More than 200,000 people in the United States are expected to die in 2022 from pancreatic and kidney cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. That represents about one-third of all cancer deaths projected this year.
That number is 16 times the total number of this nation’s oncologists. Put another way, that is more than four times the combined total of employees at UW Medicine, Seattle Children’s, and the newly established Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
Two BBI members are embarking on research to lower the deadly projections of these two cancers.
Dr. Evan Newell, an associate professor in the Fred Hutch Division of Vaccine and Infectious Disease, and Dr. Venu G. Pillarisetty, professor of surgical oncology at UW Medicine, are working together on developing personalized T cell therapeutics that target an individual patient’s cancer. Their project is funded by a $150,000 BBI grant awarded in January.
“This study exemplifies the concept of precision medicine,” Newell said. “We aim to establish a platform through which one can identify features to help predict an individual patient’s response to diverse immunotherapies.”
The goal of the project is to identify specific tumor-infiltrating T cells that would facilitate tracking of tumor-specific immune responses and to develop personalized T cell therapeutics for pancreatic and kidney cancer patients. Newell and Pillarisetty will be using living patients’ tumors.
