Using the Body’s Immune System to Fight Cancer
It is the dream of cancer scientists to simply use the body’s immune system to fight cancer.  The idea of a cancer vaccine is logical, important, and necessary.  Under the Hollings Cancer Center, a group of researchers from the Departments of Microbiology, Surgery, Biochemistry and Medicine have formed a group to do just these things.  They are developing techniques to remove patient’s immune cells and grow them in a special clean facility available at the Medical University.  Once the patient’s immune cells are in the laboratory they will be expanded and then stimulated with special molecules or viruses to teach them to fight the patient’s tumors.  When they have completed this process the patient’s own immune cells will be reinfused into the patient and go on an immunologic attack. 

The funds provided to this group of scientists will be used to begin to explore this process in detail with the goal of developing technologies to turn these immune cells into a vaccine for cancer.  These scientists will explore how to best grow the immune cells, examine the multitude of ways that they can be manipulated, and most importantly, mount a patient trial that will greatly impact on cancer patient outcome.  This is a complex effort involving multiple scientists that is highly worthy of support.

Drug Discovery Core: Turning Basic Discoveries into New Cancer Drugs
Researchers at the Hollings Cancer Center are making exciting discoveries about how cancer cells function and respond to drugs.  But, to be helpful to patients, it is necessary to use this new information to design and develop cancer drugs that are more effective and less toxic than current drugs.  This is the mission of the newly-established Drug Discovery Core at the Hollings Cancer Center.  The Drug Discovery Core provides researchers with expertise and facilities for high-throughput screening to identify compounds that can be developed into new cancer drugs.  This process is often done in large pharmaceutical companies, but is typically not available to academic researchers.  Screening in the Drug Discovery Core uses state-of-the-art robotic instrumentation to rapidly test more than 50,000 compounds for new anticancer activities.  Interesting compounds identified in the Drug Discovery Core can then be used to learn more about cancer cell biology, and, with further development, for clinical testing.  Another mission of the Drug Discovery Core is to help with the economic development of the region by generating new grant opportunities and patents that can be licensed to pharmaceutical companies or seed the development of new biotechnology companies in South Carolina.  This is an important way that the investments of the National Cancer Institute, the State of South Carolina and other sources can be leveraged to translate the important work of researchers at the Hollings Cancer Center into new drugs that will benefit many cancer patients.  The funding provided will allow a multitude of scientists to use this core and a rapid expansion of the test compound library from 50K compounds to 200K.

Unlocking the Secrets to Kidney Cancer
Kidney cancer is among the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the nation. The predominant form of kidney cancer, called renal cell carcinoma of the clear-cell type (cRCC), is also the most aggressive. cRCC is difficult to detect and is resistant to conventional cancer treatments. As a result, the patients’ chance of survival at the time of diagnosis is devastatingly low. This need not be, we believe, because up to 90% of all cRCC cases have been linked to defects in one tumor suppressor gene named VHL.  An effective treatment should have been possible based on the very specific cause of disease. However, therapeutic strategies based on the prevailing understanding of the gene function in kidney cancer have proved very disappointing.

In this light, it is noteworthy that Hollings Cancer Center scientists have a unique opportunity to make paradigm-breaking contributions to combating this devastating cancer. Several Hollings Cancer Center scientists have long-standing interests in kidney physiology and disease, and have established early important work.  Therefore a kidney tumor working group was formed in 2005; bringing together several accomplished as well as young and promising scientists to tackle this enigmatic disease.  The funds supplied will enable this group to further their experiments into the mechanism by which kidney cancers grow. 

Recent studies from this group have identified a previously unknown function of the kidney tumor gene VHL.  This new finding explains how VHL mutation results in the presence of abnormal proteins on the cell surface, therefore providing clues as to why the renal tumors are more aggressive in response to growth factors in the surroundings and why they are non-responsive to many drugs. This has generated quite a buzz in the kidney tumor research community and put the Hollings Cancer Center group at the forefront of the fight against renal tumors.

Our Hollings Cancer Center Kidney Group adopted a comprehensive approach in achieving our goal of developing effective new treatment for this disease. We have brought together clinicians, experts in cancer therapy, cell and molecular biologists, and pharmaceutical scientists, and incorporated a state-of-the-art animal-study facility to expedite new drug testing.  Funds provided will support the effort to understand and treat kidney cancer.

Insights into the Molecular Underpinnings of Chronic Lymphyocytic Leukemia
A multidisciplinary group of nationally recognized investigators at the Hollings Cancer Center is developing a comprehensive research initiative that integrates basic and clinical studies aimed at identifying the molecular changes that lead to the development of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Their ultimate goal is to discover and test novel drugs for the treatment of CLL. This translational research program represents a collaborative effort between basic (Drs. Daniel Fernandes and Eleanor Spicer, Biochemistry; Dr. Doahong Zhou, Pathology), translational (Dr. Andrew Kraft, Medicine), and clinical (Dr. Robert Stuart, Medicine) investigators at the Medical University of South Carolina.

CLL is the most common form of adult leukemia. Unfortunately, it is usually an incurable disease that is characterized by the accumulation of abnormal B lymphocytes in the blood. Our experimental results demonstrate that CLL cells accumulate in the blood, at least in part, because they have greatly increased amounts of a protein called nucleolin, which enhances their survival. Genetic alteration of tumor cells that results in lower cellular amounts of nucleolin decreases the survival of the tumor cells. In contrast, addition of recombinant nucleolin to the tumor cells restores cell survival.

The goal of these researchers is to understand how nucleolin is working and discover agents that can block its effect.  Funds provided will support this exciting basic and applied research and allow the development of a unique understanding and possibly treatments for this most common leukemia.

Funding Request
Research is a costly endeavor.  These cutting edge projects require a great deal of investment to allow these scientists the time and resources to make important discoveries.  Hollings Cancer Center respectfully requests a philanthropic investment to assist us in our cancer research efforts.  Contributions ranging from $25,000 up to $1,000,000+ would be beneficial.  Major gifts may be made over a multi-year period and naming opportunities and other recognition will be arranged according to your corporate preferences.

For More Information
For more information, please contact Andrew S. Kraft, M.D., Director of the Hollings Cancer Center, at (843) 792-8284 or Rachael Smith, Director of Development of the Hollings Cancer Center, at (843) 792-7694.

Thank you for your careful consideration and commitment to finding a cure to cancer.