Sincerely,

The ACCRF Team



Jeff Kaufman, Co-Founder and Executive Director

Marnie Kaufman, Co-Founder and Director

Nicole Spardy Burr, PhD, Director of Research

Reed Motz, Development and Communications Manager

The 2024 ACCRF Impact Report is now available! This inaugural report highlights the foundation's achievements over the past year as well as the advances made in ACC research and treatment.

We are incredibly grateful to the many members of our research and patient communities whose hard work, care, and dedication made 2024 an exceptional year for ACC research and ACCRF.

We hope this report offers a reflection of their remarkable efforts and a renewed energy to continue building toward new treatments and a cure in 2025!

Please join us Saturday, April 12 from 11am-4pm ET in Needham, MA, USA for a day of community and connection at the 2025 ACCRF Patient Meeting.

This in-person event provides a forum for ACC patients to meet, discuss their journeys, and hear about the latest in ACC research and treatment options.

The event will include:

• Remarks from Co-Founders Marnie Kaufman and Executive Director Jeff Kaufman
• Updates from Director of Research Nicole Spardy Burr, PhD
• Patient roundtable and lunch
• A special presentation by ACCRF grantee Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami on ACC liquid biopsies

Please Note: This is an in-person-only event with no virtual participation. Dr. Pelaez's presentation will be recorded and made available after the meeting on the ACCRF website.



To learn more and register, please visit the event page.

We hope to see you there!

Announcing the 2025 Kara Gelb Memorial Grant Recipient

ACCRF is proud to announce Dr. Renata Ferrarotto of MD Anderson Cancer Center as the recipient of the 2025 Kara Gelb Memorial Grant for her research project "Multicenter Validation of P63 Immunohistochemistry (IHC) as a Prognostic Marker for Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma".



This research explores whether p63 protein levels are associated with overall survival in ACC patients. The project will assess p63 levels using an assay called immunohistochemistry that is routinely used during diagnosis in community and academic hospitals. If validated, p63 immunohistochemistry would be a cost-effective biomarker that could provide valuable prognostic information to ACC patients worldwide.

Dr. Ferrarotto has orchestrated a collaboration among hospitals from around the world to share p63 levels and survival data from 500+ ACC patients. The network currently includes 12 institutions across 8 countries, and we are excited to watch as this infrastructure may be used for new impactful studies in the future.

ACCRF is proud to continue our ongoing partnership with Dr. Ferrarotto who has been a tireless champion of ACC research and patients. Her lab has produced several breakthroughs in understanding the disease, including identifying new therapeutic targets and markers of aggressive disease.



The Kara Gelb Memorial Grant is awarded in memory of an original member of the ACCRF Board of Directors and is bestowed upon a promising early- or mid-career investigator who is focusing on translating basic research into improved therapies for ACC patients. You can learn more about Kara here and past grantees here.

Research Updates

We are proud to support many oncologists in their ongoing work towards new treatments and a cure for ACC. The ACCRF research network continues to facilitate cutting-edge research and clinical trials that advance our understanding of the disease. Below are the latest updates in clinical trials, research publications from ACCRF grantees, and ACCRF-funded research grants.

Recently Published Articles



Below are the latest in research publications from ACCRF grantees. You can can find these and many others on our Published Articles webpage.

• Circulating Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma associated MYB transcripts enable rapid and sensitive detection of metastatic disease in blood liquid biopsies: ACCRF grantee Dr. Daniel Pelaez from the University of Miami published work showing elevated MYB levels can be detected in the blood of metastatic ACC patients but not in patients with no evident disease. This work represents the first step towards developing a less invasive test to monitor for recurrent/metastatic disease in ACC.  

• Heterogeneous immune landscapes and macrophage dynamics in primary and lung metastatic adenoid cystic carcinoma of the head and neck: ACCRF grantee Dr. Xiaohong Chen from Beijing Tongren Hospital published on the tumor immune microenvironment, finding that lung metastases have higher immune cell infiltration than primary tumors but also immune-suppressive macrophages.

• B7-H4: A potential therapeutic target in adenoid cystic carcinoma: ACCRF grantees Drs. Luana de Sousa and Renata Ferrarotto from MD Anderson Cancer Center described the rationale for targeting B7-H4 in ACC.

• Targeted Therapy in Salivary Gland Cancer: Prevalence of a Selected Panel of Actionable Molecular Alterations in a German Tertiary Referral Center Patient Cohort: ACCRF grantee Dr. Luc Morris from Memorial Sloan Kettering characterized actionable molecular alterations (including EGFR and TROP2) in a small cohort of ACC tumor samples.

Research Grants Awarded by ACCRF

ACCRF is dedicated to the pursuit and support of the most promising ACC research. Since founding ACCRF, we have awarded more than $20 million in research grants to individuals working towards new treatments and a cure, rapidly expanding the field of ACC research in the process.

We are proud to have recently awarded the following grant:

Dr. John Ngo - Boston University - ACCRF awarded Dr. John Ngo a pilot grant to study protease-activated antibodies for tumor-selective NOTCH-1 inhibition.

For a full list of ACC research grants funded by ACCRF, visit our Funded Grants page.

ACC Physicians List