Research Highlights

January 2012

Seed Funding Research Program Grant Awards

We congratulate the four investigators who received awards this round.

The fifth round of Duncan Family Institute Seed Funding Research Program awards have been completed. These awards will provide funding at $50,000 per year for two years for a total of $100,000 to support research in the broad topic of cancer prevention and risk assessment in order to allow faculty to obtain preliminary data to improve competitiveness of cancer prevention and risk assessment research grant proposals submitted to external agencies.

Cindy Carmack, Ph.D.
Feasibility of a Couple vs an Individual-Oriented Mood Management Intervention for Distressed Lung Cancer Patient

Jae-Il Park, Ph.D.
Blocking a Novel Wnt Agonist for Cancer Prevention

Susan Peterson, Ph.D., M.P.H.
A social network approach to improve genetic risk communication

Leslie Schover, Ph.D.
Preventing Sexual Dysfunction in Women on Aromatase Inhibitors

Feasibility of a Couple vs an Individual-Oriented Mood Management Intervention for Distressed Lung Cancer Patient

Psychosocial interventions are important to the care of cancer survivors because of the negative effects psychological distress can have on patient quality of life and health status. Including the spouse in the delivery of psychosocial interventions may  have benefits for both the patient and the spouse.  Patients may adopt new health behaviors and follow treatment recommendations more reliably, resulting in a positive impact on their health.  Spouses may experience health benefits in the form of reduced caregiver burden, improved health behaviors (e.g., smoking) and promotion of a  healthy bereavement following the patient’s death. Using a web-based counseling approach to deliver psychosocial intervention may result in greater outreach for underserved couples, and may be easily integrated into cancer care. In this study, we will pilot test a web-based couple-oriented counseling intervention compared to a web-based patient only counseling intervention in 40 lung cancer patients who are experiencing psychological distress. We will explore the effects of both interventions on patient psychological functioning, health behaviors, treatment adherence, and symptom burden and on spouse psychological functioning, health behaviors, and caregiver burden.

Blocking a Novel Wnt Agonist for Cancer Prevention

We will study a novel molecule that is only detected in colon cancer and positively controls tumor promoting Wnt signaling pathway. This research is relevant to public health because elucidating the fundamental mechanism of cancer development is expected to provide a valuable basic concept and new model for cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. The proposed research addresses the central issues that are important to understanding the underlying mechanisms of colon cancer development. In this project, we will (1) determine the role of a newly identified Wnt agonist in regulating tumor development and (2) further develop the efficient neutralizing methods.

A social network approach to improve genetic risk communication

Genetic testing for hereditary cancers is now part of standard oncology care, yet there are barriers to realizing its full benefits for patients and families.  Studies consistently show that information about genetic risk may not be completely or accurately disseminated within families, and that families may grapple with the nuances and complexities of conveying genetic risk information. To address these issues, we propose an intervention, called My Family Garden, a web-based, secure social networking tool to enable the collection and sharing of family history and cancer risk information in families with hereditary cancer. Funding from the Duncan Family Institute will support the development, testing, and evaluation of a prototype system for My Family Garden.  Long-term scientific goals include evaluating the efficacy of My Family Garden in enabling comprehensive communication of cancer risk information and adoption of cancer risk reduction strategies in high risk families.

Preventing Sexual Dysfunction in Women on Aromatase Inhibitors

Aromatase inhibitors have become the hormone therapy of choice for postmenopausal women with estrogen-positive breast cancer and will increasingly be prescribed to prevent breast cancer after menopause. Yet, 10% to 25% of women discontinue aromatase inhibitors in the first year of treatment because of negative side effects. Sexual problems are among the most distressing symptoms. Our study will survey women who began aromatase inhibitors in the past 12 to 18 months about changes in their sex lives. Their experiences will be compared to those of sexually active women assigned randomly when they start treatment to one of two groups: 1) usual care plus some brief, written brochures about sexual function or 2)access to an internet-based sexual counseling program supplemented with phone counseling. Two new vaginal moisturizers will also be compared in the counseled group. We want to see if staying sexually active and avoiding painful vaginal dryness will prevent more severe sexual problems and improve women’s ability to keep taking their aromatase inhibitors.

July 2011

Seed Funding Research Program Grant Awards

We congratulate the six investigators who received awards this round.

