Alex Huang and his research team, including Sung-Hee Choi and Suzanne Tomchuck (pictured here, left to right), recently received a $100K award from Curing Kids Cancer, for their work on osteosarcoma, a highly aggressive bone cancer that affects 400–600 children, teens and young adults in the U.S. each year.
For more than three decades, treatment options and outcomes for this disease remain unchanged. Huang’s team is testing a non-toxic oral drug that targets transforming growth factor-beta, a key signaling molecule found in patients with advanced stages of osteosarcoma. The team’s goal is to provide a strong scientific rationale for a clinical trial, administering the drug to children with advanced osteosarcoma over the next two years at the Angie Fowler AYA Cancer Institute at University Hospitals (UH).
Huang, MD, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Pathology at CWRU School of Medicine, co-leader of Hematopoietic and Immune Cancer Biology Program and leader of the Cancer Immunology Initiative at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is also Director of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.
Since 2005, Curing Kids Cancer has raised more than $18.5M to fund research, encouraging leading-edge scientists to break new ground in pediatric cancer outcomes.