Alex Huang MD, PhD
Cancer researcher Alex Huang MD, PhD, has received a $450,000 Basic Science grant from the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation to study targeted approaches for effectively eliminating metastatic osteosarcoma. Dr. Huang is Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and Co-Leader of the Hematopoietic and Immune Cancer Biology Program of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Lung osteosarcoma metastasis responds poorly to conventional chemotherapy, accounting for most of the mortality related to the disease. Dr. Huang’s research will mitigate this clinical challenge by understanding how macrophages support osteosarcoma growth in lung tissues.
Dr. Huang plans to eventually employ U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved immune modulators as an effective therapeutic approach for pulmonary osteosarcoma metastasis. Success in this effort will provide a foundation for exploiting cell-adhesion signaling as a concept for immunotherapy approaches against an otherwise deadly disease afflicting children and adolescents who have no alternative therapeutic options. ■
