Jason Warram, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, has received a 7-year NIH R37 MERIT Award from the National Cancer Institute for his research project, “Reduction of Tumor-Positive Margins in Oncologic Surgery.”
The multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary research project will utilize disease-targeted fluorescent antibodies to guide the surgeon and pathologist toward areas that are more likely to be tumor-positive during oncologic surgery.
In head and neck cancer, tumor-positive margins occur in up to 30 percent of cases, directly correlating with local-regional relapse and poor survival.
The high rate of positive margins has not changed in 20 years.
Given that the majority of patients with head and neck cancer receive surgery as part of their definitive management, an incremental gain would dramatically impact survival outcomes.
By utilizing targeted fluorescent agents for surgery, known as fluorescence-guided surgery, this approach will illuminate head and neck tumor positive margins during surgery to reduce the rates of recurrence and improve overall surgical outcomes.
The clinical trials and overall research strategy are designed to identify the specific elements of fluorescence-guided surgery that will provide the greatest clinical benefit to patients.
The National Cancer Institute funded the grant under the Investigator-Initiated Early Phase Clinical Trials for Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis program. The total funding for the first five years is $2.7 million. The MERIT Award allows an additional two years after the initial five-year award period.
Researchers submitting an R01 that receives a fundable score are considered for the award. The MERIT Award is a prestigious award designed to provide stable, long-term funding support to outstanding, experienced investigators.
Warram holds secondary appointments in the Department of Surgery, Radiology, Biomedical Engineering, and is an associate scientist in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Co-investigators
William Carroll, M.D., professor and chair, Department of Otolaryngology
Hari Jeyarajan, M.D., assistant professor, Department of Otolaryngology
Eben Rosenthal, M.D., professor, Department of Otolaryngology, Stanford University
Lisle Nabell, M.D., professor, Department of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology
Benjamin Greene, M.D., associate professor, Department of Otolaryngology
Anthony Morlandt, M.D., D.D.S., associate professor, Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
Kirk Withrow, M.D., associate professor, Department of Otolaryngology
Todd Stevens, M.D., associate professor, Department of Pathology, Anatomic Pathology