This evening, the President gave his annual address to Congress and called for a freeze in domestic spending while at the same time calling for innovation and acknowledging the importance of biomedical research.

“As someone who is committed to winning the fight against cancer, I was pleased to hear the President talk about the importance of innovation. However, it is counterproductive to proclaim that ‘this is our generation’s Sputnik moment’ while calling for a spending freeze for domestic programs.

Now is not the time for across the board cuts to domestic spending. If we are going to find a cure for cancer in our lifetimes, we need a sustained investment in proven research programs – programs that encourage innovation and ensure discoveries make it from bench to bedside as quickly as possible.

On behalf of the thousands of Americans who will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer this year and on behalf of the millions of Americans living with colorectal cancer I urge the President and Congress to renew the fight against cancer with smart and sustained investments in biomedical research that will not only save thousands of lives but encourage innovation and help stimulate the economy by creating much-needed jobs.”

- Carlea Bauman, President of the Colorectal Cancer Coalition

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Each year, the Colorectal Cancer Coalition, in conjunction with the American Association for Cancer Research, awards a research grant to a scientist exploring cutting edge ways to combat late stage colorectal cancer.

Dr. Rona Yaeger at work in her lab

The grant is fully funded through donations to the Coalition’s Lisa Fund, named after one of our founders, Lisa Dubow. The 2010 grant went to Dr. Rona Yaeger, a researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Coalition Board member Dr. Steven Depp, his wife Bonnie and Dr. Rona Yaeger

Last week, Coalition Board member Dr. Steven Depp, his wife Bonnie and I were invited into Dr. Yaeger’s lab. We watched her set up her gel electrophoresis apparatus to separate proteins. It is part of her goal to inhibit key signaling pathways in colorectal cancer.

Watching her research in action – especially research that we are responsible for – was a real thrill and we told Dr. Yaeger so. We all felt quite honored to be in that lab with her.

And, make no mistake, when I say “research we are responsible for,” I’m talking about every person who has contributed to the Lisa Fund. I wish we could have had all of you in there with us; you were certainly there in our hearts.

Help this research continue! Make a donation to the Lisa Fund today. Thank you so very much.

Since many of you know that I was trained in Germany, I have a surprising number of patients asking me if there are better therapies in Germany or in Europe than in the US.

Because of my role in clinical research and laboratory research I am invited to give lectures around the world about the latest in colon cancer research. In the last 12 months, I gave lectures in Japan, China, India, Germany, Spain, Portugal. Israel, Brazil, Argentina, Switzerland, and Greece. It is not easy to travel through so many time zones, but it is very important to understand different cultures and different ways that colon cancer patients are treated in Asia and Europe. The rest of the world is looking at us for what we do in colon cancer research. Read the rest of this entry »

Dr. Jeffrey Chou

Jeffrey Chou, M.D.,Ph.D., is the recipient of the 2009 AACR-Colorectal Cancer Coalition Fellows Grant in memory of Lisa Dubow.

Dr. Chou, a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center at the University of Washington in Seattle, will study how to make colorectal cancer stem cells more vulnerable to the body’s immune system.

The award will be made at the AACR’s 100th Annual Meeting in Denver.  Funds for the grant were raised by C3 through the Lisa Fund. Donations to the fund are targeted for research to develop treatments for patients with late-stage colorectal cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Jeffrey Chou, M.D., Ph.D.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center at the University of Washington

Epigenetic modulation of colorectal cancer stem cells for immunotherapy

Grant amount: $30,000

As the recipient of the 2009 Lisa Dubow Research Fellows Grant, Jeffrey Chou, M.D., Ph.D. will study ways to make colorectal cancer stem cells more vulnerable to the body’s own immune system.

He will be working with both cell cultures and specially-bred mice to see if the drug decitabine can increase levels of a specific protein that induces a strong immune response.  If so, a combination of decitabine and a vaccine against that protein might be an effective treatment for advanced colorectal cancer.

In his proposal, Dr. Chou writes,

“Despite advances in surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, the majority of patients with advanced or metastatic disease ultimately die from their cancer. Treatment failures in colorectal cancer may be due to incomplete elimination of the colorectal cancer stem cell which can initiate and sustain tumor growth. Thus, an urgent need exists for the development of better systemic therapies which target the colorectal cancer stem cell.”

Colorectal tumors are composed of different cell types. A small number of tumor cells have the ability to move from where they first developed to new sites in the body to establish new tumors. Cells with this property are called cancer initiating stem cells. These cells are particularly resistant to chemotherapy. Even if 99 percent of a tumor is killed by chemo or other therapy, but cancer stem cells remain, the tumor will grow back and continue to spread.

Find new ways of targeting and destroying colorectal cancer stem cells may lead to new and more effective treatment for colorectal cancer.

One way to destroy cancer stem cells is to harness the body’s own immune system to recognize them as a threat and eliminate them.  Ordinarily, the immune system accepts the proteins in cancer as a normal part of the body and basically ignores them.

However special proteins known as cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) stimulate an immune response in many cancers.  CTAs are only found in cells in the testicles, where they are invisible to the immune system, and in some cancers.  Because they are not found in normal tissue outside of testes, an immune system attack on cells with CTA can target cancer and leave healthy cells alone, ideal for cancer treatment.

Unfortunately, colorectal cancer cells have very low levels of CTAs so treatments for advanced colorectal cancer that evoke immune response (immunotherapy) haven’t been very effective. However, preliminary data show that the drug decitabine increases CTA levels in many types of cancers allowing  immune system cells to recognize and kill them.

One cancer/testis antigen (NY-ESO-1) induces strong immune responses in cancer cells.  Immune cells called cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) that can specifically recognize and kill cells producing NY-ESO-1 have been discovered.  When colorectal cancer cells are treated with decitabine in the laboratory NY-ESO-1-specific CTLs kill the cancer cells but not normal or untreated cells.

Dr. Chou is planning to build on this knowledge in his research, asking three questions:

• Will treating colorectal cancer stem cell cultures with decitabine increase the levels of NY-ESO-1 in those cells?
• If colorectal cancer cells are treated with decitabine and immunotherapy (cytotoxic T lymphocytes) and transplanted into mice, will the mice develop cancer?
• Can treating mice who already have cancerous tumors with decitabine slow tumor growth or destroy those tumors completely?

If successful, Dr. Chou’s basic research with colorectal cancer cells and mice may lead to effective vaccine therapies for colorectal cancer, killing the stem cells that keep it from being completely eliminated by conventional treatments.

The choice of Dr. Chou’s proposal for the 2009 award was made in collaboration with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) as part of its Fellows Grants Program for talented young investigators.

Lisa Dubow dreamed of a day when even the most dangerous and deadly colorectal cancer could be cured. You can help Fight Colorectal Cancer make those dreams come true by supporting the work of imaginative young cancer researchers by investing in the Lisa Fund.