State: Washingtondfdhd

Funded by the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund with support from Hockey Fights Cancer and Jeffrey Vinik

More children are surviving brain cancer than ever before. However, when a brain tumor comes back, it is still very hard to cure. Medulloblastoma returns in more than 30% of patients, even after intensivetreatment. This raises two important questions: Is some cancer left behind after treatment? Can we find it sooner? We hope to answer these questions with a new test that uses only a small amount of spinal fluid. The test is called a “liquid biopsy.” It looks for tumor DNA in the fluid around the brain and spinal cord. In patients with medulloblastoma, we can find signs of cancer using only a teaspoon of spinal fluid. In some cases, the test may find cancer before it can be seen on a scan. Our goal is to offer this test to more patients through a Children’s Oncology Group clinical trial. We will study whether the test helps doctors choose the best treatment for each young child. This project brings together two leading labs at the University of Washington and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Our results could change how doctorswatch and treat brain tumors. We hope this work will help more children with medulloblastoma survive. The test may also help patients with other types of brain cancer, expanding its impact even further.

Our bodies are home to trillions of tiny living things called bacteria. A growing amount of research shows that these bacteria can play a role in how cancer starts and grows. Most scientists have focused on this connection in the gut, which is packed with bacteria. It might also be true for the lungs, but this is much harder to study because the lungs have far fewer bacteria. Right now, we can only identify which bacteria are there. To learn how these lung bacteria might affect cancer, we need to understand what they are actually doing. Unfortunately, our current tools are not sensitive enough to show us. We are creating two new ways to look at lung bacteria in cancer tissue from patients. These tools will let us see not only which bacteria are there, but more importantly, which of their genes are turned on. A gene that is “turned on” can tell us what a bacterium is doing. This will help us form new ideas about how they could be involved in lung cancer. This work will provide the first detailed picture of how bacteria might be involved in lung cancer. Understanding their role could lead to new tests to find lung cancer earlier or to identify people who are at a higher risk. It could also help us discover new ways to prevent lung cancer. We might even be able to design personalized treatments that change a person’s unique mix of bacteria to help fight cancer.

Every year, over 25,000 people need to have a stem cell transplant to treat their blood cancer. While this can cure their cancer, it also weakens the immune system. A weak immune system is a problem because it means people get more infections and can experience other complications like their cancer coming back. When we are healthy, our gut is filled with helpful bacteria. During cancer treatment, many patients lose these helpful bugs. Patients who lose the good bacteria after they have a transplant, don’t recover as well as patients who keep their helpful bugs. These good bacteria are needed for strong immune system recovery. We are working in the lab to find new ways to support healthy bugs during cancer treatment. We think this will help the patients’ immune system. Having a healthy immune system means fewer infections and a longer life. If successful, this research could lead to new treatments that help patients feel better during their transplant, avoid infections, and live longer. In the future, we will run clinical trials in transplant patients, which will lead to new standard treatments.

Funded by the Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the deadliest blood cancer. People with AML are treated with chemotherapy, a treatment intended to kill cancer cells. However, some AML cells have qualities that prevent them from being killed with chemotherapy. These cells remain in the body even after treatment. Unfortunately, these “chemotherapy-resistant” AML cells can cause relapse. People with AML achieve remission when doctors can no longer detect AML after treatment. Relapse occurs when the previously undetectable AML returns after remission. Relapse is the primary cause of death for AML patients. Unfortunately, ~30% of all AML patients will relapse within three years of their diagnosis. Our research goal is to understand why some AML cells survive chemotherapy and others do not. We aim to identify new treatments that target chemotherapy-resistant AML cells.

Certain proteins produced by many cells in the body have sugars attached to them. In AML cells, we found that the kind of sugar attached to these proteins determines growth rates and response to chemotherapy. In this proposal, we will test how specific categories of sugars control AML cell growth, chemotherapy resistance, and relapse. We will use mouse models of AML to test how drugs that change the sugars available to AML cells could be used to treat AML. We expect the proposed studies will pave the way for identifying new medicines that can be used to stop AML cells from resisting chemotherapy, prevent relapse, and support AML patient survival.

Funded with support from Steve and Tamar Goodfellow

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer worldwide and ranks as the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Screening plays a key role in early detection and makes CRC one of the most preventable cancers. Developing an accurate risk prediction score is crucial because it helps us identify and focus on those at high risk from a young age, enabling early screening and effective intervention. Research has shown that thousands of genetic mutations can increase the risk of developing CRC. Our goal is to convert these genetic discoveries into useful tools for clinical use. We plan to utilize advanced techniques such as CRISPR screening technology and single-cell sequencing, combined with deep learning models and statistical analysis. This approach will help us understand the whole impact of these genetic mutations better. This work aims to provide deeper insights into how these mutations contribute to the development of CRC, leading to more targeted and efficient screening strategies. Ultimately, our research is directed toward developing a sophisticated method for predicting colorectal cancer risk, focusing specifically on those who are most at risk. This could significantly change how we prevent and treat colorectal cancer.