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Show 4 CANCER RESEARCH Tuesday, November 3,2009 \ www.dailyutahchronide.com c Q Research raises money despite drop in funding I / U studies change lives Jake Hibbard has seen just the opposite happen. It endured a nearly 21 percent de-1 crease in funds in fiscal year 2009 Much like a patient consulting a compared tofiscalyear 2008.' Research funds at HCI were doctor about his cancer test results, there's'both good and bad news for about $22.4 million in fiscal year 2009, down from about $28.2 milthe U's cancer research funding. Even though the U raised a re- lion infiscalyear 2008, according to cord $354.7 million of total research the Department Award Activity by funding in the 2009 fiscal year, a 16 College report released in June. percent increase from the previous Funds for HCI are spread throughyear, the Huntsman Cancer Insti- out 28 specialized clinics, as well tute funding for cancer research as the Huntsman Cancer Hospital and Huntsman Cancer Institute, said Tom Parks, vice president for research for the U Office of Sponsored Projects. The grants and research funds allocated to the specialized HCI clinics actually increased from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2009. This year, these clinics received 26 more grants than the previous year, for a $5 million increase in funding, according to the report. The report also notes that the Huntsman Cancer Hospital saw an increase in funding of $50,000 from a single grant. Last year, it had none. Funding for the HCI, however, drastically decreased. It had 42 fewer grants infiscalyear 2009, losing nearly $11 million in funding, accounting for the decrease once the clinic's financial gains are added into the equation, according to the report. Parks said he suspected some of the decrease in funding for HCI was a result of funds being reassigned to specialized clinics. HCI administrators could not be reached for comment. STAFF WRITER November is Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month as well as Lung Cancer Awareness Month—an appropriate time of year to examine the U's close relationship with the disease that claims several million lives each year, according to the American Cancer Society. Jon Huntsman Sr., who survived prostate cancer, founded the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the U. This year, U researchers helped discover a potential link between prostate cancer and a virus normally responsible for leukemia and sarcoma in animals, which could help prevent and treat the disease. It's advancements such as these that helped Bethany Linscott, a senior in political science, survive her battle against ovarian cancer. And it's the advancements still to come, such as what U researcher Deborah Neklason's new grant might produce in colon cancer research, that will save lives in the future. But unfortunately, there's a cloud hanging over that hope—there was a $6 million decrease in cancer research funding for HCI this pastfiscalyear compared to last. Michael McFall Huntsman Cancer Institute Funding 2008 2009 CLINICS 3 0 GRANTS 5 6 GRANTS $8,364,439 $13,340,225 HCI 5 0 GRANTS 8 GRANTS MAIN BUILDING $19,824,304 $9,002,361 HCI 0 GRANTS 1 GRANT so HOSPITAL $50,000 r;, . . / - . ' • • ; . ; ) : • TOTAL v 8 0 GRANTS 6 5 GRANTS $28,188,743 $22,392,586 j.hibbard@chronicle.utah.edu Huntsman Institute turns out breakthroughs In 2008, researchers at the Huntsman Cancer -Institute published 158 studies in various areas of cancer. Researchers have made advances in many areas, such as prostate and bone cancers, in addition to discovering general information on what causes cancer. "All discoveries are incremental," said Don Ayer, HCI investigator and professor in the U department of oncological sciences. "Things that we do here impact patients' lives." lished a study that suggests sugar feeds cancer cells. The researchers identified one mechanism by which cells use high amounts of glucose to help cancer cells grow, Ayer said. "This could be fairly general, but we haven't researched it in enough cancers," Ayer said. Ayer said he is hopeful that from this new research, they will be able to target these mechanisms to create medications that would suppress cancer cells' ability to produce and use glucose. By doing this, tumors would stop producing cancer cells and die. Fighting the growth of cancer Ayer, with Mohan Kaadige, a postdoctoral fellow in Ayer's lab, pub- Prostate cancer Early this year, Ila Singh, associate professor of pathology at the U, Deborah Rafferty STAFF WRITER along with a team of researchers, identified a virus often linked with prostate cancer and suggested that it could be the cause of the cancer. This kind of virus is similar to those related to the cause of leukemia and sarcoma in animals. "We found that (the.virus) was present in 27 percent of prostate cancers we examined and that it was associated with more aggressive tumors," Singh said in a statement. "We still don't know that this virus causes cancer in people, but that is an important question we're going to investigate." Prostate cancer is the secondmost common cancer affecting men. About 200,000 American males are expected to develop it, according to a statement released by HCI. This research, if proven to cause prostate cancer in humans, could eventually lead to improved development of diagnostic tests, vaccines and therapies, according to the statement. Bone cancer HCI has also made advances in Ewing's sarcoma, the second-most common type of bone cancer in children and young adults. -Researchers found that when high levels of a protein are present, the patient is less responsive to chemotherapy, said Stephen Lessnick, associate professor in pediatric hematology and oncology at the U, in a statement released by HCI. This research could lead to new medications and treatments that