$6.5 mil grant sustains Arizona Cancer Center research
Summary:
The Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona has received a five-year, $6.5 million grant renewal from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to sustain its Therapeutic Development Program. The NCI award, which UA first won in 1975, will fund several lines of drug-development research, including clinical trials related to two promising anticancer drugs developed at the Arizona Cancer Center.
Full Story:
David Alberts, director of
the Arizona Cancer Center.
(Photo courtesy of UA)
The Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona has received a five-year, $6.5 million grant renewal from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to sustain its Therapeutic Development Program. The NCI award, which UA first won in 1975, will fund several lines of drug-development research, including clinical trials related to two promising anticancer drugs developed at the Arizona Cancer Center.
"This NCI-funded grant has been the centerpiece of Arizona Cancer Center research funding for more than three decades," said David Alberts, director of the Center. "It is a national treasure in that it has continuously produced seminal data on new, active anticancer drugs and drug combinations for cancer treatment."
The grant will allow cancer researchers to continue investigations related to two drugs developed at the Center, PX-12 and Imexon, both of which target cancer-causing proteins. Clinical trials for PX-12 are being conducted at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, while trials for Imexon are being conducted at the Arizona Cancer Center.
One project under the grant renewal will study the properties of other drugs in the same family as PX-12. Another project will examine the activity of Imexon when administered in conjunction with the drug Gemcitabine and will seek to develop additional drugs similar to Imexon.
"The new drugs are designed to kill tumor cells by creating stress related to oxygen levels inside cancer cells, which is a novel mechanism for new anticancer drugs," said Robert T. Dorr, co-director of the Therapeutic Development Program and principal investigator for the grant. Research under the grant might yield a half-dozen new anti-cancer drugs, Dorr added.
A third project funded by the program will support a study of how diagnostic radiology might aid researchers and oncologists in determining which patients are the best candidates for treatment with the new drugs. And a fourth project will identify biomarkers of the drugs' effects on cells; researchers aim to incorporate tests for these biomarkers into clinical trials.
For more information:
"Grant aids effort to produce anti-cancer drug," Arizona Daily Star, 01/09/2008