city of hope
current reseach grants:
This multiyear grant commenced in 2022 and funds two research projects headed by Dr. Elizabeth Budde and Dr. Marcucci.
Prior reseach grants:
Research Project #1: Creating More Effective Ways to Study New Treatments for Pancreatic Cancer
Dr. Priceman focuses much of his study to applying novel treatments to pancreatic cancer, one of the most treatment-resistant cancers. Immunotherapy offers an incredibly promising option for patients battling this difficult disease. To date, Dr. Priceman’s lab has studied CAR T cell therapy in basic mouse models of pancreatic cancer, but these studies haven’t demonstrated the therapy’s full impact on the patient, or how the patient’s immune system interacts with treatment and impacts its effectiveness.
The next vital step in Dr. Priceman’s research is to build better models to conduct animal research – a critical step in drug development research. By testing therapies in living systems, researchers can more precisely understand how therapies impact cancer, and how patients might respond. Dr. Priceman plans to build mouse models that would more closely replicate a patient’s cancer and surrounding immune system, then test already-developed immunotherapies in those models. He has already begun to develop two such complex systems.
Research Project #2: Immunotherapy targeting CCR4 for T Cell Lymphoma
This multiyear grant commenced in 2018 and is directed to Dr. L. Elizabeth Budde. Dr. Budde’s research aims to develop a novel immunotherapeutic strategy using genetically engineered chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting CCR4, a protein on both the tumor cells and immunosuppressive cells in the tumor promoting environment, for patients with T cell lymphoma and other CCR4+ lymphoma.
T cell lymphoma is a heterogeneous group of lymphoma which comprises 10 to 15% of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Most T cell lymphoma are aggressive and not curable by conventional therapy due to lack of therapeutic standard of care and limited prospective clinical studies to provide scientific treatment guidance. The median survival for patients with T cell lymphoma is one to three years. The therapeutic options for T cell lymphoma at relapsed or refractory setting are extremely limited with none offering higher than a 30% response rate. If the approach works in clinical trials, it has the potential to lead to long term remission and cure for T cell lymphoma patients.
Research Project #3: CAR T Cell Therapy for CNS Lymphoma
The grant commenced in 2019 and is directed to Dr Xiuli Wang towards the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) lymphoma. CNS lymphoma is a lymphoid malignancy in which tumors from the lymph tissue start in the brain, spinal cord and/or eyes (primary CNSL) or present as the result of metastasis from initial systemic sites to the CNS (secondary CNSL). Only a few chemotherapeutic drugs can cross the blood brain barrier and achieve a therapeutic concentration in the CNS, and patients with CNS lymphoma are faced with limited treatment options.
Recent clinical trials have shown efficient migration of systemically delivered CAR T cells to the brain through the blood brain barrier (BBB). However, it is reasonable to think that CAR T cell migration to the brain is positively correlated with both the dose of infusion and level of CAR T cell expansion in the peripheral blood, factors which are also closely related to the severity of side effects. Although the required levels of CAR T cells in brain for effective treatment of CNS lymphoma remains unknown, relying on an increased systemic CAR T cell dose for CNS lymphoma treatment is unreliable. Our studies are attempting to treat CNS lymphoma by direct delivery of the CAR T cells into the cerebral ventricular space within the brain, thereby improving efficacy and avoiding side effects associated with systemic infusion of CAR T cells.
Back to our grants
Current Grant
$750,000
Grant Term
Four Years
Cumulative Grants
$2,075,000