Dr. Pia Morelli with Fight Colorectal Cancer Board Chair Nancy Roach

Fight Colorectal Cancer and its generous Lisa Fund donors struck a blow against late stage colorectal cancer Tuesday, April 9th at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in Washington D.C.

Top cancer researchers from around the nation applauded as we, along with the AACR, awarded a $50,000 research grant to Pia Morelli, M.D., Ph.D., a post-doctoral Fellow at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

With this grant, Dr. Morelli will use highly specific DNA tests on blood samples to identify those patients most likely to respond to drugs that target the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR), and also to detect even more specific KRAS and EGFR mutations that develop over time, which perhaps cause patients to eventually become resistant to anti-EGFR drugs such as Erbitux (cetuximab) and Vectibix (panitumumab).

Currently, tumors of late-stage colorectal cancer patients are tested to detect a KRAS genetic mutation. If they have the mutation, they do not receive Erbitux or Vectibix. However, even those who have wild-type (non-mutated) KRAS and initially respond to anti-EGFR treatments can develop resistance and no longer benefit from these powerful drugs.

Researchers now understand that cancer is usually a “cascade” of events–often involving more than one genetic mutation and/or abnormal cell functions.–and that over time, patients may develop new mutations, even in different sections of one tumor. However, tumors are always leaking DNA into the blood stream. In her research, Dr. Morelli will analyze blood samples of colorectal cancer patients using a highly specialized new technique of DNA analysis that can detect these less frequent mutations that can occur in both the KRAS gene  and in EGFR cell-wall mutations over time, and that might cause chemotheraphy resistance. The ultimate hope would be to eventually use blood DNA analysis instead of repeated tumor biopsies to monitor cancer cell changes during disease progression and treatment.

Working at MD Anderson, she will be able to test large numbers of blood samples to see if the highly sensitive DNA analysis can better predict both initial response and/or developing resistance to the anti-EGFR targeted drugs.

Dr. Morelli graduated summa cum laude in medicine and started her medical oncology fellowship at the Second University at Naples School of Medicine, where she had the rare chance to do “translational research”—doing both patient care and  laboratory research on the EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor) and VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor receptor) that stimulate tumor growth. Recruited to the University of Colorado Cancer Center, she completed her medical oncology fellowship and a Ph.D. with world-renowned Dr. Gail Eckhardt, continuing her laboratory research into targeted drugs plus running Phase I clinical trials. She then worked two years at the Spanish National Cancer Research Center, and in 2012 came to the MD Anderson Cancer Center.

According to her supervising mentor, Scott Kopetz, M.D., Ph.D, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Morelli has “a unique insight into questions of particular clinical relevance….She is able to maximize the information derived from patient-based studies [combined with]…her unique molecular biology background.”

Her research, he said, is “anticipated to have profound impact on clinical outcomes.”

An AACR expert committee selected Dr. Morelli as winner of the 2013 Fight Colorectal Cancer-AACR Fellowship, given annually in memory of the late Lisa Dubow.

One of just a few AACR fellowships–and the only one focused on late-stage colorectal cancer–it is funded 100% by donations to the Lisa Fund at Fight Colorectal Cancer.

Lisa Dubow, one of the founding members of Fight Colorectal Cancer, directly credited researchers for giving her extra years of survival with stage IV colorectal cancer. Before her death, she launched what became known as the Lisa Fund to support young scientists who chose advanced (metastatic) colorectal cancer as their research focus.

by Mary Miller

Fight Colorectal Cancer is thrilled to announce during this holiday season that thanks to the generous donations made to the Lisa Fund, it will be awarding its first-ever two-year $100,000 grant to a scientist whose work fights advanced stage colorectal cancer.

Andrea Bertotti, MD, PhD, of the Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (IRCC) in Candiolo, Italy, has learned that his lab will receive this major grant. “His work will be ground-breaking and exactly in line with the reason Lisa Dubow created this fund—to support a promising researcher working to advance the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer,” said Carlea Bauman, president of Fight Colorectal Cancer. Fully 100 percent of donations go directly to support young scientists. Each year’s winner is selected by an expert panel of researchers, through a review process administered by the American Association for Cancer Research. Read the rest of this entry »

Photo credit: Bayer Pharmaceuticals

The FDA today approved the use of the drug regorafenib (brand name Stivarga) for patients whose metastatic colorectal cancer has progressed despite all currently approved treatment regimens.

This is the second new drug approved by the FDA recently after a drought of 5 years in approving new treatments for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Regorafenib was placed into the  FDA’s “fast-track” approval process after the international, multicenter Phase III CORRECT trial  showed improved survival (from 5 to 6.4 months) in all mCRC patients, including those having both non-mutated and mutated KRAS types. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite better screening for colorectal cancer (CRC), about 1 in 5 newly diagnosed patients will have metastatic CRC that already has spread to distant organs.  Many will have symptoms of fatigue or weight loss, but only a minority will have symptoms (significant bleeding or abdominal pain, or a blocked bowel) caused by the colon tumor itself.

In those people first diagnosed with stage IV CRC, about 80% have metastases that cannot be removed by surgery. There’s been intense debate—but no clear evidence—about whether patients whose colon tumor isn’t causing symptoms should have the colon tumor surgically removed routinely before they start chemotherapy. 

A recent important study provides the first evidence that such patients often do just as well to start systemic chemotherapy immediately without having their colon tumor surgically removed. Read the rest of this entry »

The X-PECT phase III clinical trial has finished recruiting over 430 patients, evaluating perifosine treatment for patients with advanced colorectal cancer who have exhausted standard treatments.

The trial compares the effectiveness of adding perifosine to Xeloda® (capecitabine).

Led by Johanna Bendell, M.D., from the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, TN, the trial is being conducted at 65 sites in the United States. Read the rest of this entry »