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Standing up to—and fighting back against—cancer
Eliezer Van Allen, MD, a physician-scientist in Dana-Farber’s Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, is a 2016 SU2C Phil Sharp Award recipient.Tonight, Stand Up To Cancer’s (SU2C) telecast will narrate powerful cancer patient and research stories—reminding us all that hope, determination, and innovation are the keys to conquering this terrible disease.
Dana-Farber is a long-time partner of SU2C in our shared mission to end cancer. Over the past seven years, more than 30 Dana-Farber faculty and staff members have played key roles on seven SU2C Dream Teams and received numerous SU2C research grants and awards.
This critical and generous funding has enabled our physician-scientists to make headway in learning more about cancers, their drivers, and their weaknesses.
Here are three of the current Dana-Farber investigations funded in part by SU2C:
Dana-Farber’s Alan D’Andrea, MD, (third from left) is leading the SU2C Ovarian Cancer Dream Team. The team also includes Dana-Farber faculty (left to right) Panos Konstantinopoulous, MD, PhD; William Barry, PhD; Ursula Matulonis, MD; Geoffrey Shapiro, MD, PhD; and Giovanni Parmigiani, PhD.Uncovering New Treatments for Ovarian Cancer Patients
“As part of a three-year grant from SU2C, I have the tremendous opportunity to lead a team of investigators from around the nation who are collaboratively exploring new treatments for women with ovarian cancer.
We are focusing our efforts on ovarian cancer’s weakness: the existence of defects in DNA repair. By targeting DNA repair pathways, we hope to extend the use of existing treatments to more patients and also find combinations with other drugs that will be effective against ovarian cancer.
We also aim to improve prevention and early detection of ovarian cancer, which tends to be diagnosed at a late stage of the disease. All of this work is extremely vital to battling this deadly cancer and saving the lives of countless women.”
– Alan D’Andrea, MD
Director, Center for DNA Damage and Repair, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
SU2C-Ovarian Cancer Research Fund Alliance-National Ovarian Cancer Coalition Dream Team Leader
Building Tools to Unravel Sarcoma’s Mysteries
“For my laboratory, SU2C’s funding has been transformative. It enabled our team to develop an approach for discovering potential new cancer therapies, called Gene Expression-based High-throughput Screening (GE-HTS).
Dana-Farber’s Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, is a SU2C Phil Sharp Award and Innovative Research Grant recipient.Like a fingerprint, GE-HTS provides a complex, unique measurement of a cellular response. We applied it to the cancer-promoting protein EWS/FLI in Ewing sarcoma—the second most common primary tumor of the bone diagnosed in U.S. children—and were able to analyze the molecular origins of Ewing sarcoma and the role of EWS/FLI in this disease.
With this information, we can now conduct further research that could lead to new therapies reaching beyond Ewing sarcoma, impacting other types of pediatric and adult cancers.”
– Kimberly Stegmaier, MD
Co-Director, Pediatric Hematologic Malignancy Program, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
2015 SU2C Phil Sharp Award recipient
2009 SU2C Innovative Research Grant recipient
Dana-Farber’s Robert Haddad, MD, is co-leading SU2C’s HPV Translational Research Team.Harnessing the Power of the Immune System
“Thanks to a generous grant from SU2C and the Farrah Fawcett Foundation, we are exploring new ways in which to leverage the power of the body’s immune system to target cancers associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV)—namely cancers of the cervix, anus, and head and neck.
Primarily, we are developing a new vaccine that aims to “rouse” immune system T cells to attack cancer cells that arise after an HPV infection has occurred. Our work could provide critical new treatment options for patients with HPV-related cancers, especially those who have relapsed after their initial treatment.
We are honored to partner with SU2C on this groundbreaking study, which may someday impact the thousands of patients diagnosed with HPV-related cancers each year.”
– Robert I. Haddad, MD
Disease Center Leader, Head and Neck Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
SU2C-Farrah Fawcett Foundation HPV Translational Research Team Co-Leader
– Ellis L. Reinherz, MD
Chief, Laboratory of Immunobiology, and Co-director, Cancer Vaccine Center, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
SU2C-Farrah Fawcett Foundation HPV Translational Research Team Co-Leader
It’s an exciting time to work in cancer research. Every day, we see progress in our labs and, every day, we are one step closer to another new treatment for patients. Thank you to SU2C—and our many other committed supporters—for continuing to fuel our innovation, determination, and hope in our lifesaving mission to conquer cancer.
