Title:AIDS Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) (Limited Competition U01)

Contact:

Rebecca Liddell Huppi, Ph.D.
AIDS Malignancy Program
Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis
National Cancer Institute
6120 Executive Boulevard, EPS
Room 6114, MSC 7204
Bethesda MD 20892-7204
Telephone: 301/496-4995
Fax: 301/480-4137
E-mail: liddellr@exchange.nih.gov

Objective of Project:

The AIDS Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) limited competition RFA is intended to continue support for the three regional sites (East Coast- George Washington University; Mid-Region- Ohio State University; and West Coast- University of California, San Francisco) and the Central Operations and Data Coordinating Center (CODCC- University of California, San Francisco) of the ACSR. The ACSR was established by the NCI in 1992 to acquire, store and equitably distribute tumor tissues and biological fluids from patients with HIV-associated malignancies. Along with its resource duties, the ACSR has become a national repository of specimens that reflects changes in the HIV/AIDS epidemic over time and thus reflects the history of malignancies associated with HIV disease in an aging population undergoing various antiretroviral treatment modalities. Specimens and data from the resource have been made available to the research community-at-large at no cost, with the intent that the availability of such specimens will enable investigators to identify therapeutic targets and gain further insight into the pathogenesis and treatment of cancer in the HIV-infected population.

Description of Project:

In the US alone, there are an estimated 988,000 people living with AIDS (2005 HIV/AIDS Surveillance Report, CDC). The success of highly active anti-retroviral treatment (HAART) has led to a decrease in death due to opportunistic infections and has led to a reduced incidence of some AIDS-associated cancers such as Kaposi sarcoma. However, HAART’s impact on the incidence of other malignancies such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma has been marginal, and the incidence of some cancers (e.g., Hodgkin’s lymphomas) appear to have increased in the post HAART era. Despite the success of HAART, death due to cancer continues to rank as the second or the third cause of mortality among HIV-infected patients; as many as 28-30% of deaths in this population are attributed to cancer. Prospective and longitudinal samples across the time-line of the HIV/AIDS crisis are pivotal to understanding the epidemic and its impact on cancer incidence. These samples are also critical for supporting necessary studies of emerging non-AIDS defining cancers such as anogenital and lung cancers in HIV+ patients. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is a global issue. Developing countries face an increasing burden of HIV-associated cancers in their growing HIV+ populations. A goal of the resource will be to proactively develop tissue collections that include samples from other world regions with a large HIV burden. Through active international collaborations, the resource will be poised to capture the heterogeneity in types of cancer associated with HIV. These international links will help the scientific community better understand the biological basis of genetic and environmental factors that impinge upon ethnic and geographical differences in cancer incidence.