Cancer Awareness Month |
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April is…
Esophageal Cancer Awareness Month
Head & Neck Cancer Awareness Month
Testicular Cancer Awareness Month
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Never Walk Alone Opera, Art Songs & Broadway Melodies for GRU Cancer Center |
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![]() Maxwell Theatre Summerville CampusLearn more: gru.edu/cancer/songs |
Research Poster Templates & Printing |
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Archives |
We Are All in a Relationship “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”— C.G. Jung
When The Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters Tournament, through the Community Foundation of the CSRA, presented the GRU Cancer Center with a very generous gift of $6 million earlier this year, it meant more than merely seed money for our planned projects. It was what all involved hope is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship. Often we get caught up in the quantifiable, the data and numbers we frequently use to dictate success. And while those metrics are important, it is just as essential to realize and remember that relationships – impossible to measure and assign worth – are as well. We, at the Cancer Center, are part of a community– a community of scientists, physicians and professionals brought together by our common goals. But we are also part of larger communities. The medical community. The local community. The global community. And it is important to remember that when we interact in those communities, we do it as part of this Cancer Center team. I truly believe that I could not ask for a finer group of professionals to fulfill that task. We are more than mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. We are professionals, professionals uniquely qualified to tell the incredible story we are still in the process of writing. It’s up to us to tell it. So go out into your community – whatever it may be – and represent us well. |
Have you Heard…?
- GRU Cancer Center Director Testifies on Disparity Issues
Dr. Samir N. Khleif, Director at the GRU Cancer Center, participated March 25 in an open hearing of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies >> Continue reading
- Free Head & Neck Screenings in Honor of Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week
In honor of National Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week (April 20-26), GRU will offer free oral, head and neck cancer screenings, Thursday, April 24th from 8AM to 12PM. >> Continue reading
- Radiology Oncology Residency Program
We are proud to announce that the Department of Radiation Oncology has been granted Initial Accreditation for a Radiation Oncology Residency Program. >> Continue reading
- Public Health in Action! GRU Students Contribute to Cancer Center Outreach
Under the direction of GRU Cancer Center’s Office of Cancer Information and Awareness, GRU students and employees had an opportunity to persuade someone to quit tobacco through the SMILE Video Competition. >> Continue reading
- Technology Makeover: Research Building Conference Room Gets Upgrade
The first floor conference room of the GRU Cancer Center research building has recently undergone an extensive technology makeover. >> Continue reading
- Jags Announce “Strike Out Cancer Day”
The Jaguar Softball program and Head Coach Melissa Brocato deemed Saturday, April 5th “Strike Out Cancer Day” for the Peach Belt Conference doubleheader with Columbus State. >> Continue reading
Featured Research
- A New Approach to Treating Triple Negative Breast Cancer
Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive cancer that has notoriously been difficult to treat…. So Dr. Korkaya, of GRU Cancer Center’s Molecular Oncology Biomarkers Program, and colleagues took a different approach. >> Continue reading
- Novel next-generation vaccine development for liver cancer
Researchers at the GRU Cancer Center have identified a potential breakthrough in targeting liver cancer relapse, and potentially prevention. >> Continue reading
Grants News
- Hasan Korkaya, DVM, PhD, brings to the GRU Cancer Center the remainder of his 3-year Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation Career Catalyst Research grant “Targeting breast cancer stem cells by blocking both intrinsic (Akt) and extrinsic (IL-6) signaling pathways in metastatic mouse xenograft models” that was awarded $450K during his tenure at the University of Michigan.This research will investigate the role of signals from the tumor microenvironment in regulating breast cancer stem cells (CSCs) and will determine whether inhibition of both intrinsic (PI3-K/Akt) and extrinsic (IL-6) signals will effectively target aggressive breast CSCs in mouse xenograft models of aggressive metastatic breast cancer, developed by the Korkaya laboratory. This unique approach simultaneously targets two most important signals believed to contribute to the aggressive/metastatic breast cancer phenotype. Since an IL-6 inhibitor is already FDA-approved for rheumatoid arthritis and has been under preclinical studies for number of human malignancies as a single agent, the present study has the potential of rapidly translating into the clinic.
- Esteban Celis, MD, PhD, brings to the GRU Cancer Center the remainder of his NCI/NIH R01 grant, “Treatment of Melanoma with Optimized Peptide Vaccines” that was awarded $1.7M during his tenure at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL.Using a mouse model of malignant melanoma, this research will optimize a novel, 3-component vaccine developed by the Celis laboratory to generate preclinical data that will allow this approach to be explored in the clinic to treat human patients with melanoma and other types of cancers.
- Yukai He, MD, PhD, received a 5-year, $1.6M R01 grant from NIH/NCI for “Engineering alpha fetoprotein and glypican-3 to develop hepatoma (HCC) vaccines.” This project is proposed to develop an effective hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) vaccine through innovative antigen engineering to prevent autochthonous HCC in an animal model. The study will generate critical preclinical data that can help the development of a human HCC vaccine, which eventually lead to novel adjuvant therapy to prevent HCC post-surgery relapse. An HCC vaccine also offers an attractive approach to prevent HCC de novo development in high risk populations, shifting the focus of HCC management from therapy to prevention, which is what a vaccine does best.
