Led by Michael Caligiuri, MD, the Cancer Signature Program is embodied in The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC), one of only 40 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the nation. The patient-care component of the OSUCCC is the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (The James), for which Caligiuri serves as CEO.
The OSUCCC, which is also directed by Caligiuri, is a network of six interdisciplinary cancer-related research programs that collectively comprise more than 275 faculty investigators representing 12 colleges at Ohio State. Their overall goal is to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality through basic, clinical, prevention and population scientific research that translates
to improved patient care, thus advancing the Cancer Signature Program’s mission of becoming a world-class healthcare enterprise focused on improving quality of life for patients
with cancer in Ohio and beyond.
Cancer Signature Program highlights of 2007
- The OSUCCC maintained nearly $36.88 million in NCI
funding for cancer research. Total external grant funding for
cancer research in the OSUCCC exceeds $110 million.
- The OSUCCC recruited 17 cancer researchers.
- More than 350 cancer clinical trials were open, including 100
that were opened in 2007.
- The NCI awarded OSUCCC researchers $10 million over
five years to study and manipulate the human body’s innate
immunological ability to battle cancer. The money is a
renewal of a $9.5 million program project grant the NCI
awarded in 2002 to a team led by Michael Caligiuri, MD. The
original grant involved four interactive projects separately
led by Caligiuri, John Byrd, MD, William Carson II , MD, and
Susheela Tridandapani, PhD.
- The NCI awarded a $7 million, five-year grant to help
OSUCCC scientists and collaborators at other institutions
discover natural anticancer compounds in plants from distant
jungles. The principal investigator is A. Douglas Kinghorn,
PhD, the Jack L. Beal Professor and Chair in the College of
Pharmacy and a researcher in Ohio State’s Comprehensive
Cancer Center. Kinghorn says the goal is to discover chemicals
in tropical rainforest plants, as well as in cyanobacteria
(blue-green algae) and fungi, that can be developed as cancer
chemotherapeutic agents, particularly for tumors that are
currently incurable.
- The Wright Center of Innovation in Biomedical Imaging at
OSUMC received a $1.5 million grant from the Foundation
of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study and
establish imaging biomarkers for predicting effective medical
treatments. The principal investigator is Michael Knopp, MD,
PhD, a professor of Radiology and member of Ohio State’s
Comprehensive Cancer Center.
- The OSUCCC-James received a $1.25 million, five-year grant
from the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) to develop
a cancer survivorship center at Ohio State, bolster cancer
research in survivorship, and expand educational and
support services for survivors as part of the LAF’s Livestrong
Survivorship Center of Excellence Network. Charles Shapiro,
MD, director of breast medical oncology at The James and a
member of the OSUCCC’s Cancer Control Program, directs
the new survivorship center. Electra Paskett, PhD, MSPH,
associate director for population sciences at the OSUCCC
and co-leader of the Cancer Control Program, co-directs
the survivorship center.
- U.S.News & World Report ranked Ohio State’s James Cancer
Hospital and Solove Reseach Institute 15th among America’s
Best Hospitals and No. 1 in Ohio. It was the highest U.S. News
ranking ever for The James, which is the patient-care
component of the OSUCCC.