‘Dream Team’ Including La Jollans Gets ‘Stand Up to Cancer’ $7M Grant

The director of the Moores Cancer Center and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute — both in La Jolla — will be part of a group that received a four-year, $7 million grant to develop new ways to prevent pancreatic cancer, it was announced Thursday.

Joining colleagues at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas, Johns Hopkins University in Maryland and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, they’ll form a “dream team” to fight the lethal disease.

Dr. Scott Lippman, the director of the Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego, accepted the award from Stand Up to Cancer, a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation, at a conference in Philadelphia.

While his team, including J. Craig Venter, will focus on prevention, another “dream team” formed two years ago is looking into improved treatment. The first group includes Dr. Andrew Lowy and Tannishtha Reya of the Moores Center.

“Because pancreatic cancer occurs deep within the body, it’s hard to detect early,” Lippman said.

“Doctors can’t see or feel tumors during routine physical exams,” Lippman said. “There is no simple blood test for persons without symptoms. By the time symptoms appear, such as weight loss or abdominal discomfort, the disease has likely progressed and metastasized, which of course makes it deadlier.”

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths, even though it’s responsible for just 3 percent of cases, according to the American Cancer Institute. Among those who’ve died of pancreatic cancer in recent years are Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, actors Patrick Swayze and Alan Rickman, and, locally, astronaut Sally Ride and Padres bullpen coach Darrel Akerfelds.

Lippman said the new grant seeks to find ways of fending off disease before treatment is required.

“Before there is cancer, there are often red flags, such as lesions or bits of abnormal tissue,” he said. “Sometimes these lesions don’t change and remain benignly abnormal. They may even regress. But sometimes they transform into cancer.”

— City News Service

‘DREAM TEAM’ INCLUDING LA JOLLANS GETS ‘STAND UP TO CANCER’ $7M GRANT was last modified: October 26th, 2017 by Ken Stone