- Feng-Ming (Spring) Kong, MD, PhD, brings to the GRU Cancer Center the remaining 2 years of her 5-year NCI/NIH R01 grant, “Functional Image and Molecular Marker to Individualize Adaptive Radiation Dose Escalation” that was awarded $2.0M during her tenure at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. The goal of this research is to identify markers to predict treatment outcome for lung cancer patients and to study the potential for personalized care to improve treatment outcome.
- Samir Khleif, MD, received a 1-year, $187.5K grant from NewLink Genetics Corporation for “Elucidation of biomarkers associated with administration of IDO-inhibitors.” Research in the Khleif laboratory focuses on understanding interactions between the immune system and tumors to then develop novel immunotherapies against cancer. Support from NewLink Genetics will fund research designed to identify unique genetic signatures associated with successful immunotherapy against IDO protein signaling – signaling that is used by tumors to escape immune-mediated rejection. The group has established a technique for taking pre- and post-treatment biopsies that will facilitate this biomarker discovery.
Newly Activated Clinical Trials
- Samir Khleif, MD, received $957K from NewLink Genetics, Corp., for “A Phase I Study of NLG-919 for Adult Patients with Recurrent Advanced Solid Tumors.”
Recent Publications
- Kim G, Ouzounova M, Quraishi AA, Davis A, Tawakkol N, Clouthier SG, Malik F, Paulson AK, D’Angelo RC, Korkaya S, Baker TL, Esen ES, Prat A, Liu S, Kleer CG, Thomas DG, Wicha MS, Korkaya H. SOCS3-mediated regulation of inflammatory cytokines in PTEN and p53 inactivated triple negative breast cancer model. Oncogene. 2014 Feb 17. doi: 10.1038/onc.2014.4. [Epub ahead of print]
- Cui Y. In silico mapping of polymorphic miRNA-mRNA interactions in autoimmune thyroid diseases. Autoimmunity. 2014 Mar 10. [Epub ahead of print]
- Takemori T, Kaji T, Takahashi Y, Shimoda M, Rajewsky K. Generation of memory B cells inside and outside germinal centers. Eur J Immunol. 2014 Mar 10. doi: 10.1002/eji.201343716. [Epub ahead of print]
- * Brücher BL, Lyman G, van Hillegersberg R, Pollock RE, Lordick F, Yang HK, Ushijima T, Yeoh KG, Skricka T, Polkowski W, Wallner G, Verwaal V, Garofalo A, D’Ugo D, Roviello F, Steinau HU, Wallace TJ, Daumer M, Maihle N, Reid TJ 3rd, Ducreux M, Kitagawa Y, Knuth A, Zilberstein B, Steele SR, Jamall IS. Imagine a world without cancer. BMC Cancer. 2014 Mar 14;14(1):186.
- Zhang B, Shen C, Bealmear B, Ragheb S, Xiong WC, Lewis RA, Lisak RP, Mei L. Autoantibodies to agrin in myasthenia gravis patients. PLoS One. 2014 Mar 14;9(3):e91816.
- Bertuccio CA, Lee SL, Wu G, Butterworth MB, Hamilton KL, Devor DC. Anterograde Trafficking of KCa3.1 in Polarized Epithelia Is Rab1- and Rab8-Dependent and Recycling Endosome-Independent. PLoS One. 2014 Mar 14;9(3):e92013.
- Cao W, Ramakrishnan R, Tuyrin VA, Veglia F, Condamine T, Amoscato A, Mohammadyani D, Johnson JJ, Min Zhang L, Klein-Seetharaman J, Celis E, Kagan VE, Gabrilovich DI. Oxidized lipids block antigen cross-presentation by dendritic cells in cancer. J Immunol. 2014 Mar 15;192(6):2920-31.
- Kumai T, Ishibashi K, Oikawa K, Matsuda Y, Aoki N, Kimura S, Hayashi S, Kitada M, Harabuchi Y, Celis E, Kobayashi H. Induction of tumor-reactive T helper responses by a posttranslational modified epitope from tumor protein p53. Cancer Immunol Immunother. 2014 Mar 15. [Epub ahead of print]
- Chen X, Wang X, Ruan A, Han W, Zhao Y, Lu X, Xiao P, Shi H, Wang R, Chen L, Chen S, Du Q, Yang H, Zhang X. miR-141 is A Key Regulator of Renal Cell Carcinoma Proliferation and Metastasis by Controlling EphA2 Expression.Clin Cancer Res. 2014 Mar 19. [Epub ahead of print]
- Hong Y, Peng Y, Guo ZS, Guevara-Patino J, Pang J, Butterfield LH, Mivechi NF, Munn DH, Bartlett DL, He Y. Epitope-optimized alpha-fetoprotein genetic vaccines prevent carcinogen-induced murine autochthonous hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatology. 2014 Apr;59(4):1448-58.
- Choudhary V, Kaddour-Djebbar I, Alaisami R, Kumar MV, Bollag WB. Mitofusin 1 degradation is induced by a disruptor of mitochondrial calcium homeostasis, CGP37157: A role in apoptosis in prostate cancer cells. Int J Oncol. 2014 May;44(5):1767-73.
* No 1 accessed article on the BMC Cancer website within 6 days only (>1,200 accesses) and No 3 accessed hard copy article within 30 days.