July 1, 2011: Three years of funding from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) of $2.7 million for the Texas Cancer Cell Repository (TXCCR) began today. The TXCCR will establish, bank, and distribute cancer models established from patient tumors that are grown in the laboratory and in special mice. The PI of the grant is C Patrick Reynolds, MD PhD of TTUHSC, the Co-PI is Adi Gazdar, MD of UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas (UTSW), and co-investigators are Min Kang, PharmD of TTUHSC and Jaya Lea, MD of UTSW. TXCCR works closely with the Texas Cancer Research Biobank and with many collaborating surgeons, pathologists, and oncologists throughout Texas.
March Updates
The Cure Cancer Foundation (www.curecancerfoundation.org) has generously provided a grant of $25,000 to the Cancer Center. These funds will be used to help purchase a new HPLC system for the Cancer Center Pharmacology Lab, Directed by Dr. Min Kang. The new instrument will be used for measuring drug levels for investigational drugs in the blood of patients in ongoing pediatric and adult oncology clinical trials.
TTUHSC President Ted Mitchell, MD presents the 2010 TTUHSC President's Young Investigator Award to Min Kang, Pharm.D. Please click on the thumbnail to view a larger version of the photo.
Jan 20, 2011:Clinical Cancer Research, one of the premier journals of clinical and translational cancer research announced today that the #1 cited paper for Clinical Cancer Research in 2009 was:
Kang MH, Reynolds CP: Bcl-2 inhibitors: Targeting mitochondrial apoptotic pathways in cancer therapy. Clinical Cancer Research 15:1126-1132, 2009.
The TTUHSC Cancer Center has received from the Arms Wide Open Foundation (www.awoccf.org) a grant of $63,000 to fund production of oral powder LXS fenretinide. The PI of this grant is Barry Maurer, MD PhD. This grant will enable completion of an ongoing phase I trial of LXS fenretinide in children with neuroblastoma being carried out in the New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) consortium (www.NANT.org), chaired by Dr. Maurer. This clinical trial has already demonstrated multiple complete responses in neuroblastoma patients with recurrent disease and is now testing the ability to increase fenretinide drug levels by decreasing fenretinide metabolism using the common drug ketoconazole to decrease metabolism of fenretinide, based on preclinical studies by Jason Cooper (MD PhD student), Min Kang, Pharm D, and Dr. Maurer.
The TTUHSC Cancer Center has received a grant of $125,000 from Cure Search (funds provided by the Nearburg Foundation) to continue supporting the Children's Oncology Group (COG) Ewing's Family Tumors Preclinical Testing Laboratory (www.EFTlab.org). The PI of the grant is C Patrick Reynolds, MD PhD and the Co-PI is Min Kang, PharmD. Both the Cancer Center and Cure Search are grateful to the Nearburg Foundation for their support of this work, termed "Rett's Initiative" in memory of Rett Nearburg (www.Rett.org).
The TTUHSC Cancer Center has received a grant of $101,000 from the Jasper L. and Jack Denton Wilson Charitable Foundation to support preclinical studies of fenretinide in laboratory models of ovarian cancer. The PI of the grant is Barry Maurer, MD PhD, Co-Pi is C Patrick Reynolds, MD PhD, and Min Kang PharmD is a Co-investigator. The Cancer Center is grateful to the Wilson foundation for their generous support of our translational research in ovarian cancer.