could suppress the effects of the protein. By studying these proteins and how they show up in tumors, researchers are hopeful they could be able to offer individualized treatment, which could lead to a higher cure rate, Lessnick said in the statement. "Personalized medicine is the next frontier in the battle against cancer," Lessnick said in the statement. "We now know all cancers are not the same. By focusing on how these proteins are expressed in individual tumors, we may soon be -able to offer the treatment that will work best for each patient, and that could lead to higher cure rates." d.rafferty@chronicle.utah.edu 'Cancer doesn't have to be a death sentence' Student's unlikely battle with ovarian tumors gave her a drive to help others Rosemary Campbell STAFF WRITER Bethany Linscott didn't think it was anything close to cancer. In the fall of 2006, at the start of her sophomore year at the U, Linscott frequently became nauseated, which, she thought, was because of stress. Five days before Christmas, the doctors told her she had a tumor on the surface of her ovaries. The day after Christmas, they diagnosed her with epithelial ovarian cancer. "When they told me, *You have a tumor,' I couldn't believe it," said Linscott, now a senior in political science and history. "No way can I, Bethany Linscott, have cancer." Linscott had the classic symptoms of the disease: nausea, irregular ovulation cycles, bloating and feeling full quickly. But it is hard for doctors to diagnose even these classic symptoms because they are so similar to other problems, she said. "I was really fortunate we caught my tumor so quickly," Linscott said. "Ovarian cancer is usually caught really late." Mark Dodson, a gynecological oncologist at the Huntsman Cancer Institute and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the U, said most of his patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer don't know something is wrong until the classic symptoms appear, and they usual- ly don't have symptoms until the cancer has spread. Each year in the United States, roughly 21,000 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and about 15,000 of those diagnosed die, Dodson said. The mortality rate is high because the cancer usually isn't caught until the third stage, when it has spread from the ovaries, throughout the other pelvic organs and into the abdominal cavity, he said. Only about I.IOO of those 21,000 cases are in women younger than 40 years old—Linscott was just 19. * "The chance of a woman getting it that young is probably one in 1,000," Dodson said. "It's low, low, low. It's very unusual." The tumor attacking Linscott's body was in its first stage, confined solely to her ovaries. For treatment, Linscott underwent two surgeries, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy that helped fight off the cancer. It took 1 a toll on her, physically and emotionally. "Chemo was terrible," she said. "I've never considered myself a particularly vain person, but it was so hard to lose my hair, and eventually I lost my eyebrows and eyelashes." Although she was weak, Linscott said she tried to stay engaged with the world by surrounding herself with friends and family, and a pivotal moment came during a discussion Linscott had with her best friend. Bethany Linscott was diagnosed with epithelial ovarian cancer when she was 19 years old, but with her treatment and support from friends and family, the cancer went into remission in June 2007. Linscott now volunteers at the Huntsman Cancer Institute, helping other survivors prepare for life after cancer. "One evening, we were just talking about cancer, and we were both crying," Linscott said. "She said .'I really believe that God will do a good thing for this, both in your life and your perspective towards the world and empathy for people.' It reminded me that as scary as mortality is, life and the world isn't just about me." But some days it was hard to keep that perspective, especially when she was nauseous, bald and felt ugly, she said. In June 2007, Linscott went into remission. She returned to school that fall, but said she wishes she hadn't jumped back into things so fast. "When treatment ends, you canfinallybreathe," she said, but she remembers how difficult it was facing life so soon. With little hair and some lingering effects, Linscott faced reminders of the cancer. "I have some pretty gnarly scars on my abdomen from my two surgeries," she said. "I'm kind of proud of them." Linscott said she wishes someone had prepared her for post-cancer life, but she now volunteers at the Huntsman Cancer Institute every week to give cancer survivors the help she didn't always have. "I love being there because I think it's really encouraging for people to see that young people get cancer and that I'm totally healthy now," she said. "I just ran a half-mara- thon. Cancer doesn't have to be a death sentence." Linscott said she could write a book from all that she learned from battling cancer. "Now I just have this gutlevel empathy that I didn't have before," she said. "And I think hand in hand with empathy is the realizition that I can't ever completely understand people's hurts, I can never say, 'I understand how you feel,1 because our pain is so unique and individual." r.campbell@ chronicle.utah.edu Ovarian Cancer Information 21,000 A b o u t / I n n n women are diagnosecrwltn ovarian cancer losecrwitnovi each year In the United States Usual symptoms are nausea, irregular ovulation cycles, bloating an^feeUng full quickly Nearly *IC QQQ die each year For more information, visit: 1 i l l 7 * 1 :an American woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer in http://www.ovariancancer.org/ . httpy/wwwJiuntsmancancer.org/group/ •'^&\i:itt¥Ji.i&!&:":. s . | v gynecoiogicafTypB~/gyn/ ' K < '• average age of diagnosis ' : J ovarian.jspyyM^^m^^. \% '•&%& her lifetime |