The University of Nebraska Medical Center and Johns Hopkins
University are the only two institutions in the nation to receive
a Special Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant from the
National Cancer Institute to investigate gastrointestinal cancer.
Through the $4.4 million SPORE grant, basic and clinical
researchers from the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center will collaborate
with peers from Creighton University and the Creighton Cancer
Center to explore new strategies for the prevention, early
detection and treatment of pancreatic cancer.
The UNMC Eppley Cancer Center grant is the only SPORE award to
emphasize research into pancreatic cancer — one of the most
difficult cancers to survive. For all stages of the disease
combined, the one-year survival rate is just 20 percent. The
five-year survival rate is 4 percent.
The cancer is hard to detect because symptoms generally do not
occur until the disease is advanced. Little is known about its
causes, and consequently, how to prevent it. Finally, pancreatic
cancer is aggressive.
Margaret Tempero, M.D., interim director of the UNMC Eppley
Cancer Center, lauded the
potential of the grant. The grant gives researchers freedom in
designing their projects and in use of their money. The grant
also encourages collaboration with other institutions and
initiation of more projects not originally outlined in their
grant application.
"The SPORE grant offers great opportunities and
flexibility," said Dr. Tempero, who also is the chief
investigator of the grant. "The grant allows us to do things
we couldn’t do with other National Institutes of Health
funding. Specifically, it allows us to change directions in our
research
and provides career development funds to attract other
investigators."
Ultimately, the grant is designed to generate further research
ideas.
-over-
"The SPORE grant doesn’t fit the model of typical
research," said Andrew Chiardo, chief of the Organ Systems
Coordinating Branch in the Cancer Therapy, Diagnosis and Centers
Division of the NCI. "Typical research is
hypothesis-testing. SPORE grant research is
hypothesis-generating."
Among the projects funded under the SPORE grant is the
investigation of a new strategy for treating pancreatic cancer.
The therapy is focused on developing antibodies that are
attracted to antigens produced by cancerous tumors, thereby
allowing the antibodies to attack the tumors.
"We’re using biology and traditional therapy,"
Dr. Tempero said. "By attaching a radioactive particle to an
antibody, the antibody serves as a homing device searching for
the tumor-associated antigen and treating the tumor with
radiation."
"Patients with pancreatic cancer have elevated levels of
a hormone called amylin, which is released from the pancreatic
islet cells that make insulin," said Tom Adrian, Ph.D.,
professor of biomedical sciences at Creighton University.
"We will work to identify the cancer cell factor responsible
for increased amylin production and investigate whether this
factor or amylin itself are valuable as early diagnostic
indicators of this devastating cancer."
Other projects funded by the grant include developing and
testing tumor vaccines, examining the formation of pancreatic
tumors and studying the role of smoking in the development of
pancreatic tumors.
In addition, researchers will gather molecular genetic data on
families that show a proclivity toward developing pancreatic
cancer, according to Henry T. Lynch, M.D., director of
Creighton’s Cancer Center and professor and chair of
preventive medicine and public health at Creighton. The group
also will create a national familial pancreatic cancer registry
and will conduct studies on the molecular genetics of the
disease.
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the
state. Through its commitment to research, education and patient
care, UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s leading
centers for cancer research and treatment and solid organ
transplantation. More than $25 million in research grants and
contracts are awarded to UNMC scientists annually. In addition,
UNMC’s educational programs are responsible for training more
health professionals practicing in Nebraska than any other
institution.