FEDERAL GRANTS WILL SUPPORT OSUCCC – JAMES RESEARCH IN MULTIPLE MYELOMA & BREAST CANCER

OSUCCC – James researchers recently received two grants—one from the Department of Defense (DOD) and one from the National Cancer Institute (NCI)—of more than $1 million each for separate studies in breast cancer and multiple myeloma. Here’s a brief look at both grants:

• Craig Hofmeister, MD, associate professor in the Division of Hematology at Ohio State and member of the Leukemia Research Program at the OSUCCC – James, and Flavia Pichiorri, PhD, formerly of the Division of Hematology at Ohio State and now an associate professor in the Judy and Bernard Brisken Center for Multiple Myeloma Research and in the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Stem Cell Transplantation Institute at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., are co-principal investigators for a $2.74 million, five-year, R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute for a project titled “Reolysin-Based Combination Therapy in Relapsed Multiple Myeloma.” The grant is between both institutions.
  
  In their project abstract, the investigators state that multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable blood cancer for which there is an urgent need for new drugs with new mechanisms of action. They note that Reolysin, an oncolytic (cancer-killing) virus, has shown anticancer activity against myeloma cells, in mouse models of human MM and more recently in clinical treatment of patients. Now, they write, the team has discovered complementary drugs that enhance the activity of Reolysin in the laboratory.
  
  “We propose additional studies in the laboratory and novel tests on patients being treated on an early-phase clinical trial to further develop cancer-fighting viruses for patients with blood cancers,” they write, noting that their study will test the safety and effectiveness of Reolysin combined with a drug called Carfilzoib in a phase Ib trial in relapsed MM patients. It also will assess the role of the drug in modulating the body’s immune response and increasing the killing of Reolysin-infected MM cells.

• The Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded a $1.5 million, three-year Breast Cancer Research Program Breakthrough Award level 2 to  principal investigator Ramesh Ganju, PhD, professor and vice chair in the Department of Pathology at Ohio State, and member of the Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics Program at the OSUCCC – James, and partnering investigator Xue-Feng Bai, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathology  at Ohio State and member of the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James. 
  
  The goal of this project, titled “CNR2: A Novel Therapeutic Target Against Aggressive and Metastatic Breast Cancer,” is to determine the cross-talk between cannabinoid receptor-2 (CNR2) and chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) that enhances T-cell-specific immune responses in the breast tumor microenvironment. They propose to test the hypothesis that patients with breast cancer who exhibit higher expression of CNR2 receptor may have a better prognosis and recurrence-free survival because of the endocannabinoids present in the human body that activate these receptors. 
  
  The researchers believe these studies will lead to the development of novel biomarkers and targeted therapy using CNR2 agonists and CXCR4 inhibitors against highly aggressive and metastatic breast cancers, including triple-negative breast cancer, which they describe as an aggressive subtype that has poor prognosis due to early metastasis to the lungs and brain and a lack of effective targeted therapies.