Christine Eyler, MD, PhD, was recently awarded a K08 Mentored Clinical Science Research Career Development Award from the NIH/NCI. The title of the award is "Harnessing treatment-induced tumor evolution and collateral sensitivities using a human rectal cancer co-clinical platform"; the overall goal of the project is to identify and validate evolving rectal cancer collateral sensitivities during chemoradiotherapy.
"This project utilizes a panel of rectal cancer organoids isolated as a component of a successful clinical protocol recently conducted out of our Department," said Dr. Eyler. "Using these organoids as a model system, I aim to profile treatment-induced tumor evolutionary changes to identify novel susceptibilities and implement new treatment strategies for rectal cancer and other tumor types."