The American Cancer Society (ACS), the largest non-government, not-for-profit funding source of cancer research in the U.S., with more than $4.8 billion since 1946, has awarded three new multi-year grants in Maryland as of January 1, 2019.

$360,000 Stuart Martin, PhD, Institutional Research Grant at University of Maryland, Grant term: Jan. 1, 2019–Dec. 31, 2021. Under the leadership of Dr. Martin, this grant supports junior faculty in the University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC) and encourages the participation of junior faculty throughout the University of Maryland system in cancer research covering these cancer types: blood cancer, brain tumor, breast cancer, colon and rectal cancer, head and neck cancer, Karposi’s sarcoma, leukemia, not site-specific caner, pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer. 

$792,000 Corinne Joshu, PhD, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, study entitled, “EMPOWER Men to Reduce Weight and Inhibit Prostate Cancer Progression.”Grant term: Jan 1, 2019- Dec. 31, 2022.The approximately 500,000 US men living with biochemical recurrent prostate cancer (BCR) need additional therapies to delay progression and improve overall health. Observational evidence suggests that weight loss may slow the rate of disease progression, and possibly delay the appearance of metastatic disease and the need for ADT initiation. Weight loss also yields well-documented improvements in overall health and health-related quality of life. The EMPOWER trial proposes to test weight loss as a “first line therapy” for men with BCR after definitive, local treatment.

$792,000 Laura D. Wood, MD, PhD, Johns Hopkins University, study entitled, “Investigation of the Role of TGFB Signaling in Pancreatic Cancer Invasion.” Grant term: Jan. 1, 2019 – Dec. 31, 2022. Pancreatic cancer is a deadly disease with a dismal prognosis in dire need of novel therapeutic approaches. Pancreatic cancer occurs due to DNA errors (also known as somatic mutations) that confer various malignant behaviors. One critical malignant behavior is the ability to invade, as this underlies both local destruction and systemic metastasis, both of which cause morbidity and mortality in pancreatic cancer patients…The long-term goal of these studies is the development of new therapeutic approaches for pancreatic cancer that target invasion and are based on the genetic features of individual patient's tumors.

The American Cancer Society has 17 research grants in effect in Maryland, totaling $12,379,500 at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, National Cancer Institute (NCI), University of Maryland, Baltimore and University of Maryland, College Park.Since the Society’s research program began in 1946, ACS has awarded more than 1,091 lifetime grants to researchers in Maryland that represent more than $129,310,417 million.