AACR Precision Medicine 2025: AACR Past-President Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, Discusses Highlights of the Meeting for Pharmacists

Pharmacy Times^® interviewed conference Co-Chair and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Past President Elaine R. Mardis, PhD, on the value of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Functional and Genomic Precision Medicine in Cancer: Different Perspectives, Common Goals (AACR Precision Medicine) in Boston, Massachusetts for pharmacy professionals. Held from March 11 to 13, 2025, Mardis explains that the AACR Precision Medicine conference offers pharmacy professionals insights into the application of large-scale cancer genomics studies to real-world therapeutic responses, particularly in targeted and immunotherapies.

Conference Co-Chair and American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Past President Elaine Mardis, PhD, is the co-executive director of the Steve and Cindy Rasmussen Institute for Genomic Medicine at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and holds the Rasmussen Nationwide Foundation Endowed Chair in Genomic Medicine. She also is a professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. Image Credit: AACR

At the AACR Precision Medicine conference, attendees will learn how genomics assays help identify therapeutic vulnerabilities and predict treatment outcomes. Key highlights include discussions on real-world systems for evaluating patient responses using organoids and model systems, enabling oncologists and pharmacists to optimize treatment based on precision diagnostics. Sessions will cover small molecule inhibitors, antibodies, bispecifics, and novel immunotherapies, with a particular focus on blood cancers.

Pharmacy Times: What is the value of attending AACR Precision Medicine for pharmacy professionals?

Elaine R. Mardis, PhD: I think the meeting will provide important insights into how the findings from large-scale genomics studies of cancer are now being applied to real-world questions about therapeutic responses, especially to targeted and immunotherapies. This information will provide a vital link between genomics assays that identify potential therapeutic vulnerabilities and the actual responses to therapy, based on a variety of drug screening technologies.

Pharmacy Times: What are some expected highlights from this AACR Precision Medicine meeting?

Artificial intelligence depiction of double helix DNA structure. Image Credit: © Asim-Backgrounds - stock.adobe.com

Mardis: Highlights will include examples of real-world systems in place for evaluating patient responses using organoids and other model systems that allow therapy screening in the course of genomic profiling, enabling oncologists and their pharmacy partners to coordinate optimal treatment based on precision diagnostics and screening. These examples will be brought out by our keynote speakers who will start the meeting and then be exemplified in multiple sessions that address small molecule inhibitors, antibodies and bispecifics, and novel immunotherapies and their use in the cancer setting. We also have a session focusing on blood cancers, following Jeffrey Tyner’s opening keynote on this topic.

Pharmacy Times: For pharmacists interested in learning more about pharmacogenomics, are there any particular sessions you would recommend attending?

Mardis: Although pharmacogenomics is important in this setting, there was only so much that we could pack into a short number of days, so there won’t be a specific focus on pharmacogenomics per se. Some speakers may include it in their remarks or data, however.

Pharmacy Times: What are some key sessions or speakers you think may be particularly valuable for pharmacy professionals at this meeting?

Mardis: It’s a bit difficult to single out key sessions or speakers, as most of the speakers are internationally prominent, but of particular interest may be the session on Ex Vivo Patient-Derived Models (session 3), as well as session 4 on novel vertebrate models. Finally, the lightening lectures at the end of Wednesday’s program, the session on AI and machine learning, may all be of significant interest.

Pharmacy Times: What makes the AACR Precision Medicine conference unique?

Mardis: For this conference, we really have the best of the best in terms of speakers from international sites as well as the US. This will bring a full breadth of functional precision medicine, as well as updates on the newest types of diagnostic assays that inform therapy developments and predict therapeutic responses. As such, it’s a highly unique combination of topics and speakers in a small conference venue that really encourages engaged parties to listen and discuss these pertinent topics in cancer diagnostics and cancer care.