With the five-year grant recognizing a Specialized Program Of Research Excellence (SPORE), M. D. Anderson is the first academic medical center to receive such a research grant for this cancer type.

Dr. Waun Ki Hong, head of the Division of Cancer Medicine and chairman of thoracic/head and neck medical oncology, is the principal investigator on M. D. Anderson's latest SPORE grant, which gives a boost to the institution's integrated head and neck cancer research program. Drs. Reuben Lotan, professor of thoracic/head and neck medical oncology, and Gary Clayman, professor of head and neck surgery, serve as the grant's co-principal investigators.

"The SPORE grant pushes M. D. Anderson's already-strong translational research efforts in head and neck cancer to a new level, enhancing our multidisciplinary approach to the disease," Dr. Hong says. "With this grant, we want to rapidly increase our progress in the basic understanding of the disease, so we can develop new approaches to prevention, treatment and early diagnosis of head and neck cancer.

"M. D. Anderson has made great strides in treating head and neck cancer patients while maintaining quality of life for our patients," Dr. Hong continues. "We are already hard at work, and with this addition, we hope to make more progress in reducing head and neck cancer and ensure that patients with these diseases receive state-of-the-art medical care with cutting-edge therapeutic approaches."

The head and neck SPORE grant funds will support research in five areas: identifying genetic susceptibility markers and high-risk populations for head and neck cancers; angiogenic therapy; EGF receptors for chemoprevention; p53 therapy for reversal of pre-malignancies of the oral cavity; and apoptosis o
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Contact: Laura Sussman
lsussman@mdanderson.org
713-745-2457
University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
10-Oct-2002