MD Anderson Cancer Center
NCIS Grant

The NCIS award focuses on supporting a clinical project as well as the investigator's potential to make future clinical contributions to the neuroendocrine tumor field. Dr. Dasari is an ideal candidate and his research proposal and objectives show great potential. This award is in honor of Edda Gomez-Panzani, MD for her dedication and work on behalf of patients living with neuroendocrine tumors.

In discussing his plan, Dr. Dasari said, “Neuroendocrine tumors, NETs, are lethal when advanced with limited treatment options, in large part due to lack of adequate understanding of the underlying molecular aberrations. Overwhelming evidence point towards dysregulation of the retinoblastoma pathway (and thus cyclin-dependent kinases, 4,6 CDK 4/6) in the majority of foregut NETs. Our goal in the current study is to demonstrate activity of CDK 4/6 inhibitors in foregut NETs by: 1) conducting pharmacodynamic (PD) and correlative studies on paired biopsies from a clinical trial of patients with foregut NETs treated with an oral CDK 4/6 inhibitor, 2) determining activity of mTOR inhibitor with an oral CDK 4/6 inhibitor in xenograft models of NETs."

IPSEN is proud to sponsor the continuation of Edda’s work on behalf of NET patients through this Clinical Investigator Scholarship. IPSEN Biopharmaceuticals supports this research scholarship in the form of a $50,000 grant directed to NANETS to administer. The NANETS Research Committee establishes the award criteria, reviews process, and independently selects the recipient.

Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Young Investigator Grant

NANETS congratulates Bryson William Katona as the 2015 Young Investigator grant recipient for his work on ER stress and the unfolded protein response in neuroendocrine tumor proliferation.

Despite many recent advances in the field of neuroendocrine tumors, there still remains a critical need to develop novel therapeutic approaches to better treat these tumors. Within the distinct genetic landscape of neuroendocrine tumors, the focus of my project is to better understand the role of ER stress and the unfolded protein response in neuroendocrine tumor proliferation and resistance to chemotherapy. The ultimate goal of this project will be to develop novel methods to selectively target ER stress pathways to improve current treatment paradigms for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors.

Dr. Katona conducts his research in a cancer biology lab focusing on menin. He was awarded a $50,000 grant, sponsored by Novartis Oncology and NANETS, to pursue basic science/translational research focused on neuroendocrine tumors.