2000 – Brian Druker, MD, begins phase II trial of STI-¬571, a drug that inhibits an enzyme present only in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cells, after it induced remission in all 31 CML patients of his phase I study.

2000 – A team of scientists that includes ACS Clinical Research Professor Waun Ki Hong, MD, announces that the combination of chemotherapy with p53 gene therapy caused tumors to shrink in 25% to 30% of head and neck cancer patients.

2000 – DNA micro array chip technology is successfully used by a team of 30 researchers, including ACS Clinical Research Professor Ronald Levy, MD, to identify two types of lymphoma that look the same under the microscope, but that respond very differently to standard therapy.

2000 – John Mendelssohn, MD, reports that a monoclonal antibody, IMC-C225, against epidermal growth factor receptor, developed while he was an ACS Professor of Clinical Oncology, is effective in the treatment of refractory colon and head and neck cancers.

2000 – Mylotarg®, a chemotherapeutic molecule bound to a monoclonal antibody against a tumor cell surface protein, is approved by the FDA for the treatment of acute myelogenous leukemia. ACS Clinical Research Professor Irwin Bernstein, MD, and former grantee Eric Sievers, MD, developed the compound.

2000 – Arsenic trioxide (Trisenox®) is approved as an orphan drug for treatment of patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia. The study was conducted by grantee Raymond Warrell, MD.

2000 – Former grantee Donald Kufe, MD, reports that the first human clinical trials of endostatin prove that it is safe and may have anticancer potential.

2001 – The FDA approves Gleevec® (formerly STI-571) for treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia, based on clinical trials conducted by Brian Druker, MD; initial tests of Gleevec for a rare gastrointestinal tumor prove promising.

2001 – Former grantees Leonard Saltz, MD, and Albert LoBuglio, MD, report that IMC-C225 monoclonal antibody against the epidermal growth factor receptor, plus the drug irinotecan, produces a response in colorectal cancers resistant to standard treatment.

2001 – Former ACS Research Professor Leland Hartwell, PhD, becomes the 32nd Society supported Nobel Prize winner. Dr. Hartwell’s research on the cell division cycle began in the early 1970s with the help of a Society grant.

2002 – DNA microarray (gene chip) technology developed by Stephen Friend, MD, PhD, is successful in predicting which node-negative breast cancer patients will go on to develop metastasis and thus benefit from aggressive adjuvant therapy.

2002 – ACS Professor Bert Vogelstein, MD, announces a new screening test for colon cancer that detects specific genetic abnormalities in stool samples of up to 70% of patients with colon cancer.

2002 – Using samples supplied by former ACS Clinical Oncology Fellow David A. Fishman, MD, scientists from the FDA and the National Cancer Institute use the new science of proteomics to analyze patterns of blood proteins to detect ovarian cancer at an early stage in women at high risk.

2002 – Zevalin®, a monoclonal antibody conjugated to a radioactive isotope, is approved by the FDA after patients with B cell lymphoma achieved remission when treated with Zevalin plus Rituxan. Zevalin trials were carried out by former grantee Thomas Witzig, MD, and earlier by ACS Clinical Research Professor Ronald Levy, MD.

2002 – Mark Kris, MD, reports that Iressa® (gefitinib), a small molecule inhibitor of the epidermal growth factor receptor, had amazing success in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer that had failed cisplatin therapy.

2002 – Brian Druker, MD, shows that 68% of CML patients taking Gleevec as front-line therapy had partial remission. Other investigators reported that Gleevec reduces tumors by half in 63% of people with rare, usually fatal, gastrointestinal stromal tumor.

2002 – Michele Carbone, MD, presents evidence that mesothelioma may result from a synergy between asbestos exposure and infection with a monkey virus (SV40) that contaminated early polio vaccines. A combination of Alimta® (pemetrexed) and cisplatin had symptom improvement, according to study director Nicholas Vogelzang, MD.

2002 – ACS Research Professor Tony Hunter, PhD, and colleagues publish the full protein kinase complement of the human genome known as the human kinome.

2003 – Former grantee Gary Ruvkun, PhD, uses RNA interference (RNAi) to identify six genes lead¬ing to obesity in the roundworm.

2003 – Former grantees Michael Clarke, MD, and Max Wicha, MD, discover that “breast cancer stem cells,” which are highly resistant to chemotherapy, hold the key to breast cancer tumor metastasis.

