UA’s Arizona Cancer Center Awarded $21.6 Million

Grant for Colorectal Cancer Prevention

 

Contact:           Donna Breckenridge, (520) 626-2277                                                Aug. 23, 2005

                        Susan Guthrie (602) 631-6555

 

The National Cancer Institute has renewed the Arizona Cancer Center’s Chemoprevention of Colon Cancer Program Project Grant for five more years, resulting in the largest single program project grant in the Center’s history—more than $21.6 million.  The funds will be used for three highly interactive scientific research projects to build on research ongoing at the Arizona Cancer Center since 1987.

 

The grant was awarded on the basis of that previous research and presentations done by a team under the guidance of the Center’s Director David S. Alberts, MD.  Dr. Alberts previously served as director of the Arizona Cancer Center’s Prevention and Control Program until his appointment as the Center’s director in January 2005.  Newly appointed co-directors of prevention and control, M. Peter Lance, MD, and María Elena Martínez, PhD, will serve as co-principal investigators for the grant.

 

“Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States,” explained Dr. Lance.  “Only lung cancer has a higher rate of death.  The overall, long-term goal of this program project is to reduce the incidence, morbidity and mortality of colorectal cancer.”

 

The program will do that through a three-project approach.  The scientific projects and the core services needed to support them involve six institutions: the Arizona Cancer Center; the University of Colorado, Denver; Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas; MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston; Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale; and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), Phoenix.

 

“To accomplish our goals,” said Dr. Martínez, “we’ve brought together a group of outstanding cancer researchers who have, in most cases, worked together for 10 to 15 years.  They’ve developed a highly integrated, interactive and hypothesis-driven research proposal that has a strong likelihood of success.”

 

Project I, led by Dr. Lance, is a clinical trial to investigate the role of selenium, a nutritional supplement, on adenoma recurrence in 1,600 participants.  An adenoma is a benign tumor, and colorectal adenomas arise from the epithelial lining of the colon and rectum. Although only a minority of colorectal adenomas ever progress to cancer, nearly all colorectal cancers develop over a period of years from previously benign adenomas.  Therefore, removing adenomas can reduce the incidence of colorectal cancer.  In addition, reducing the recurrence of adenomas should further reduce the incidence of this common cancer.

 

Project II, led by Stan Hamilton, MD, of MD Anderson Cancer Center, will focus on epidemiologic factors, as well as molecular and biological changes in tissue that can be used as biomarkers to judge the degree of an individual’s risk for recurrence of the most dangerous types of colorectal adenomas.

 

Project III, led by Dr. Martinez, will determine whether lifestyle and dietary factors associated with high blood insulin levels, such as obesity and physical inactivity, are associated with the recurrence of adenomas and the prevalence of colorectal cancer.

 

The three core services that support the projects are being led by Janine Einspahr, PhD (analytical); Sylvan Green, MD (biometry); and Dr. Alberts, Dr. Lance, and Dianna Gilmore (administrative)—all from the Arizona Cancer Center.

 

“Having been a colon cancer treatment specialist in the Arizona Cancer Center for nearly 20 years and seeing countless wonderful people die of this devastating disease, I am convinced that prevention is the only way we will make a large impact on mortality.  The Colon Cancer Prevention Program Project was crafted to help us win the battle against this disease,” Dr. Alberts said.

 

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