The proposed planning grant is to develop the Oral Cancer Prevention Research and Treatment Center (OCPRTC) at the University of Pittsburgh. This institution already has in place substantial resources, capabilities, and innovative research and clinical activities of direct relevance to oral cancer, including: Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, and Public Health; an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center that has bee highly successful in the decade since establishment, now ranking fifth nationally in level of NCI funding; many highly productive faculty with expertise in molecular carcinogenesis, cell biology, immunology, epidemiology biostatistics, biological and gene therapy, behavioral medicine, and clinical oncology. The main objectives of the planning for the OCPRTC will be to integrate all such existing expertise and resources and to stimulate and facilitate close communications and planning of highly collaborative programs and activities, with an emphasis on translational research of importance to clinical oral cancer and in education and dissemination of high quality clinical care to the region. The Center will be organized as a multidisciplinary matrix organization, with direct reporting relationship and empowerment from the top administrative levels of the University, and it will have the ability to gamer needed additional resources to complement those already in place. Specifically, the OCPRTC will organize two basic research programs, Molecular Carcinogenesis and Cell Biology, and Mucosal Immunology; a program in Oral Cancer Prevention and Control and a Clinical Investigations Program, together with core resource facilities devoted to Administration, Tissue Procurement, Clinical Support, and Biostatistics. Some faculty with relevant expertise will serve in more than one program, to maximize collaborations between programs and particularly to ensure efficient translation research between the basic research and clinical or prevention/control programs. The overall goal of the development of the OCPRTC will be to make a substantial impact on decreasing morbidity and mortality from oral cancer.
| Saunders, W S; Shuster, M; Huang, X et al. (2000) Chromosomal instability and cytoskeletal defects in oral cancer cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 97:303-8 |
