Boston researchers to head $16.6 million effort to ‘intercept’ cancer
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Written by: Sophia Eppolito | Source: Boston Globe
The nonprofit Stand Up To Cancer is launching a $16.6 million program to investigate new ways of halting lung and pancreatic cancers in the early stages, and Boston scientists will head up three of the four research teams.
The group, which is announcing the program Thursday, said that Dr. Avrum Spira, director of the Boston University – Boston Medical Center Cancer Center, will oversee the lung cancer interception “Dream Team”; Dr. Lecia Sequist, director of the Center for Innovation in Early Cancer Detection at Massachusetts General Hospital, will head a team focused on lung cancer translational research; and Dr. David P. Ryan, chief of Mass. General’s division of hematology and oncology, will lead the pancreatic cancer team.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death and is expected to cause 156,000 deaths in 2017, according to the National Cancer Institute. Although pancreatic cancer accounts for only 3 percent of all diagnosed cancers, it causes 7 percent of all cancer deaths.
These cancers are often detected when the tumors are already inoperable. Stand Up To Cancer, which raises funds to get new therapies to patients quickly, will focus on developing non-invasive tests for early tumor detection and interception.
“Can we identify the earliest molecular events that lead to lung cancer, find something we can measure in the blood, the urine, and then find a way to prevent that from becoming invasive?” BU’s Spira asked.
Spira said he hopes that this program will revolutionize cancer diagnosis. “It’s a transformative era in cancer research in general and lung cancer specifically,” he said. “We’re moving towards intercepting the disease and preventing it from happening in the first place and to me that’s the future of cancer research.”
Sequist’s team will receive a grant of $2 million for one year. The other three teams will receive grants of between $2.6 million and $7 million for four years.
Stand up to Cancer is a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation.