Penn to present at AACR 2026

Penn Medicine is heading into the American Association for Cancer Research meeting with new data on engineered immune cells, pancreatic precancer, and cancer prevention. (pennmedicine.org) The meeting runs April 17-22, 2026, at the San Diego Convention Center, and Penn said its researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine will present across immunotherapy, translational research, and prevention. (aacr.org) (pennmedicine.org) One of the headline sessions is Carl June’s April 19 opening plenary talk on trying to push chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, T-cell therapy beyond blood cancers and into solid tumors. Penn says June will discuss “armored” CAR T-cell designs and a dual-target approach for glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. (pennmedicine.org) CAR T-cell therapy works by taking a patient’s T cells, reprogramming them to recognize a cancer marker, and sending them back into the body to attack. Penn says its scientists pioneered the approach, which led to the first Food and Drug Administration-approved CAR T-cell treatment in 2017. (pennmedicine.org 1) (pennmedicine.org 2) That blood-to-solid-tumor shift is the hard part. Penn’s April 20 clinical plenary will include first human data from STAR-101, a Phase 1 trial in advanced ovarian cancer, mesothelioma, and cholangiocarcinoma using a mesothelin-directed KIR-CAR built to reduce T-cell exhaustion. (pennmedicine.org) Penn is also bringing a second idea that starts earlier than treatment. In a late-breaking session on April 21, Minh Than is scheduled to present mouse data showing that active RAS inhibition cleared precancerous pancreatic lesions before they turned into tumors. (pennmedicine.org) (science.org) That approach is called cancer interception: finding abnormal cells before they become invasive cancer and shutting the process down. A recent Science paper on pancreatic models reported that treating mice with RAS(ON) inhibitors regressed premalignant lesions, delayed tumor onset, and extended survival past one year versus less than five months in untreated controls. (science.org) The Penn announcement also lands as the institution gains more influence inside the cancer research group hosting the meeting. Abramson Cancer Center director Robert Vonderheide is set to become the American Association for Cancer Research’s 2026-2027 president-elect on April 20, and Penn’s E. John Wherry was elected to the board for the 2026-2029 term. (pennmedicine.org 1) (pennmedicine.org 2) The immediate test comes in San Diego, where Penn’s case for the next phase of cell therapy and earlier cancer detection will move from announcement to data. (aacr.org) (pennmedicine.org)