Research and Education Newsletter v35- Internal - Flipbook - Page 5
Division of Radiation Oncology Annual Research and Education Newsletter: Fiscal Year 2020
Empathy and Impact:
Partnering with Dedicated Community
Leaders in the Fight Against Cancer
PHILANTHROPY
Don Childress is a family man,
entrepreneur, pilot and cancer survivor. He
received radiation therapy as part of his
care at MD Anderson. Although his cancer
was cured, he endured significant side
effects from treatment. The extraordinary
level of care, positive treatment outcome,
and overall experience with physicians and
staff left a lasting impression on him and
his wife, Sidney Childress — so much so
that they were motivated to support the
Radiation Oncology Strategic Initiatives
(ROSI), a road map for the division’s
research and educational priorities.
The Childresses, who have been supporting
MD Anderson since 2017, made a gift of
$1 million from The J. Donald Childress
Foundation Inc., to support these
promising projects.
“If patients after me can receive
radiation therapy and get the
same results with less side effects
— well, I think this is a worthwhile
cause,” says Childress. Reflecting
two of the Childresses’ core
priorities, empathy and impact,
the gift will enable our faculty and
researchers to catalyze additional
new projects and initiatives that
may not yet be positioned for
conventional federal or state
funding, but that potentially
and ultimately could redefine
radiation treatment planning and
standards of care.
Head and neck cancers are generally hard
to treat with radiation therapy as it can
be harmful to these sensitive areas. This
disease site serves as a good model for
the Taniguchi lab to answer the above
question. With support from the Childress
gift, the research team conducted studies
to test a class of drugs called CDK4/6
inhibitors that could potentially protect
normal tissue from radiation damage.
They tested this drug in an animal model
and discovered that these inhibitors
appear to protect different types of normal
tissue from radiation-induced injury.
Understanding, and ultimately leveraging,
the radioprotective activities of these Food
and Drug Administration-approved drugs
would be transformative.
M.D., associate professor, and radiation
physicist Gabriel Sawakuchi, Ph.D.,
associate professor, co-lead the predictive
biomarkers pillar, a ROSI pillar aimed
at expanding the division’s biomarker
infrastructure and collection for robust
translational research toward patient care.
Recognized for its critical role in our overall
research mission, the Biomarker Initiative
is also a beneficiary of the foundational
support from the Childresses. “This gift has
made possible several biomarker studies
that otherwise would not have launched
without this resource,” Shaitelman says.
With a laboratory up and running, and
the scientific partnership across radiation
oncology and radiation physics, the
biomarker team has established
best practices to safely and
efficiently collect, process and
store high-quality biospecimens.
“These are really precious
resources that patients are
donating to us,” says Shaitelman.
Our investigators across the
division collaborate to design
and include certain biomarkers
and correlative studies in their
clinical trials in an effort to
optimally utilize the invaluable,
but limited, patient samples
and the gift toward answering
fundamental scientific questions.
In collecting and, in phase two of
this strategic initiative, analyzing
these specimens, our radiation
oncologists will be able to predict
A spotlight on drug candidates
radiation responsiveness in
with radioprotective effects
patients specific to their type of
Physician-scientist Cullen
cancer. “Ideally, as we identify
Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D., associate
biomarkers, we can build a
Gabriel Sawakuchi, Ph.D. (left) and Cullen Taniguchi, M.D., Ph.D. (right) Image taken
professor, was recruited to
system that can guide physician
pre COVID-19 pandemic (5/9/2018)
MD Anderson from Stanford
treatment planning,” Shaitelman
University in 2014 as a prestigious
says.
“We’re
not there yet, but that’s the
“This generous gift has enabled us to
Cancer Prevention and Research Institute
vision — to incorporate biomarker data and
continue our fight against cancer,”says
of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar. He specializes
information into treatment planning.” With
Taniguchi. The next steps in this
in treating pancreatic cancer, a largely
this ambitious goal realized, our radiation
challenging
fight
are
aimed
at
validating
intractable disease that is difficult to detect
oncologists will have additional tools at
and translating these significant laboratory
in a timely manner and has a five-year
their disposal in developing advanced
results
to
clinical
fruition
as
quickly
and
survival rate of only 5% to 10%.
levels of care for patients.
safely as possible.
Taniguchi’s team of researchers focuses on,
“Gifts such as the one from the Childresses
Accelerating radiation oncology
among various research areas, discovering
can be transformative in improving cancer
translational
research
through
the
and understanding new and creative ways
care,” says Division Head and Chair of the
biomarker
initiative
to minimize the side effects of radiation
Department of Radiation Oncology, Albert
A
biomarker,
a
blend
of
the
words
therapy. “Traditional approaches often
Koong, M.D., Ph.D. “When we are able to
“biological
marker,”
is
any
substance
found
ask how much treatment a patient can
fast-track a project such as those within
in
the
body
that
can
be
measured
and
‘tolerate’ without signicant harm,”
ROSI, the real benefit is to patients, whose
studied to make a number of predictions
Taniguchi explains. “Our lab, on the other
treatment will reflect the application of
or
conclusions
related
to
disease
onset,
hand, takes a different approach and asks
newly acquired knowledge,” he says. “We
treatment efficacy and outcomes. Thus,
instead: How can we make our current
are grateful that Don and Sidney placed
biomarkers are an incredibly powerful part
treatments more effective by reducing the
their confidence in us.”
of our toolkit. Radiation oncologist and
bad side effects?”
physician-scientist Simona Shaitelman,
Don and Sidney Childress Image taken pre COVID-19 pandemic
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