Pioneering Cancer Care: Tomorrow's Treatments, Today

The impossible happened. Kelly Spill's tumor completely disappeared—no radiation, no surgery. She had enrolled in a colorectal cancer clinical trial at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), testing a new immunotherapy treatment. "The day my doctor told me the good news was one of the best days of my life," she recalls. Even more remarkable: every single patient in the study had the same result—a then-unheard-of 100% success rate.  

That's the groundbreaking work our VB Gives Back partner, The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is supporting with its new campaign, Finding Tomorrow’s Treatments Today, which powers clinical trials. Nearly every current cancer treatment —and all the advances in women's cancers—started with a clinical trial. For those newly diagnosed, these studies also provide access to next-generation therapies long before they're widely available. For them, that means hope—and hope for survival.  

With expertise in over 400 cancers and almost 2,000 clinical trials underway at any given time, MSK is the leader in pioneering research that leads to constantly improving the standard care for people with cancer worldwide. Since 2019, the organization has played a pivotal role in more than 40 FDA drug approvals, with 11 approvals in 2024 alone.  

This affects all of us. Think about your loved ones who have faced cancer—or maybe even you—and how different the journey could have been. Progress is accelerating, and we can't let it stop.  

Here, we talk to Dr. Paul Sabbatini, Senior Vice President of Clinical Research, about how clinical  trials are shaping the future of cancer care.  

Every advance in women's cancers—and there have been many—has started with a series of clinical trials. The introduction of new drug classes, such as those that manipulate the immune system (PD1 and CTLA4 inhibitors), stop blood vessel growth (anti-vascular therapies), or target DNA repair (PARP inhibitors), have each earned their place in improving the outcome of treatments.  

There is still much to understand about new drug mechanisms and the possibilities for using existing drugs in new ways. We can learn from single-patient responses, but this understanding can only be tested for applicability to larger numbers of patients using clinical trials.   

Clinical trials can be incredibly impactful for patients who have exhausted standard options. I think of one patient I met two years ago, who had gone through most of the standard treatments for uterine cancer. Her tumor showed a protein that qualified her for a clinical trial we were running. She ended up receiving that therapy for approximately 15 months with good tolerance. She is now on a tripinthe Caribbean with her family.

We are entering a time of understanding tumor and patient biology like never before and, equally importantly, are developing new targeted therapies at a pace never seen before.In particular, there are new agents using immune targeting to bring treatments directly to tumors. To impact the most patients, we need an efficient clinical trials infrastructure that can provide access to novel therapies as quickly as possible and preferably closer to home. 

Now through the end of March, VB Gives Back will be donating a portion of all VeronicaBeard.com orders to The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, a volunteer community dedicated to supporting advancements in patient care, cancer research, and education.Join us in supporting MSK’s mission of ending cancer for life.