ACS’ Dahut on Finding Cancer Before It Starts, and Funding Researchers as They Start

Many have heard of the American Cancer Society (ACS), but fewer understand its agenda to promote discovery, engage in advocacy on behalf of patients, and provide support for them in their communities, said William Dahut, MD, the chief scientific officer for ACS, in his keynote address Thursday to the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium (ASCO GU), taking place in San Francisco, California.

William Dahut, MD, the chief scientific officer for ACS, who delivered the keynote address Thursday to the American Society of Clinical Oncology Genitourinary Cancers Symposium. | Image Credit: © American Cancer Society

In his talk, “Discovery: Cancer Innovation Driving Science to Improve Patient-Centered Care,” Dahut explained ACS’ role in funding $517 million worth of research grants, including smaller awards that can make the difference in getting a young investigator’s idea off the ground.

Dahut, credited with revitalizing the clinical research program in prostate cancer at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), understands how hard it is for early-career investigators to get a foothold in the National Institutes of Health funding pipeline. The ACS, by contrast, has a mission to help younger professionals find their way through this process.

“We have an incredible passion for funding the next generation of scientists,” he said, for creating “equal opportunity everywhere.”

What does ACS’ commitment to advocacy look like?

“This advocacy is an ability to lobby and talk to the government, either on the federal or the local level, on behalf of patients,” Dahut said. ACS’ recent support for a multicancer detection bill called for coverage if there is an FDA approval. “When this was very fragile, over the holidays, we had 17,500 calls to Capitol Hill, 57,000 emails, and over 700,000 messages.”

What does patient support look like?

“We're in your communities,” he said, at more than 20,000 sites, in fact. ACS offers lodging for patients receiving treatment, “where patients can stay for free, regardless of need. We have lodging, transportation, survivorship, education.”

Then, Dahut launched into the core of his talk—how ACS is supporting discovery, through research and innovation. Here, there are 4 pillars for the organization:

• Accelerate understanding of cancer mechanisms by finding new targets for screening and therapies.
• Improve cancer patient and survivorship outcomes.
• Decrease cancer suffering with research into screening, prevention, and early detection.
• Invest in the next generation of scientists.

Dahut shared data on the diversity of the grants that ACS awards: 870 grants across 216 institutions; the group funds 941 investigators, from early career scientists to 53 Nobel Prize winners. ACS grants cover a range of tumor types, while 38% are not site specific.

A breakdown of awards shows how larger amounts can flow to early-career scientists; Dahut also highlighted an “accelerator” awards program, reviewed on a rolling basis, that can award $75,000 to any current ACS-funded scientist to fund experiments needed to take a drug to diagnostic to commercialization.

He also spotlighted ACS’ Center for Diversity in Cancer Research training, which provides funding to support promising scientists from high school through the postgraduate level. The commitment to diversity extends to research priorities as well, with study of high-risk populations. An ACS study, VOICES of Black Women, will enroll 100,000 Black women aged 25 to 55 years in the US with no cancer history to collect online surveys and data twice a year, with a mission of improving outcomes over time.

ACS, perhaps best known in the scientific arena for its annual publication of Cancer Facts and Figures, is very conscious of concerning trends, such as increased cancer rates among younger adults, and the fact that only about a quarter of men are being tested for prostate cancer since COVID-19.

Prostate cancer, in fact, offers an opportunity for ACS to work on its goals of cancer detection and prevention, while focusing on a distinct, underserved population at high risk: Black men.

Dahut explain that until now, comparatively few ACS grants have been given in genitourinary cancers; current funding is $29 million. But that will change: In 2024, ACS granted IMPACT awards, for “Improving Mortality From Prostate Cancer Together,” to Daniel George, MD, of Duke University, and Christopher Haiman, ScD, of the University of Southern California. Both will advise ACS on how to reduce the burden from prostate cancer.

A focus on prostate cancer, Dahut said, will help ACS work on a broader goal of creating clinical trials that offer more equitable access, an area where all of science falls woefully short. Unspoken, but on the minds of many faculty at ASCO GU, are actions by the new administration to de-emphasize diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, including steps to remove an FDA draft guidance on clinical trial diversity from its website.

“One thing that we’ve been struggling with is, what can we do to have our clinical trials reflect patients at high risk of disease? This is talked about, really, at every meeting,” Dahut said.

“We know prostate cancer is important because we know certain populations, such as Black men, are more likely to be diagnosed with disease and much more likely to die,” he continued. So, in creating a targeted program for prostate cancer, ACS hopes to address more than just prostate cancer.

Dahut concluded by addressing opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) where he sees great hope in augmenting staff in areas such as pathology, where human limits or fatigue can affect accuracy rates in reading scans. AI can help detect the earliest cancers in women with dense breasts, for example.

Members of the audience thanked Dahut for addressing equity issues, and one asked if part of the solution to better distribution of health care resources is to sometimes do less.

“ACS is a patient-centered organization, so we are behind what is best for patients, and for patients to either have less cost, less toxicity, or less time in [treatment] is a good thing,” he said. “So yes, we are very happy to look at a grant in that space. We're happy to also talk about smaller collaborations, either with other foundations or other groups who want to focus on that.”