The Tobacco and Environmental Carcinogenesis Program was established as a result of the ACC Strategic Planning Process undertaken in 2007. At that time the Cancer Epidemiology and Risk Reduction Program was reconfigured and renamed to reflect our trans-disciplinary research efforts to address health issues related to tobacco, asbestos, and polycyclic hydrocarbons as environmental carcinogens and in tobaccorelated risk reduction. With Caryn Lerman taking on the role as Deputy Director ofthe Cancer Center, new leadership was required. Dr. Lerman was replaced by Steven Albelda, M.D. and Trevor Penning, Ph.D. Dr. Albelda is a leading expert in mesothelioma and thoracic malignancies, and Dr. Penning is an internationally renowned expert on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon carcinogenesis. These leaders are experienced, wellfunded investigators who are highly collaborative, as evidenced by their NIH POl, P50 and P30 grants. The TEC Program seeks to elucidate the relationships between cancer and exposure to known environmental carcinogens by studying the molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis, developing and validating biomarkers of carcinogen exposure and response, determining genetic susceptibility to carcinogens, and improving strategies for the prevention, eariy detection and intervention of cancers with environmental causality. The initial focus ofthe program is on the etiology and prevention of tobacco- and asbestos-related cancers, particulariy lung cancer, head and neck cancer, and mesothelioma. The cancer prevention focus includes studies on why people smoke, smoking cessation, and hence the prevention of the cancer initiation process. This research theme provides a solid foundation on which to build studies that relate exposures to environmental carcinogens to cancers in other organ systems. These collaborative research efforts are facilitated by the Program Leaders, multiple research retreats, monthly program meetings and seminars, and Pilot Project grants. Members of this program utilize multiple Shared Resources, with extensive use of the Biostatistics, Biomedical Data Coordination, Genomics, and Proteomics Cores. Further, members of this program were actively involved in the development ofthe new Recruitment Outcomes Assessment Resource (ROAR) Shared Facility, which has been highly valuable for ongoing case-control and gene-environment interaction studies. Future plans are to expand the TEC program to include other cancers with environmental causality, increase strength in environmental epidemiology and introduce new research themes in cancer chemoprevention and lung cancer stem cells. The 16 members in the TEC Program have $7,732,268 in research funding (Annual Direct Costs) of which $7,392,900 is peer-reviewed and $3,739,865 is NCI-funded. Among the many multi-investigator grants are the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Nicotine Addiction (which has research themes in the molecular and behavioral mechanisms of smoking cessation) and the Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (which has research themes in lung and airway disease, oxidative stress and gene-environment interactions). Members have published 317 cancer-related articles, with 30% being intra-programmatic and 26% being inter-programmatic.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Center Core Grants (P30)
Project #
5P30CA016520-38
Application #
8593261
Study Section
Subcommittee G - Education (NCI)
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2013-12-01
Budget End
2014-11-30
Support Year
38
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$117,845
Indirect Cost
$86,401
Name
University of Pennsylvania
Department
Type
DUNS #
042250712
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19104
Yam, Clinton; Xu, Xiaowei; Davies, Michael A et al. (2018) A Multicenter Phase I Study Evaluating Dual PI3K and BRAF Inhibition with PX-866 and Vemurafenib in Patients with Advanced BRAF V600-Mutant Solid Tumors. Clin Cancer Res 24:22-32
Huang, Mo; Wang, Jingshu; Torre, Eduardo et al. (2018) SAVER: gene expression recovery for single-cell RNA sequencing. Nat Methods 15:539-542
Rebecca, Vito W; Nicastri, Michael C; Fennelly, Colin et al. (2018) PPT1 promotes tumor growth and is the molecular target of chloroquine derivatives in cancer. Cancer Discov :
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Jang, Jeong Hoon; Manatunga, Amita K; Taylor, Andrew T et al. (2018) Overall indices for assessing agreement among multiple raters. Stat Med 37:4200-4215
Garfall, Alfred L; Stadtmauer, Edward A; Hwang, Wei-Ting et al. (2018) Anti-CD19 CAR T cells with high-dose melphalan and autologous stem cell transplantation for refractory multiple myeloma. JCI Insight 3:
Romero, Sally A D; Brown, Justin C; Bauml, Joshua M et al. (2018) Barriers to physical activity: a study of academic and community cancer survivors with pain. J Cancer Surviv 12:744-752
Scheel, John R; Kim, Eunhee; Partridge, Savannah C et al. (2018) MRI, Clinical Examination, and Mammography for Preoperative Assessment of Residual Disease and Pathologic Complete Response After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer: ACRIN 6657 Trial. AJR Am J Roentgenol 210:1376-1385
Li, Jinyang; Byrne, Katelyn T; Yan, Fangxue et al. (2018) Tumor Cell-Intrinsic Factors Underlie Heterogeneity of Immune Cell Infiltration and Response to Immunotherapy. Immunity 49:178-193.e7
Hinderer, Christian; Katz, Nathan; Buza, Elizabeth L et al. (2018) Severe Toxicity in Nonhuman Primates and Piglets Following High-Dose Intravenous Administration of an Adeno-Associated Virus Vector Expressing Human SMN. Hum Gene Ther 29:285-298

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