NCI DCP News Summary

NCI Funds 32 Grants to Continue Early Detection Research Network's
Ground-Breaking Program of Biomarker Discovery and Validation

August 30, 2010

The NCI's Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) awarded 32 new five-year grants to researchers across the country for the discovery and validation of biological markers that signal the earliest stages of cancer. The awards fund:

20 Biomarker Developmental Laboratories responsible for development and characterization of new biomarkers or refinement of existing biomarkers;
8 Clinical Validation Centers which conduct clinical research on the validation of biomarkers in early cancer detection and risk assessment, and serve as resource centers by participating in collaborative biomarker validation studies;
3 Biomarker Reference Laboratories that serve as a resource for clinical and laboratory validation of biomarkers; and a
Data Coordinating Management and Center which supports statistical and computational analyses, informatics infrastructure, and the coordination of network-wide meetings and conferences.

EDRN also has four collaborative groups that bring together scientists working on related organ sites:

The Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Collaborative Group is chaired by Steven J. Skates, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Karen Anderson, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The Colorectal and Other Gastrointestinal Cancers Collaborative Group is chaired by M. Anthony Hollingsworth, PhD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Dean Brenner, MD, of the University of Michigan.
The Lung and Upper Aerodigestive Cancers Collaborative Group is chaired by Harvey Pass, MD, of New York University School of Medicine, and Pierre Massion, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and
The Prostate and Other Urologic Cancers Collaborative Group is chaired by Mark Rubin, MD, Weill Medical College, and James Brooks, MD, of Stanford University.

While current EDRN grants focus efforts on breast, colon, lung, pancreas, prostate, and ovarian cancers, through the EDRN Associate Member program and these Collaborative Groups, investigators researching any type of cancer may propose studies.

The new Network also elected Ian Thompson, MD, of the University of Texas Health Science Center as chair and Joshua LaBaer, MD, PhD, of Arizona State University as co-chair.

Since its creation in 2000, EDRN has progressed from a ground-breaking concept to an operational success, developing more than 127 biomarkers; launching 5 validation studies and completing three; and preparing markers for prevalidation and validation studies. More than 600 publications, 28 patents, and 14 licenses have been generated by research from EDRN scientists. EDRN established clear milestones for reaching 'go' or 'no-go' decisions during the biomarker development process. Based on statistical criteria, performance characteristics of biomarkers, and anticipated clinical use, more than 100 biomarkers have been stopped from further development due to their lack of performance.

