With a track record of having three of its previous research projects in or on their way to clinical trials, UNMC’s pancreatic cancer SPORE (Specialized Programs of Research Excellence) has been renewed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) for $11.5 million over the next five years.
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Tony Hollingsworth, Ph.D. |
- Dr. Hollingsworth and Jean Grem, M.D., internal medicine-oncology/hematology, and their teams, will investigate the inhibition of a cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK5) in order to stop tumor progression and block pain.
- Surinder Batra, Ph.D., chair of biochemistry and molecular biology, and Chi Lin, M.D., radiation oncology, will investigate novel agents in order to make tumors more susceptible to chemotherapy and radiation.
- Michael Brattain, Ph.D., Eppley Institutefor Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases, and Quan Ly, M.D., surgical oncology, in conjunction with additional work by Aaron Sasson, M.D., surgical oncology, and Chandra Are, M.B.B.S., surgical oncology, are working on novel strategies to attack the molecular defects in tumors through chemotherapy.
- Pankaj Singh, Ph.D., Eppley Institute, and Dr. Grem are researching ways to use drugs to target metabolic alterations in tumors in order to improve patient survival.
Preliminary data show these ideas work. Now, with further funding, the researchers hope to accumulate the pre-clinical evidence to move these projects closer to clinical trials.
A key feature of the UNMC SPORE is the inclusion of three specialized cores that interact with and support the research projects:
- Administration, directed by Dr. Hollingsworth, provides support in administration, scientific oversight, coordination, communication, budgetary and clerical functions.
- Tissue, directed by Julia Bridge, M.D., pathology/microbiology, includes a tissue bank and UNMC’s unique, world-class, rapid autopsy program; which involves substantial collaboration from medical oncology, surgical oncology, pathology and members of the Eppley Institute.
- Biostatistics, directed by Jane Meza, Ph.D., biostatistics, collaborates on study design and to provide a statistics analysis plan for each project.
Dr. Hollingsworth lauded collaboration — from faculty across the campus, to nurses on the clinical trials teams, to pathology assistants — for making the SPORE successful. While pancreatic cancer is poised to become one of the leading causes of cancer death, Dr. Hollingsworth and his team predict a coming momentum shift.
“Thanks to research, we have come up with treatments for other cancers,” he said, “there have been only a few therapies that work for pancreatic cancer; however, we have made huge progress in our understanding of the disease. Now, we need to turn some of these discoveries into ways of improving patient care and survival.”