-Correa, the chair of the Cancer Prevention Working Group at AACR.
2. ONGOING: Royce Malnik will work with Indu Kohaar and the chairs of the Digital Pathology & Spatial Omics Round Table to set up working groups for these two topics.
3. ONGOING: Royce Malnik will send a StrawPoll to schedule a meet-and-greet with the new Network Consulting Team members.
4. N/A: Alternating EDRN Steering Committee Meeting and Scientific Workshop: Royce Malnik will send a StrawPoll for a vote on whether to hold the EDRN Scientific Workshops annually or every 18 months.

EDRN Steering Committee Meeting Agenda

Welcome: Karen Anderson welcomed everyone to the meeting and took a moment to thank Surinder Batra for hosting the 43rd EDRN Steering Committee Meeting in Omaha—the feedback from this meeting was really good and a lot was accomplished. There will be a piece about the meeting for an internal magazine in Omaha, which will be featured in a future edition of EDRN Today. Dr. Jo Ann Sweasy, the Director of the Fred and Pamela Buffett Cancer Center, was on ABC News program and touted the EDRN’s efforts and Omaha’s role in it.

Surinder Batra thanked everyone for attending the meeting and that his site was very happy to host. He noted that Dr. Sweasy plans to put more effort on screening programs for lung cancer, and they are doing this for gastrointestinal and pancreatic cancer now. Dr. Batra hopes that the EDRN can visit again in a few years.

NCI Updates:

• Continuing Resolution: The US Government is still on a continuing resolution until December 20, 2024, so NCI is not in a shut-down.
• Network Consulting Team (NCT): Sudhir Srivastava announced the members of the NCT:
  • Dr. Ian Thompson
  • Dr. Robert Winn
  • Dr. Barbara Kenner
  • Dr. Raymond DuBois
  • Dr. Jennifer Grandis
  • Dr. Larry Norton (ex officio)

There will be a meet and greet with EDRN leadership consisting of the co-chairs of the EDRN Executive Committee Members. Royce Malnik will send a StrawPoll to set up this meeting.

SC Updates

• Collaborative Group Leadership: Co-chairs for each of the Collaborative Groups were voted on at the Steering Committee Meeting in Omaha. The results have not been announced yet for all the groups, but this will be confirmed at the next EDRN Executive Committee Meeting on October 30th.
• Request nominations for Co-chair of EDRN Steering Committee (poll): Nominations for Co-chair of the EDRN Steering Committee co-chair will be sent to Royce Malnik, who will then create a StrawPoll for the SC to vote.
• Present option for alternating SC and Scientific Workshops (poll): The Committee discussed the possibility of moving the schedule of the EDRN Scientific Workshops from once every 18 months to once a year. There seemed to be enthusiasm for this change. Royce Malnik will send a StrawPoll for a vote. The pros are that we can establish a yearly presence to the NCI/NIH and our event is unique to the cancer early detection space. To moderate the costs of making this change, the Steering Committee meetings can focus on EDRN business and perhaps be a day shorter.
• Digital Pathology & Spatial-Omics Roundtable: Indu Kohaar reported that one of the action items from the Digital Pathology/Spatial-omics Round Table at the Steering Committee Meeting in Omaha. Members think this is an important working group, and they also want a separate working group for Digital Pathology. These working groups are for internal EDRN members. Royce Malnik will work with Indu Kohaar and the chairs of the Round Table group to set these up.
• AACR Abstract Deadlines: These are due on November 26th. The EDRN doesn’t have a session this year. There is a separate working group at AACR called Cancer Prevention Working Group that Raymond DuBois helped set up, and perhaps there could be a way to highlight EDRN in this group at a future meeting. Anirban Maitra will send Sudhir Srivastava the email of the chair of that group, who is Marcia Cruz-Correa. Here is a link for more information: https://www.aacr.org/professionals/membership/scientific-working-groups/cancer-prevention-working-group/cpwg-steering-committee/

1. 2025 Spring and Fall EDRN Meetings

• Spring EDRN Scientific Workshop: March 4-6, 2025 in Gaithersburg, Maryland. A Planning Committee has been set up and regular calls are scheduled so that the agenda is ready by Christmas.
• Fall Steering Committee: September 17-19, 2025 Nashville, TN hosted by Vanderbilt
• Future EDRN Steering Committee Meeting: Moffit may host a meeting during the spring in the future.

Updates (5-10 min each)

• Reference Set Committee: Robert Bresalier reported that the group has been adjudicating applications that are coming in. The group has stuck to the idea that reference sets should be used for validation but there is discussion that some of the sets should be used for discovery. Dr. Bresalier mentioned that some of the attendance has dropped off, and he wants representatives from each collaborative group, which was discussed at the last call. He noted that the applications they’ve received recently are premature and are discovery, but overall people understand what the reference sets are used for. Yingye Zheng suggested applications should be sent to the appropriate NCI Program Officer for the organ group first so that they can identify the right person to provide the initial review that will be discussed at the Working Group calls because not everyone on the Working Group is necessarily familiar with the science in the application.
• Statistical Group Update: Yingye Zheng, who is the chair of the group, reported that the most recent meetings had presentations that focused on study design and analysis of biomarker related trials. The group plans to focus on AI-based presentations and discussions. Dr. Zheng also noted that the group wanted to select a new chair annually, so someone from the DMCC will be nominated. Sudhir Srivastava suggested that AI be added to the Working Group title instead of creating another working group. Yingye Zheng asked if someone from the Liquid Biopsy Consortium could attend these meetings, and Matt Young said that since each of the consortia have similar confidentiality agreements, that this is okay.
• Early-Stage Investigators: Matt Young said that there is not a lot of interest in this group, so there needs to be a way to get people interested. He thought that adding the sister groups such as TLC, Liquid Biopsy and CPDC. Karen Anderson suggested that since we have the Scientific Workshop coming up in March, that they could be invited to this meeting and have a special session. Perhaps have an early investigator meeting before the Scientific Workshop. Royce Malnik will forward Matt Schabath the initial email that was sent to the Early Stage Investigators. Karen Anderson suggested that the ESI be included in the EDRN Scientific Workshop planning and not have regular meetings but identify specific topics and opportunities for them. Need a senior leader to attend an organized meeting so that they have a functional presence at the Scientific Workshop. Eric Grogan mentioned that Michael Kammer, who is currently listed as the chair of this group is a consultant at Vanderbilt and isn’t an employee anymore, so we need a new chair.

Next Meeting: December 18th at 3:30 p.m. Eastern/2:30 p.m. Central/12:30 p.m. Pacific