Biomarker Developmental Laboratories (Funded under RFA CA-09-017)
Principal Investigator Institution	Grant Title Cancer Type Studied
Carlo Croce, MD Ohio State University	MicroRNAs and Ultra Conserved non-coding RNAs: Biomarkers for Cancer Risk, Tumor Detection, Progression and Treatment Epithelial cancers: lung, breast, prostate, colon
Hemant Roy, MD Evanston Northwestern Healthcare Research Institute Vadim Backman, PhD Northwestern University	Spectral Markers for Early Detection of Colon Neoplasia Colon
Paul Lampe, PhD Samir Hanash, PhD Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center	Affinity-based Strategies to Fast Track Development of Colon Cancer Biomarkers Colon
Robert Getzenberg, PhD Johns Hopkins University Robert Schoen, MD, MPH University of Pittsburgh	Refinement and Discovery of Nuclear Matrix Protein Markers for Colorectal Cancer Colon and rectum
William Grady, MD Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Sanford Markowitz, MD, PhD Case Western Reserve University	Identify and Validate Novel Epigenetic Molecular Markers for Colorectal Neoplasm Colon and rectum
Daniel Liebler, PhD David Taab, PhD Vanderbilt University Medical Center	Vanderbilt Biomarker Developmental Laboratory Colon, rectum, and lung cancer
Steven Dubinett, MD David Elashoff, PhD University of California, Los Angeles Avrum Spira, MD Mark Lenburg, PhD Boston University	The UCLA-Boston University Lung Cancer Biomarker Development Laboratory. Lung
David Sidransky, MD Johns Hopkins University	Integrated Development of Novel Molecular Markers Lung
Harvey Pass, MD Margaret Huflejt, PhD New York University School of Medicine	The North American Mesothelioma Consortium Mesothelioma
Sanjiv Gambhir, MD, PhD James Brooks, MD Stanford University	New Tools for Prostate Cancer Detection and Prognostication. Prostate
Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD University of Michigan Mark Rubin, MD Weill Medical College	A Systems Biology Approach to the Development of Cancer Biomarkers: Extending work on TMPRSS2-ETS gene fusions, developing markers of disease aggression via next generation transcriptome sequencing. Prostate
Alvin Liu, PhD University of Washington	EDRN Biomarker Developmental Lab Prostate
Dan Mercola, MD, PhD University of California, Irvine Chung Lee, PhD Northwestern University	The Prostate Cancer Tumor Microenvironment Exhibits Differentially Expressed Genes Prostate
Hui Zhang, PhD Johns Hopkins University	Glycoprotein Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Aggressive Prostate Cancer Prostate
Brian Haab, PhD Van Andel Research Institute Randall Brand, MD University of Pittsburgh Peter Allen, MD Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center	Detection of Pre-invasive Pancreatic Cysts using Protein and Glycan Biomarkers. Pancreas
M. Anthony Hollingsworth, PhD Surinder Batra, PhD University of Nebraska Medical Center	Early Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer Pancreas
Ann Killary, PhD Subrata Sen, PhD Marsha Frazier, PhD The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center	Biomarkers for the Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer Pancreas
Joshua LaBaer, MD, PhD Arizona State University Karen Anderson, MD, PhD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute	Biomarker Detection using NAPPA Tumor Antigen Arrays Breast
Steven J. Skates, PhD Michael Birrer, MD,PhD Massachusetts General Hospital Rony Darpkin, MD, PhD Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Steven Carr, PhD Broad Institute	Proteomic, Genomic, and Longitudinal Pathways to Ovarian Cancer Biomarker Discovery Ovary
Eleftherios Diamandis MD, PhD Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto, Canada)	An Integrated Systems Biology Approach for Ovarian Cancer Biomarker Discovery. Ovary

Clinical Validation Centers (Funded under RFA CA-09-018)
Principal Investigator Institution	Grant Title Organ Site Focus
Dean Brenner, MD University of Michigan	Great Lakes/New England Clinical Epidemiology and Validation Esophagus, colon, other gastrointestinal markers
Paul Engstrom, MD Fox Chase Cancer Center	Fox Chase Clinical Epidemiology and Validation Center Breast, ovary
Christopher Li, MD, PhD, MPH Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center	Breast and Ovary Cancer Clinical Validation Center Breast, ovary
Jeffrey Marks, PhD Duke University	Atlantic Breast and Gynecologic Clinical Validation Center Breast, ovary, uterine cervix
Pierre Massion, MD Vanderbilt University Medical Center	Validation of Biomarkers of Risk for the Early Detection of Lung Cancer Lung
William Rom, MD, MPH New York University School of Medicine	New York University Lung Cancer Biomarker Center Lung
Martin Sanda, MD \| Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center	Harvard/Michigan/Cornell Prostate Cancer Biomarker Clinical Validation Center Prostate
Ian Thompson, MD The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio	San Antonio Center of Biomarkers of Risk for Prostate Cancer Prostate

Biomarker Reference Laboratories (Funded under RFA CA-09-019)
Principal Investigator Institution	Grant Title
Daniel Chan, PhD Johns Hopkins University	Clinical and Analytical Validation of Cancer Biomarkers
David Chia, PhD University of California, Los Angeles	The Early Detection Research Network Biomarker Resource Laboratory at UCLA
Sanford Sass, MD University of Maryland, Baltimore	University of Maryland, Baltimore Biomarker Reference Laboratory

Data Management and Coordinating Center (Funded under RFA CA-09-020)
Principal Investigator Institution	Grant Title
Ziding Feng, PhD Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center	Early Detection Research Network: Data Management and Coordinating Center

NCI DCP News Summary

NCI Funds 32 Grants to Continue Early Detection Research Network'sGround-Breaking Program of Biomarker Discovery and Validation

NCI Funds 32 Grants to Continue Early Detection Research Network's
Ground-Breaking Program of Biomarker Discovery and Validation