NCI renews support for major thyroid-cancer research effort at Ohio State

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded a five-year, $11.3 million grant to a team of researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) to further their studies on thyroid cancer.

Principal investigator Matthew D. Ringel, MD, professor of medicine and a member of the OSUCCC – James Molecular Biology and Cancer Genetics (MBCG) Program, leads the NCI Program Project Grant (CA124570). The new grant is a continuation of a study that ran from 2008 through 2013 entitled "Genetic and Signaling Pathways in Epithelial Thyroid Cancer."

The study has four integrated projects:

• "Genes in the Predisposition to Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma," led by Albert de la Chapelle, MD, PhD, co-leader of the OSUCCC – James MBCG Program;
• "Genetic Alterations That Initiate Follicular Thyroid Carcinogenesis," led by Charis Eng, MD, PhD, at the Cleveland Clinic, and co-led by Lawrence Kirschner, MD, PhD, of the OSUCCC-James MBCG Program;
• "Selective Modulation of Thyroidal Radioiodine Accumulation," led by Sissy Jhiang, PhD, of the OSUCCC – James MBCG Program;
• "P21-Activated Kinase in Thyroid Cancer" led by Ringel, a member of the OSUCCC-James MBCG Program and director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Ohio State.

In addition, the Program Project Grant funds three shared-resource cores:

Provided by Ohio State University Medical Center