Researchers at The University of Texas Medical Branch have been awarded a total of nearly $5 million in grants from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas to forward their work.   In all, CPRIT approved 61 grants totaling more than $93 million. The UTMB grantees are:   Abbey Berenson, $2,499,990: Expanding Opportunities for HPV Vaccination in Medically Underserved Areas of East Texas William Russell, $1,999,492: A Targeted Proteomics and Metabolomics Mass Spectrometry Core Facility at...

Chemotherapy and immunotherapy combined with surgery is the standard treatment for patients with early-stage resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but many still experience disease recurrence. In the Phase II NeoCOAST-2 trial led by Tina Cascone, M.D., Ph.D., researchers enrolled patients with untreated, resectable stage IIA-IIIB NSCLC and examined the efficacy and safety of pre-surgical chemotherapy plus durvalumab immunotherapy in combination with novel monoclonal antibodies oleclumab or monalizumab or with the antibody-drug conjugate datopotamab deruxtecan (Dato-DXd). Of participants who received oleclumab, 15 of 74...

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) natural killer (NK) cells represent a promising experimental cell therapy, but the molecular mechanism regulating their activity is not fully understood. In a new study, researchers led by Katy Rezvani, M.D., Ph.D., and Hind Rafei, M.D., identified a protein – cAMP response element modulator (CREM) – as a critical checkpoint regulator of CAR NK cells that, when upregulated, limits the effectiveness of CAR NK cells. Researchers used CRISPR gene editing to target and knock...

High-risk multiple myeloma is an aggressive disease in which plasma cells grow uncontrollably. It is typically resistant to treatment and the prognosis for patients is poor. However, the genes that contribute to this behavior are not fully understood. Using single-cell transcriptomics, researchers led by Robert Orlowski, M.D., Ph.D., identified that CLPP, a protein in mitochondria, is overexpressed in high-risk cases and may also enable progression from earlier precursor cases to more advanced disease. Inhibiting CLPP genetically or through treatment...

BRCA2, a key tumor suppressor that helps repair and protect DNA during replication, is often mutated in cancer cells. Normally, BRCA2 interacts with another protein, RAD51, to suppress genomic instability by fixing damage at DNA breaks or by protecting DNA at stalled replication forks, which can occur during DNA replication. By examining the protein structure of a specific region of BRCA2, known as the C-terminal end, researchers led by Katharina Schlacher, Ph.D., and John Tainer, Ph.D., uncovered a...

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Children’s Hospital announced a $150 million gift from Kinder Foundation. The transformational gift creates Kinder Children’s Cancer Center, a joint venture of UT MD Anderson Cancer Center and Texas Children’s Hospital, with a single mission: to end childhood cancer.   The gift is one of the largest philanthropic donations made to an American pediatric hospital and one of the largest in the history of the Texas Medical Center (TMC). With this...

Researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch joined a multi-center team in conducting the largest randomized clinical trial to date on testosterone therapy in women recovering from hip fractures, finding that the hormone treatment did not improve physical function compared to supervised exercise alone.   The STEP-HI study is the largest such study of testosterone administration to women following a fracture of the hip. Hip fractures are the most serious type of osteoporotic fracture,...

Pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to treat, resulting in a five-year survival rate of roughly 12%. Approximately half of patients develop metastases shortly after diagnosis, but the biological mechanisms driving spread to specific organs are not fully understood.   To provide insights, Linghua Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Anirban Maitra, M.B.B.S., and colleagues generated a comprehensive spatial atlas using 55 samples of primary tumors and metastases collected from 13 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer undergoing rapid autopsy. The researchers focused...

Lung cancer is often diagnosed at late stages, making treatment challenging. To understand its early development, researchers led by Bo Zhu, Ph.D., Jia Wu, Ph.D., Alexandre Reuben, Ph.D., and Jianjun Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., used imaging mass cytometry to map the spatial tumor microenvironment across 114 lung cancers and precancers. They found a gradual shift from innate to adaptive immune responses as lesions progressed to more invasive cancer. High levels of TIM-3, an immune checkpoint marker, were found in precancers but dropped off in more...

The latest treatment for mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) – an aggressive and incurable B-cell lymphoma – includes Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors such as acalabrutinib. Acalabrutinib is a second-generation BTK inhibitor with high specificity. In the Phase III international ECHO trial, researchers led by Michael Wang, M.D., evaluated adding either acalabrutinib or placebo to the standard of care for 598 patients with MCL. At a median follow-up of 44.9 months, the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 66.4 months...