Project Details
Description
NEURO-ONCOLOGY PROGRAM PROJECT SUMMARY
The primary goals of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center (MCCC) Neuro-Oncology (NONC) Program are to identify
underpinning pathogenic mechanisms of brain tumor biology and to develop interventions that result in
improved duration and quality of life for patients with brain cancer. To achieve this goal, work within the
Program can be divided into 3 Specific Aims. 1) Brain Tumor Biology where investigations will define basic
mechanisms of brain tumor biology and unique tumor vulnerabilities that can be exploited in the other 2 Aims;
2) Biomarkers that can be used in clinical practice to provide patients and physicians with greater
understanding of prognosis and to guide optimal, personalized therapeutic interventions for brain tumors; 3)
Novel Therapeutic Strategies to improve response and survival duration, reduce disease symptoms, and
improve quality of life of patients with brain tumors. Notable accomplishments of the Program in the last
funding period include a) seminal contributions towards the discovery of genetic loci associated with brain
tumorigenesis; b) development and characterization of FDOPA PET imaging as an improved targeting strategy
for surgical and radiotherapy planning for gliomas; c) use of patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models to define
predictive biomarkers for response to combination therapies; d) continued integrated genomic, transcriptomic
and proteomic analyses of patient derived xenografts and glioma stem-like cell cultures (GSCs) as an
institutional and national resource. Drs. Jann Sarkaria (Mayo Clinic in Rochester), Joseph Loftus (Mayo Clinic
in Arizona), and Steven Rosenfeld (Mayo Clinic in Florida) provide leadership of the Program. They receive
input from the NONC Executive Committee whose membership spans all 3 MCCC sites and encompasses
diverse scientific expertise in neuro-pathology, neuro-oncology, tumor biology, neurosurgery, radiation
oncology, neuro-radiology and biostatistics. The Program makes extensive use of CCSG-supported Shared
Resources, particularly Biospecimens Accessioning and Processing, Pathology Research, Bioinformatics,
Biostatistics, Pharmacology, Survey Research, and the Clinical Research Office. The Program capitalizes on
Mayo's strengths in neurosurgery, epidemiology, molecular biology, neuropathology, and imaging, and
integrates them with Mayo Clinic's extensive clinical and clinical trial experience in treatment of primary brain
tumors. The Program comprises 24 Primary, 4 Secondary, and 10 Associate members from 14 Departments
across all 3 sites. The Program is anchored by 14 of the Primary members with R01 or equivalent peer-
reviewed funding. Recruitment in the current funding period has significantly bolstered the breadth of the
Program across all 3 sites. Total direct grant funding within the Program is $4.9M, with $2.9M in peer reviewed
funding (79% from NCI). In the past 5 years, the Program has generated 344 publications, 35% of which are
intraprogrammatic collaborations, and 18% interprogrammatic collaborations.
Status | Finished |
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Effective start/end date | 3/1/19 → 2/29/24 |
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