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Davis Receives Grant for Promising CLL Treatment
Randall Davis , M . D ., professor in the UAB Division of Hematology and Oncology and UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center senior scientist , has been awarded a three-year , $ 600,000 Translational Research Program Grant from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to identify antibodies , specifically targeting a protein called FCRL1 , that could become a potential new treatment therapy for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia ( CLL ).
Dr . Davis has been investigating a large family of genes he co-discovered about 15 years ago while in his fellowship at UAB . These genes encode receptors that are found on the surface of certain types of white blood cells , termed lymphocytes . B lymphocytes , or B cells , play a critical role in protecting individuals from infections and are key responders to vaccines . One of these receptors is the protein FCRL1 , which is expressed by healthy B cells as well as certain malignant B cell leukemias and lymphomas .
Many research groups and pharmaceutical companies are making antibodies to target proteins on B cells and other types of cancerous cells . However , little progress has been made specifically in targeting FCRL1 . Over the years , Dr . Davis and his team have have generated several FCRL1-specific antibodies . With this grant , they are defining and optimizing these antibodies and studying the preclinical effects of potential drugs on targeting FCRL1 in CLL .
There were an estimated 18,960 new cases of CLL diagnosed in the United States in 2016 . The disorder is incurable by conventional therapies other than a stem cell transplant . Patients ’ average age at diagnosis is about 71 years old , and most patients typically do not tolerate the aggressive treatment of a transplant well .
NIH Study Identifies Genomic Features of Cervical Cancer
Investigators with The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network , including UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center associate scientist Akinyemi Ojesina , M . D ., Ph . D ., have identified novel genomic and molecular characteristics of cervical cancer that will aid in the sub-classification of the disease and may help target therapies that are most appropriate for each individual patient .
The study , published in Nature , conducted a comprehensive analysis of the genomes of 178 primary cervical cancers , and found that more than 70 percent of the tumors had genomic alterations in either one or both of two important cell signaling pathways . The researchers also found that a subset of tumors did not show evidence of human papillomavirus ( HPV ) infection .
Researchers found that a unique set of eight cervical cancers showed molecular
Akinyemi Ojesina , M . D ., Ph . D . similarities to endometrial cancers . Most of these endometrial-like cancers were HPVnegative , and they had strikingly high frequencies of mutations in certain genes .
It has been thought that virtually all cases of cervical cancer are caused by HPV , and just two HPV types are responsible for about 70 percent of all cases . “ Basically , this study confirms some of our previous work that HPV infection may not be involved in all cases of cervical cancer ,” says Dr . Ojesina , who has been involved with the study for the past three years and is a corresponding author on this paper .
The results of this study could potentially lead to more targeted therapies for cervical cancer , which accounts for more than 500,000 new cases of cancer and more than 250,000 deaths each year worldwide .
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