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Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center   

Michael Caligiuri, MD, Director

The Cancer Centers Program of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) supports
selected academic and research institutions throughout the United States to
sustain broad-based, coordinated, interdisciplinary programs in cancer research. In 1976 the NCI designated The Ohio State University as one of the nation’s first comprehensive cancer centers. The OSUCCC focuses on all aspects of cancer care: prevention, diagnosis, treatment, control, rehabilitation and education. As one of only 40 NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers, the OSUCCC’s top priority is translating basic research findings into clinical applications. The OSUCCC has more than 250 cancer investigators representing 12 of the 18 colleges at Ohio State. The OSUCCC comprises six research programs whose member investigators collectively generated more than $11.5 million in external cancer-relevant research funding, of which more than 75 percent is peer-reviewed.

Ongoing Research Programs

  • Cancer Control – Focuses on early detection, survivorship and behavioral strategies related to cancer prevention and control. Co-leaders: Electra Paskett, PhD, MSPH, and Mary Ellen Wewers, PhD, MPH, RN
  • Experimental Therapeutics – Evaluates novel therapeutics, imaging, cell therapeutics and drug targeting. Co-leaders: Michael Grever, MD, and Samson Jacob, PhD
  • Innate Immunity – Focuses on cellular innate immunity, with applications in antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity. Co-leaders: John Byrd, MD, and William Carson III, MD
  • Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics – Seeks to understand the control of gene expression as it relates to cell proliferation, DNA replication, differentiation, developmental regulation and the molecular basis of cancer. Co-leaders: Albert de la Chapelle, MD, PhD, and Michael Ostrowski, PhD
  • Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention – Investigates effects of genetic alterations induced by chemical toxins and infectious agents, identifies tumor-suppressor genes and studies other aspects of multistage carcinogenesis. Leader: Steven Clinton, MD, PhD
  • Viral Oncology – Seeks to discover which retroviruses contribute to human cancer and to develop and implement gene-delivery strategies using retroviral vectors. Co-leaders: E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, and Patrick Green, PhD

Research Accomplishments of 2008

  • The NCI awarded OSUCCC researchers an $11.9 million, five-year grant to study “Genetic and Signaling Pathways in Epithelial Thyroid Cancer.” The research team is led by principal investigator Matthew Ringel, MD, a member of the OSUCCC’s Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics Program and co-director of Ohio State’s Thyroid Cancer Unit. Co-investigators for the study, which encompasses four interactive projects, include: Richard Kloos, MD; Lawrence Kirschner, MD, PhD; Albert de la Chapelle, MD, PhD; Sissy Jhiang, PhD; and David Jarjoura, PhD, as well as faculty at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
  • A team of researchers from the OSUCCC and Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine received a $10.9 million, five-year grant from the NCI to further their studies of retrovirus-associated cancer. The funding follows a previous five-year NCI grant of $8.9 million that this team received in 2003 for studies that helped them discover how retroviruses can alter normally protective white blood cells, called lymphocytes, and cause blood-cell proliferation leading to cancer. Principal investigator is Michael Lairmore, DVM, PhD, the OSUCCC’s associate director for basic research and chair of the Department of Veterinary Biosciences; other key investigators for this research, which involves five interactive projects, include Kathleen Boris-Lawrie, PhD; Patrick Green, PhD; Stefan Niewiesk, DVM, PhD; Thomas Rosol, DVM, PhD; and Lawrence Mathes, PhD.
  • The translation of basic science to novel cancer therapies will continue unimpeded at Ohio State thanks to a five-year, $3.8 million NCI grant to the OSUCCC-James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute for conducting phase I clinical trials to assess toxicity and safe dosage levels of promising anticancer agents. Michael Grever, MD, chair of the Department of Internal Medicine and co-leader of the OSUCCC’s Experimental Therapeutics Program, is principal investigator for the grant, a renewal of a $1.92 million NCI grant awarded to the OSUCCC-James in 2003. Ohio State is one of only 14 institutions selected by the NCI to receive a grant contract specifically for conducting phase I studies, and one of only five in the nation to hold NCI contracts for conducting both phase I and phase II clinical trials on new anticancer agents.
  • E. Antonio Chiocca, MD, PhD, chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery and co-leader of the OSUCCC’s Viral Oncology Program, received a five-year, $5.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a project titled “Preclinical Toxicity Evaluation of a Potent Oncolytic Virus.” This project will permit the development of a promising biologic agent as a new treatment for brain cancer (malignant glioma) and allow its use in human clinical trials.
  • The OSUCCC’s level of research funding from the NCI in 2008 was $38 million, ranking 16th among all NCI-funded institutions for the year. Total external grant money for cancer research by OSUCCC scientists is $11.5 million.
  • U.S.News & World Report ranked Ohio State’s James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute 19th among America’s Best Hospitals for cancer care – the 10th consecutive year that the hospital has made the U.S. News top 50 list.
  • The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest scientific organization, elected six more OSUCCC members as fellows for their efforts to further science within their disciplines. Elected were: Steven Clinton, MD, PhD; Tsonwin Hai, PhD; Randall Harris, MD, PhD; Rebecca Jackson, MD; Lawrence Schlesinger, PhD; and John Sheridan, DDS, PhD.
  • OSUCCC members receiving other national or international awards in 2008 included: Carlo Croce, MD, director of the Human Cancer Genetics Program, who received the Leopold Griffuel Prize from the French Association for Cancer Research for work that has led to major breakthroughs in cancer; Clara D. Bloomfield, MD, a Distinguished University Professor, cancer scholar and senior adviser to the OSUCCC-James, who received the Henry M. Stratton Award from the American Society of Hematology (ASH) for scientific contributions to hematology over a period of years; Michael A. Caligiuri, MD, director of the OSUCCC and CEO of The James, who was elected to the National Cancer Institute’s Board of Scientific Advisers; and Michael Lairmore, DVM, PhD, the OSUCCC’s associate director for basic research, who was elected vice president/president-elect of the American College of Veterinary Pathologists.

Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center
A458 Starling Loving Hall
320 W. 10th Avenue
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 293-7517