Moffitt Cancer Center Receives Prestigious SPORE Grant Worth More Than $...( TAMPA Fla. Sept. 2 /- The Nationa...)

TAMPA, Fla., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded Dr. Gerold Bepler, program leader for thoracic oncology at Moffitt Cancer Center ( http://www.moffitt.org ), and his team a Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant in lung cancer. The grant totals $10,475,090 over five years. This is Moffitt's first SPORE grant, which puts them in the company of other leading cancer centers like University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Mayo Clinic.

"This grant acknowledges the continued translational work done by the entire lung team at Moffitt, which has been recognized nationally and internationally," Bepler said. "Our entire team is extremely honored to be recognized by a panel of national lung cancer experts at the level of the NCI. It will provide us the opportunity to continue and significantly enhance our efforts to contribute to the prevention and cure of lung cancer."

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for men and women. Florida is second behind California in the number of new lung cancer cases per year.
Moffitt will conduct four research projects with various team members.

1. E2Fs impact on therapeutic efficacy

-- Douglas Cress, Ph.D., Jiandong Chen, Ph.D., Bepler

2. -- Antitumor mechanism of src inhibitors

-- Eric Haura, M.D., Jin Cheng, M.D., Ph.D., and Jack Pledger, Ph.D.

3. Chemoprevention with enzasataurin

-- Bepler and Mark Alexandrow, Ph.D.

4. P53-based vaccine for small cell lung cancer

-- Dmitry Gabrilovich, M.D., Ph.D. and Scott Antonia, M.D., Ph.D.

For more information on the Lung Cancer SPOREs program, visit the NCI website: http://spores.nci.nih.gov/current/lung/lung.html

About H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research I
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