The Cancer Center at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine (TTUHSC SOM) was established in 2008 to provide a center of excellence for cancer research for the School of Medicine and the entire South Plains region.
A major focus of the TTUHSC SOM Cancer Center is conducting laboratory and clinical research that develops new anti-cancer drugs for both adults and children with difficult-to-treat cancers. The Cancer Center hosts the Operations Center for a clinical consortium, the South Plains Oncology Consortium that conducts early phase clinical trials in adults and children with cancer. The Cancer Center also hosts the Operations Center and laboratories for the Texas Cancer Cell Repository, a Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT)-funded collaboration between a number of institutions to establish, bank, and distribute cancer cells from patients that have been established to grow in the laboratory or in special mice for use in studying the cancer biologies and novel therapies.
The TTUHSC SOM Cancer Center also hosts several national resource laboratories that support clinical and translational research for childhood cancer:
- The In Vitro (cell culture) drug testing lab for the National Cancer Institute Pediatric Precllinical Testing Program (PPTP)
- The Children's Oncology Group (COG) Cell Line and Xenograft Repository
- Neuroblastoma Pharmacology Resource Laboratory for the Children's Oncology Group and the New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy consortium.
In the Spotlight
- Oct 1st 2014: Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (www.alexslemonade.org) which generously supports the COG Cell Line and Xenograft Repository housed at the TTUHSC SOM Cancer Center sponsored the Alex's Million Mile event for Childhood Cancer Month (Sept). Participants in the event log miles running, walking, cycling during Sept with a goal to reach a million miles for childhood cancer awareness. This year over 800,000 miles were logged. Teams can log miles that bring in contributions per mile for research groups and labs, and Team Cell Busters was formed to support the COG Cell Line and Xenograft Repository (www.COGcell.org), which is located in the TTUHSC SOM Cancer Center. COGcell grows childhood cancer cells in the lab and provides these research models to investigators in 15 countries. Cellbusters logged 15324.8 miles, aided greatly by the Texas Tech Cross Country team being part of this event.