Karen Basen-Engquist, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Pilot test of a lifestyle intervention arm in an endometrial cancer prevention trial: Effects on endometrial proliferation and related biomarkers

Randa El-Zein, M.D., Ph.D.
A feasibility study for high-throughput application of a novel early detection and risk assessment biomarker *Video

Jason Robinson, Ph.D.
Identifying neurocognitive risk markers that differentiate smokers from never-smokers and ex-smokers

Kenneth Tsai, M.D., Ph.D.
Integrative Genomic Analysis of Actinic Keratoses: Using Inter-lesional and Cross Species Analysis to Predict Progression to Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Ivan Uray, M.D., Ph.D.
High Throughput Search for a Combination Cancer Preventive Treatment

Xiangwei Wu, Ph.D.
Chemoprevention of pancreatic cancer by induction of synthetic lethality in mutant K-ras cells

Pilot test of a lifestyle intervention arm in an endometrial cancer prevention trial: Effects on endometrial proliferation and related biomarkers

Women who are obese and have low levels of physical activity are more likely to develop endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus), but we do not yet know if losing weight and becoming more active will decrease a woman’s risk of this disease. The goal of our research is to answer this question.
We are collaborating with investigators from MD Anderson’s SPORE (Specialized Program for Research Excellence) in uterine cancer who are doing a trial to test whether metformin, a drug usually used to treat diabetes, can help reduce cell growth in the endometrium of women who are obese.  We will add another arm to this trial in which the participants will receive a diet and exercise program to help them lose weight.  All women participating in the SPORE study will have endometrial biopsies to assess cell growth as well as blood tests to measure markers that may be related to the risk of developing endometrial cancer.  This pilot study will help us determine whether there is enough evidence to show that changing diet and exercise behavior affect s endometrial cancer risk and, if so, justify doing a larger clinical trial.

A feasibility study for high-throughput application of a novel early detection and risk assessment biomarker

In this study, we will test the feasibility of automating a biomarker that comprehensively allows the measurement of cellular genomic instability. We have shown that cytokinesis blocked micronucleus assay is a sensitive predictor of lung cancer risk. Automation of this powerful assay will provide a strong, rapid and unbiased quantitative analysis tool for cancer risk assessment. We envision using this biomarker in lung cancer screening programs as a prescreening tool for current and former smokers prior to CT screening. This prescreen will allow the identification of individuals at high risk of development of lung cancer, and who therefore warrant further screening and follow-up using CT. Given the low cost, accuracy and safety, this biomarker test could be potentially valuable for screening of large populations.

Identifying neurocognitive risk markers that differentiate smokers from never-smokers and ex-smokers

Even though most smokers know that smoking is unhealthy, and despite most wanting to quit, only 6% of those who make a serious quit attempt are still abstinent one year later. The problem is that smoking, like other drugs of abuse, alters the brain after repeated use, alterations that make it difficult to quit and to stay abstinent. We want to examine whether brain markers that we previously identified in smokers exist in never smokers and ex-smokers. The ultimate goals of the grants that will result from this proposal would be to use these brain markers to predict which nonsmokers are at risk from becoming smokers and which ex-smokers are likely to have problems staying abstinent.

Integrative Genomic Analysis of Actinic Keratoses: Using Inter-lesional and Cross Species Analysis to Predict Progression to Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Skin cancer is the most common malignancy in humans, of which there are over 3 million cases a year in the United States, costing an estimated $500 million in treatment-related costs and $2 billion in overall economic impact. Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (the 2nd most common skin cancer) has a well-ordered sequence of development beginning with chronically sun-exposed skin, progressing to the most common precancerous lesion in humans, the actinic keratosis (AK), and then ultimately to invasive cancer. The tremendously high incidence of AK presents a vast opportunity for secondary skin cancer prevention, and our proposed studies to identify the important genetic alterations that result in AK formation will enable the design of better interventions to eliminate them and prevent their progression to cancer.

High Throughput Search for a Combination Cancer Preventive Treatment

The two most fundamental criteria for the development of cancer preventive agents are achieving high effectiveness and low toxicities associated with chemopreventive medication, typically administered over a long period of time. The proposed research addresses both issues. Its goal is to identify drug combinations which more effectively suppress cell growth and prevent cancer than either individual component alone.  At the same time this research will develop new treatment options that reduce the effective dosage by combining cancer preventive agents to achieve equivalent or synergistic effects.  Achieving these goals may have a tremendous impact on the acceptance of pharmacologic preventive strategies.

Chemoprevention of pancreatic cancer by induction of synthetic lethality in mutant K-ras cells

Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage and has a poor prognosis. Activating mutations of the K-ras oncogene are possibly the single most common genetic abnormality in pancreatic cancer. Therefore, mutant K-ras gene or its gene product represents an obvious target for the treatment and prevention of pancreatic cancer. In this application, we propose to develop a novel method to specifically abolish oncogenic K-ras expressing cells for pancreatic cancer prevention and treatment.

2011 Cancer Survivorship Research Seed Grants

Congratulations to the winners:

Linda Elting, Dr.P.H.
"Health Status and Health Behaviors among Cancer Survivors: A Population Based Study"

Michelle Fingeret, Ph.D.
"Understanding of Body Image Adaptation following Surgical Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer"

Javier Valenzuela, Ph.D.
"The Role of Tryptophan Metabolism in the Chronic Fatigue Experienced by Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) Survivors"

Francesco Versace, Ph.D.
"fMRI Assessment of Breast Cancer Survivors with Normal vs. Reduced Sexual Desire: The Impact of Past Chemotherapy"

Jeffrey Wefel, Ph.D.
"A Brain-Plasticity based Computerized Intervention to Treat Attention and Memory Problems in Adult Brain Tumor Survivors"