The Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northeast Ohio's coordinated effort to combat cancer, has earned an additional $12M in funding from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) as a two-year merit-based extension. The center is the first of two NCI-designated cancer centers to be awarded this prestigious distinction, only available to top-tier centers in the country.

The center's current Cancer Center Support Grant was last renewed in 2017 when it received an “exceptional” rating—the highest possible—along with $27.9 million to continue lifesaving work from 2018-2023. The Cancer Center’s recent application to extend this funding was approved based on its sustained exceptional progress, stability and longevity.

Stan Gerson, MD, interim dean and the Asa and Patricia Shiverick-Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, has led the center since 2004. He has been continuously recognized for his leadership and for developing such initiatives as implementing a strategic planning effort and enhanced transdisciplinary collaborations, dedicating efforts to address health disparities and community health, and recruiting talented senior leaders and researchers.

“We are humbled to be one of the first centers to receive this new extension, along with Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University, and hope a number of other exceptional centers will soon follow,” Gerson said. “Our consortium is quite robust and committed to the highest quality of cancer research and impact. This extension will allow us to seamlessly continue driving research focused on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer, directly impacting the patients and communities we serve.”

You did it! This past weekend many of you participated in VeloSano 8, raising valuable funds for lifesaving cancer research in Cleveland. We could not be more proud of #TeamCaseCCC - 31 members strong - for raising over $34,000 and counting! Fundraising for this year's event will continue through October 31, 2021. Thank you to our committed team members, those who have donated and all who have cheered them on! 

Researchers from the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center uncovered the potentially important role of the protein-coding gene, MYO10, in tumor development and immune therapy response. Their findings were published this week in Science Advances.

The team, led by Youwei Zhang, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and member of the Molecular Oncology Program of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, found breast tumors with high levels of MYO10—including the most malignant triple-negative breast cancers—responded favorably to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, supporting the use of this therapy to treat these types of tumors.

The Cancer Center Seminar Series will continue today, September 17 at 12p in the Biomedical Research Building Auditorium (BRB 105). This interdisciplinary seminar series addresses cutting-edge clinical, translational, and basic research topics in cancer and is a focal point of the educational and inter-programmatic activities of the Cancer Center. CME credit is available for those who attend seminars. 

Seminars will also be accessible through Zoom during the presentation. Seminars will not be available for viewing at a later date.

Assistant Professor, Department of Surgery

Member, Developmental Therapeutics Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Dr. Wang was born and raised in Chengdu, China, and went to pursue my undergraduate study at The University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. While finishing his BS degree in Genetics he fell in love with biomedical research especially in cancer-related research and decided to pursue a career in translational cancer research.

He started his PhD training at Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia, USA, and worked on a thesis project to study mechanisms in the regulation of colonic epithelium homeostasis. This work identified cGMP-dependent protein kinase 2 (PKG2) as a key regulator of colon mucosa homeostasis and discovered a novel strategy to activate the protective PKG2 pathway using PDE-5 inhibitors for both treating patients with IBD and for CRC prevention.

In 2013, Dr. Wang started his postdoctoral fellowship at UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he pioneered in characterizing the role of liver endothelium CRC  liver metastases development. They determined that liver endothelium secreted soluble factors and affected CRC survival pathways in a paracrine fashion.

Dr. Wang's current laboratory continues to characterize the effects of liver endothelium, and other types of cells in the liver, on cancer cell functions under the context of metastatic tumors developed in the liver. 

"Quantitative Modeling of Cancer Evolution in silico and in vivo"

Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics and Genome Sciences

Assistant Professor, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Member, Cancer Genomics Program, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine

Associate Professor of Neurology, and by courtesy, Neurosurgery, Pathology, Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Stanford Medicine Faculty Scholar

Stanford University

The Veale Institute for Entrepreneurship is kicking off a series of three seminars on commercializing biomedical research. The first is scheduled for September 23 at 4pm with Will Lewis, chairman & CEO of Insmed. Lewis will be joined by Chris Bailey-Kellogg, executive director of Computational Biology, and Karl Griswold, executive director of Biologics Research, two Dartmouth College faculty members who recently commercialized their research and had their company acquired by Insmed. Engage in discussion and hear the acquisition story of Stealth Biologics, LLC, from research to patient impact through commercialization.

The American Cancer Society has released a call for research that evaluates the impact of the many changes now occurring in the healthcare system with a particular focus on cancer prevention, control, and treatment. Efforts focusing on improving access to care may also impact inequities that contribute to health disparities. New health public policy initiatives such as the new federal and state marketplaces that have expanded insurance coverage, as well as Medicaid expansion in some states, create natural experiments ripe for evaluation. Research to be funded by this RFA should focus on the changes in national, state, and/or local policy and the response to these changes by healthcare systems, insurers, payers, communities, practices, and patients.

The Cleveland Clinic, Ohio's largest employer, reports that it contributed $21.6 billion to the state's economy in 2019, a 21% increase from the last time the health system released its economic and fiscal impact report three years ago.

Currently, there's no one test that can diagnose metastatic breast cancer. How the cancer is diagnosed depends on where it has spread in the body, Alberto Montero, MD, director of the breast cancer program at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center in Cleveland, Ohio, tells Health.

NCI encourages cancer researchers interested in investigating the biological/genetic contributors to cancer health disparities to apply for a Basic Research in Cancer Health Disparities Program grant. These awards will help expand available resources and tools necessary to conduct basic research in cancer health disparities.

Next Due Date: October 5, 2021

Next Due Date: October 16, 2021

Next Due Date: October 16, 2021

NCI seeks applications from institutions to implement and evaluate multilevel and culturally tailored outreach and education interventions with the primary goal of increasing referral and accrual of underrepresented racial/ethnic populations to NCI-supported clinical trials.

Due Date: November 19, 2021

Technical Assistance Webinar: On October 1, 2021, from 1:00-3:00 pm ET, the CUSP2CT program will host a Technical Assistance Webinar. Learn more and register.

Due Date: November 19, 2021

NCI encourages cancer researchers to apply for its Career Development Awards to Promote Diversity (K01, K08 and K22). These funding opportunities are designed to enhance the diversity in the NCI-funded cancer research workforce by supporting eligible individuals from diverse backgrounds, including groups that have been shown to be nationally underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioral, social and clinical sciences.

Due Date: October 12, 2021

Due Date: October 12, 2021

Due Date: October 12, 2021

Due Date: October 12, 2021

Due Date: October 12, 2021

Due Date: October 12, 2021