Researchers Receive Pilot Grants to Study Cancer Survivorship

For the second year, two $50,000 UC Cancer Institute Cancer Survivorship pilot research grants were awarded to College of Medicine faculty members at the pre-conference dinner March 11. 

The grants, made possible through a gift from the Robert C. and Adele R. Schiff Family Foundation, were awarded to Amanda Jackson, MD, assistant professor in the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and a UC Health physician, and Christopher Dandoy, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and a pediatric bone marrow transplant physician at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, to gather pilot data for the development of a larger study, addressing researchable questions and problems regarding cancer treatment effects.

Jackson's project evaluates combined electrochemical therapy (CET) for the treatment of chemotherapy caused peripheral neuropathy in patients with breast and gynecologic cancers who were treated with neurotoxic chemotherapy.

"A known side effect of certain chemotherapy agents is damage to peripheral nerves, or the nerves on the outside of the brain and spinal cord," she says. "This is called chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy which is intermittent or constant pain, burning, tingling and/or loss of sensation. It can be debilitating and is associated with poor quality of life."

Jackson says there is no effective therapy for preventing the condition and that current treatment aims at minimizing the side effects with pain medication, numbing creams and anti-seizure medications which can have adverse side effects. 

"Electronic signal treatment delivers electro analgesia from outside of the body that uses both varied amplitudes and frequencies of electronic signals," she says. Adding a local anesthetic block improves the clinical effectiveness of the electronic signal treatment, and this is called combined electronic signal therapy. 

"The objective of our study is to evaluate the reduction of pain using a 10-point visual analog scale for pain following CET treatment as compared to medical management treatment. We will also compare their ability to function using a peripheral neuropathy function index."

Dandoy's project focuses on cardiac dysfunction in children and young adults following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for pediatric cancer.

"Stem cell transplantation is an important and effective treatment strategy for high-risk malignancies in children and adults," he says. "Survivors who have undergone this treatment have a three-fold increase in cardiovascular disease over those who have not. In fact, cardiovascular disease is the leading nonmalignant cause of death in these long-term survivors despite advances in supportive care."   

Dandoy says chemotherapy and radiation used in stem cell transplantation may cause significant cardiac toxicity resulting in left ventricular systolic dysfunction, which means a decrease in contractility in the left ventricle. 

"Our pilot data suggest cardiac injury progressing to this type of heart problem after transplantation occurs around the time of transplant," he says. "We hypothesize that cardiac injury biomarker elevation in this period of time and graded exercise testing, a general screening tool used to evaluate the heart's response to exercise, can be used to predict and identify cardiovascular dysfunction in pediatric oncology survivors who have experienced hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. 

"Our long-term goal is to detect and prevent late heart dysfunction in pediatric oncology patients who undergo stem cell transplantation."