The Karmanos Cancer Institutes and Wayne State University have received a $3 million research grant to help combat one of the most lethal forms of cancer -- triple negative breast cancer.
The
National Institutes of Health grant will help fund a five-year study into a new immunotherapy treatment for women with triple negative breast cancer at
Karmanos Cancer Institute in Midtown. A research team with members from both Karmanos and Wayne State is conducting a Phase II clinical trial into boosting immune system cells so they can both kill cancer cells, reduce tumor size and prevent them from growing further.
Researchers believe this trial will help determine if this treatment combination increases the complete pathological response – meaning the elimination of all disease -- at the time of surgery. Currently the team of 15 people is working on the study, and that team expects to hire a few new members thanks to this grant.
"We're going to need to recruit some more clinical coordinator people ," says Dr. Lawrence G Lum, a
Wayne State professor of oncology and medicine and principal investigator of this study.
Source: Dr. Lawrence G Lum, a Wayne State professor of oncology and medicine
Writer: Jon Zemke
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