2003 – In house Society researchers, led by Eugenia Calle, PhD, conclude that overweight and obesity contribute to most types of cancer and could account for about one out of every six cancers diagnosed.

2003 – The FDA approves Iressa as third-line therapy for non-small cell lung cancer.

2003 – The FDA approves Velcade® (bortezomib) for use in the treatment of multiple myeloma, based on research and clinical trials conducted by former grantees Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, Sundar Jagannath, MD, Bart Barlogie, MD, and Paul Richardson, MD. Velcade is the first in a new class of drugs known as proteasome inhibitors.

2003 – Building on the creative insight of former grantee Judah Folkman, MD, in the early 1970s, Avastin® (becacizumab) becomes the first antiangio-genesis drug to be show success in large, randomized phase III clinical trials. Among the many investigators testing Avastin, an antibody directed against the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), was former grantee John D. Hainsworth, MD.

2003 – The first chemoprevention trial for prostate cancer shows that the drug Proscar® (finasteride) reduces the risk of prostate cancer by 25% in men over 55. The trial was carried out by the Southwest Oncology Group, and included former Society grantees Ian M. Thompson, MD; Scott M. Lippman, MD; Charles A. Coltman Jr., MD; and the late Gary J. Miller, MD, PhD.

2004 – The FDA approves Alimta (pemetrexed), for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. The drug had previously been approved for the treatment of malignant mesothelioma, a type of cancer affecting the inside lining of the chest cavity, when former grantee Nicholas Vogelzang, MD directed its clinical trial.

2004 – Eugenia Calle, PhD, American Cancer Society director of analytic epidemiology, and colleagues find that overweight and obesity cause 90,000 US cancer deaths per year, and impact the nation in terms of both mortality and health care costs equaling or exceeding that associated with tobacco use.

2004 – Beth Jones, PhD, MPH, Hosanna Soler-Vila, PhD, and Christine Howe, PhD, find that African American female breast cancer patients have a higher prevalence of p53 mutations than white women, possibly contributing to the poorer prognosis for this disease in blacks.

2004 – Charles Sawyers, MD, reports the novel ABL kinase inhibitor, BMS-354825, complements Gleevec and successfully treats Gleevec resistant chronic myelogenous leukemia.

2004 – Current ACS Research Professor Michael Karin, PhD, and colleagues provide the first evidence for the molecular link between inflammation and cancer by determining that the enzyme I-kappa-B kinase beta (IKKB) is required for the activation of the transcription factor NF-kB, that in turn activates a cascade of events, some of which can lead to some types of cancer.

2004 – Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, a collaborative report with the American Cancer Society’s Surveillance Research Department, announces a 0.5 % decrease in cancer incidence rates, while death rates from all cancers combined dropped 1.1%.

2004 – Aaron Ciechanover, MD, DSc, Avram Hershko, MD, PhD and Irwin Rose, PhD, jointly win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their roles in the discovery of ubiquity in mediated protein degradation; this small protein called ubiquitin tags unwanted proteins for proteasome destruction. Their discoveries led to the development of a new class of cancer fighting drugs known as proteasome inhibitors, of which Velcade was the first.

2005 - Avastin® (becacizumab), designed to inhibit angiogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels, becomes the first FDA approved therapy of its kind for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer patients and previously untreated advanced non-squamous, non-small cell lung cancer. Former ACS grantee John D. Hainsworth, MD was involved in the testing of Avastin.

2005 - The first ACS national conference "Exploring Models to Eliminate Cancer Disparities Among African American and Latino Populations: research and Community Solutions" sponsored by the Behavoral Research Center convened designed to bring together researchers, healthcare providers, community groups, and advocates with the aim of discussing evidence-based strategies and initiatives to eliminate cancer disparities.

2005 - Genentech Phase III trials on the use of Herceptin plus chemotherapy to reduce recurrence of HER2+ breast cancer were stopped early due to significant improvement in overall survival. Results suggest for the first time that therapy which targets the genetic mutation has the potential to reduce disease recurrence.

2005 - Provenge becomes the first therapeutic vaccine for prostate cancer reaching phase III clinical trials status. One of the co-authors of the publications on its phase II trial was former grantee Frank Valone, MD.

2005 - ACS supported grantees, Carla Wilson, MD and Bart Barlogie, MD begin a phase II-III trial of the thalidomide-like drug, lenalidomide (RevalidR) to treat multiple myeloma.

