Date Posted:
The NCI Division of Cancer Prevention awarded eight grants to create the Consortium for Imaging and Biomarkers (CIB) on August 3, 2015.
The consortium focuses on combining imaging methods, such as computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and optical-based imaging for visualization of lesions, with biomarkers to improve the accuracy of screening, early cancer detection, and the diagnosis of early stage cancers. Researchers from the imaging and biomarker communities are integrating their approaches with a goal of improving diagnostic performance and reducing diagnostic uncertainty.
Combining imaging information with biological markers may help address unmet clinical needs including the differentiation of lethal cancers from non-lethal disease, reducing overdiagnosis, and lowering the number of false-positive and false-negative test results. Pre-clinical and clinical research is being used to develop more accurate tests to detect and assess breast, esophageal, and lung cancers. For the breast and lung cancer-related awards, a diagnostic imaging test is being combined with an experimental biomarker to assess diagnostic performance. For esophageal cancer, the goal is to develop and validate new near infrared (NIR) probes for the real-time detection of high-grade dysplasia (HGD) and early stage esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC).
Awards are going to investigators who successfully applied to PAR-13-189, “Imaging and Biomarkers for Early Cancer Detection,” which is open to its last round of applications through December 15, 2015.
The investigators and institutions participating in this consortium are listed below, alphabetically by investigator’s name:
| Principal Investigator Institution | Research Area |
|---|---|
| Paul Dayton,Nancy K. Demore University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
Develop/verify Secreted Frizzled Related Protein 2 for ultrasound imaging for the early detection of aggressive breast cancers |
| Randa A. El-Zein Houston Methodist Research Institute |
Develop and verify a multi-faceted breast cancer detection approach to identify pre-malignant breast changes of early stage disease |
| Paul Lampe Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center |
Integrate blood-based biomarkers with computed tomography to improve diagnostic accuracy for the early detection of aggressive cancer from benign lung nodules |
| Pierre P. Massion Vanderbilt University |
Integrate imaging and biomarkers to identify aggressive cancer from indeterminate lung nodules |
| Victoria L. Seewaldt Duke University |
Combine MRI and Wnt/p53-biomarkers to identify aggressive cancer from benign breast lesions |
| Ayumu Taguchi University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center |
Integrate blood-based biomarkers with imaging to differentiate benign from malignant lung nodules |
| Thomas D. Wang University of Michigan |
Develop/verify a Near Infra Red approach for real-time detection of high-grade dysplasia and early esophageal adenocarcinoma |
| Jun Wei University of Michigan |
Develop an imaging-based biomarker from mammographic data to assess breast cancer risk in a screening population |