Osteosarcoma Checkpoint Adaptation (OCA) Pilot Project

Already funded by the Trey Foote Foundation

This project funds a childhood cancer research scientist to explore how resistance to chemotherapy and radiation can be reversed. We believe that cell surface receptors go to the tumor cell’s nucleus in an unexpected way, and invoke genes that repair DNA damage. We believe that this can explain the clinical observation that radiation therapy is easily-resisted by osteosarcoma tumor cells; in turn, we believe we can reverse this resistance. Similarly, we believe we can improve the effectiveness of not only chemotherapy but also radiation in a way that makes radiation therapy desirable as a front-line treatment approach.