2005 - Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PhD and colleagues in ACS's Department of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research, reveal death rate trends from all cancers combined to first increase from 1970 to 1990 and then decrease through 2002, yielding a net decline of nearly 3%, while the death rate from all causes of death in the US combined decreased by 32 % between 1970 and 2002.

2005 - American Cancer Society established the Statistics and Evaluation Center on August 1, 2005 with the recruitment of Director, James L. Kepner, PhD, as a part of the Research and Training Program.

2005 - Current grantee Peter Lee, MD provides evidence for counting the number of immune system dendritic cells and T cells in axillary lymph nodes rather than the number of cancer cells as a method of determining possible breast cancer recurrence - a prognostic indicator profile for clinical outcome.

2006 – A third Cancer Prevention Study, CPS-3, is launched by the Department of Epidemiology and Surveillance Research to replace the aging population of CPS-II. The study will begin with pilot studies in Texas, Georgia, and California to test the feasibility of using the Relay For Life® venue to recruit 500,000 long-term participants.

2006 – For the first time, cancer mortality shows a decline. The drop is noted in cancer deaths is 2003 and is attributed to a lower number of lung cancer deaths in men.

2006 – Overall 5-year relative survival rates reach 65%.

2006 – Former grantees Deborah Armstrong, MD, and Joan Walker, MD, provide evidence that a new method for providing chemotherapy is superior to standard intravenous therapy after ovarian cancer surgery. The National Cancer Institute supports the new approach.

2006 – Preliminary results from the Study on Tamoxifen and Raloxifene (STAR) clinical trails suggest that raloxifene is as effective as tamoxifen in reducing g recurrence of invasive breast cancer. Both tamoxifen and raloxifene were developed by former grantee V. Craig Jordan, PHD, DSc.

2006 – In June, the FDA approves a new vaccine against the strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV) that cause most cases of cervical cancer. Former grantee Robert C. Rose, PhD, discovered the use of harmless viral particles as a method of producing the immune response in several of the cervical cancer vaccines developed.

2006 – TM-601, a drug derived from scorpion venom by former grantee Harald Sontheimer, PhD, for preventing tumor cell spread and metastasis in brain cancer is in Phase I clinical trials.

2006 – Two former grantees are awarded the Nobel Prize, Craig C. Mello, PhD, won the Nobel Prize in medicine along with Andrew Fire, PhD, for their discovery of RNA interference (RNAI), or gene silencing by double stranded RNA. RNAi is a small RNA involved in the flow of genetic information. Former grantee Roger D. Kornberg, PhD, was the sole winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on the molecular basis of eukaryotic transcription , or how DNA is converted to RNA.

2006 - FDA approves Avastin (Bevacizumab) for first-line treatment of patients with unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic non-squamous, non-small cell lung cancer. This anti-angiogenesis drug was originally approved as a first-line treatment for metatstaic colon and rectal cancer. Former ACS grantee John D. Hainsworth, MD was involved in the testing of Avastin which is designed to inhibit Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF), a protein that plays a critical role in the formation of new blood vessels to tumors.

2007 - An American Cancer Society report, Cancer Statistics 2007, shows there was a drop of 3,014 cancer deaths in the United States from 2003 to 2004, the most recent year for which mortality data are available from the National Center for Health Statistics. This drop was significantly larger than the 369 fewer deaths reported for the previous time period (2002 to 2003), which itself marked the first decline in actual number of cancer deaths in the more than 70 years since nationwide data began to be compiled. Decreasing numbers of cancer death in consecutive years suggests the rates will continue to decline.

2007 - Overall five year relative survival rates reach 66% for cancers diagnosed between 1996 and 2002.

2007 - American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Advisory Group modifies the Society's Guidelines for Breast Screening to include an annual MRI exam for women at high risk for breast cancer greater than 20%.

2007 - The FDA approved raloxifene for reduction in the risk of invasive breast cancer in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and in postmenopausal women at high risk for invasive breast cancer. Both tamoxifen and raloxifene were developed V. Craig Jordan, PhD, DSc.

2007 - American Cancer Society Surveillance Epidemiology colleagues led by Elizabeth Ward, PhD, and Michael Halpern, MD, PhD, show that people without health insurance and those on Medicaid are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stages of cancer than their peers with private health insurance.

2007 - Former grantees Mario R. Capecchi, PhD,and Oliver Smithies, PhD,along with Briton Sir Martin J. Evans, are co-winners of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their groundbreaking discoveries that led to a technology known as gene targeting.