Grants Search Results

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common malignant soft tissue tumor in childhood. Despite intensification of aggressive therapy involving combination chemotherapy, radiation and surgery, the overall outcome of RMS is among the least improved in childhood cancer. Dr. Huang and colleagues aim to explore a novel concept of applying a clinical available technique of tumor-reduction cryoablation, whereby tumors are damaged by ultra-cold argon gas or liquid nitrogen to release endogenous immune adjuvants, to enhance an efficacious systemic anti-tumor immunity against distant RMS metastasis. He seeks to procure preclinical efficacy and mechanistic data that will enable a rapid translational clinical trial targeting metastatic sarcoma within 3 years.

We can now manipulate the immune system with remarkable precision and efficacy to fight certain cancers. However, tumors adapt to reduce immunotherapy efficacy. This is true for solid tumors including osteosarcoma. Therapy-refractory metastatic osteosarcoma represents a pressing unmet need, as the outcome has not improved for over 3 decades. This multi-institutional collaborative proposal explores tumor-extrinsic pathways by which pulmonary metastatic osteosarcoma evade immunity. Dr. Huang’s team is focusing on key molecules responsible for such evasion, against which existing or emerging therapeutic agents are available currently or in the very near future. Therefore, uncovering these pathways could realistically offer multiple new clinical trials for pediatric and AYA metastatic osteosarcoma in the next 3 years. This Osteosarcoma Collaborative St. Baldrick's Grant to Cure Osteosarcoma is funded through the generosity of the Osteosarcoma Collaborative.

Our immune system has a remarkable ability to eradicate a vast array of foreign invaders. With increasing knowledge of this remarkable organ system, we can now begin to manipulate our immune system to fight cancer with remarkable precision and efficacy. However; tumor cells adopt multiple ways to reduce the immunotherapy efficacy, especially for solid tumors. Dr. Huang's research program systematically studies ways by which cancer cells evade immune cell detection and his goal is to develop a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach to increase the overall effectiveness of immunotherapy, particularly in pediatric and adolescent and young adult brain tumors and solid tumors.

This grant helps provide the resources to establish a live-cell pediatric solid tumor banking system.

Based on progress to date, Dr. Huang was awarded a new grant in 2011 to fund an additional two years of this Scholar award. Pediatric patients with metastatic sarcomas (cancers of connective tissues, like bone or muscle, with cancer that has spread) have a low rate of cure. Recent evidence suggests that the immune system plays a critical role in tumor spread. Unfortunately, aggressive systemic chemotherapy used to treat pediatric sarcoma patients devastates the ability of immune system to harness the anti-tumor properties. Dr. Huang's research aims to incorporate the immunological arm of cancer therapy into standard therapeutic protocols, to provide life-saving treatments for children with osteosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma.