CENTER NEWS
Mascaux
Vasiliou
University of Colorado Cancer Center, Kaiser Permanente Colorado join forces in cancer research
The University of Colorado Cancer Center has added a ninth member to its consortium: Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s Institute for Health Research. The CU Cancer Center, Colorado’s only federally designated comprehensive cancer center, is the hub of cancer research in Colorado. Researchers from University of Colorado Denver, University of Colorado Boulder and Colorado State University are members, as are cancer care physicians at University of Colorado Hospital, The Children’s Hospital, Denver Health, Denver VA and National Jewish Health. Adding the Institute to the cancer center consortium, which is funded with a multiyear comprehensive cancer grant from the National Cancer Institute, brings a large group of cancer health outcomes researchers and cancer health services providers into the mix. Investigators with Kaiser Permanente’s Institute for Health Research are conducting cutting-edge cancer research in patientcentered communications, health services and comparative effectiveness research. They have a large, NCI-funded cancer health communications center that does research into improving how we talk to patients about cancer. Kaiser Permanente is also helping to lead an NCI-supported consortium of managed care organizations conducting research on how cancer is prevented and managed in health care systems.
Mascaux wins National Lung Cancer Partnership grant for screening work
A University of Colorado Cancer Center researcher believes she could find a simple, non-invasive test that would diagnose lung cancer in its very earliest stages or even while it’s still pre-cancerous. Celine Mascaux, MD, PhD, a post-doctoral fellow the CU Cancer Center, has identified several molecular changes in patients with the earliest stages of lung cancer. She also has found that these markers differ between smokers and non-smokers as well as between men and women. Most importantly, she has found biomarkers that indicate the presence of lesions at low risk of turning cancerous from those that were at high risk or were already invasive cancer. 2 | C3: SPRING 2011 | WWW.COLORADOCANCERCENTER.ORG
Hendrick
Anchordoquy
Yearly mammograms from age 40 save 71% more lives A new study questions the controversial 2009 US Preventive Service Task Force recommendations for breast cancer screening, with data that shows starting at a younger age and screening more frequently will result in more lives saved.
R. Edward Hendrick, PhD, clinical professor of radiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, and Mark Helvie, MD, director of breast imaging at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that if women begin yearly mammograms at age 40, it reduces breast cancer deaths by 40 percent. When screening begins at 50 and occurs every other year, it reduces breast cancer deaths 23 percent. The difference: 71 percent more lives saved with yearly screening beginning at 40. They found that women ages 40-49 who are screened annually will have a false-positive mammogram once every 10 years. They will get asked back for more tests once every 12 years and will undergo a false-positive biopsy once every 149 years. “The USPSTF overemphasized potential harms of screening mammography, while ignoring the proven statistically significant benefit of annual screening mammography starting at age 40.” says Hendrick. “In addition, the panel ignored more recent data from screening programs in Sweden and Canada showing that 40 percent of breast cancer deaths are averted in women who get regular screening mammography. Our modeling results agree completely with these screening program results in terms of the large number of women lives saved by regular screening mammography.”
University of Colorado team identifies new colon cancer marker
A CU Cancer Center research team has identified an enzyme that could be used to diagnose colon cancer earlier. It is possible that this enzyme also could be a key to stopping the cancer.
Richer
Anderson
Colon cancer is the third most common cancer in Americans, with a one in 20 chance of developing it, according to the American Cancer Society. This enzyme biomarker could help physicians identify more colon cancers and do so at earlier stages when the cancer is more successfully treated. The research was led by Vasilis Vasiliou, PhD, professor of molecular toxicology at the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy, and published in the Jan. 7 online issue of Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. Vasiliou’s team studied colon cancers from 40 patients and found a form of this enzyme known as ALDH1B1 present in every colon cancer cell in 39 out of the 40 cases. The enzyme, which is normally found only in stem cells, was detected at extraordinarily high levels.
18 investigators funded with $480k in pilot grants
The CU Cancer Center awarded $480,000 in pilot and seed grant funding to Colorado cancer researchers. The funding comes from four programs: The center’s National Cancer Institute Cancer Center Support Grant, its American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant, private donations and its Breast Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence developing program, funded with donations from Safeway Foundation. Each project was selected for funding after a competitive review by a committee of peer researchers. These grants will help researchers kick-start new research projects. Often pilot- and seed grant-funded projects go on to receive large federal and private grants based on data collected during the pilot-funded research. Awardees are: Jingshi Shen, Chad G. Petersen, Isabel Schlaepfer, Monique Spillman, Gerrit Bouma, Laurie Carr, Shi-Long Lu, Rebecca Schweppe, Kimberly Jordan, Ndiya Ogba, Joshua Klopper, Caroline Kulesza, Thomas Anschodoquy, Xuedong Liu, S. Gail Eckhardt, Steven Anderson, Jennifer Richer and Bolin Liu.
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