Your unrelenting commitment to raising funds to support our research efforts is truly commendable, and it also gives hope to the individuals and families who are on their own cancer journeys, helping them to know they are not alone. We are all in this together.

I want to express my deepest thanks to every Cancer Crusaders member. Your passion is evident, your work is deeply appreciated, and you should know that you are making a difference in the pace of progress against this disease.

With sincere gratitude,

Stefan Grant, MD, JD, MBA
Director, Tulane Cancer Center
Chief, Section of Hematology & Medical Oncology
Tulane University School of Medicine

From 1996 – 2012, Tulane Cancer Center utilized Cancer Crusaders donations exclusively to support our Matching Fund Program, which provided small research training grants to promising young cancer investigators who were nominated by their faculty mentors. These brilliant young minds represented the next generation of cancer scientists, physicians and academicians, and the goal of the program was to provide them with the research support and mentorship they needed to develop successful, independent careers.

To further ensure that Cancer Crusaders support was invested wisely, each dollar awarded through the Matching Fund Program was used only to match a dollar awarded to our faculty for trainee support by the National Institutes of Health or other national agencies that grant funds on the basis of peer-reviewed competition. This philosophy allowed our Cancer Crusaders-funded trainees an opportunity to train with the best in an environment that fosters excellence and independence.

During their training, Cancer Crusaders Matching Fund recipients contributed significantly to some of our most innovative and important research and clinical projects. In collaboration with their faculty mentors, they performed groundbreaking laboratory experiments, they co-authored important scientific manuscripts, they presented data and laboratory findings at international meetings of cancer research professionals, and they helped our senior scientists prepare solid, highly competitive grant applications that in turn brought more federal research dollars home to Tulane and to New Orleans.

As the single largest contributor to our Matching Fund Program, Cancer Crusaders’ generous support has been instrumental in launching the research careers of 156 graduate students and postdoctoral candidates who were awarded grants during the program’s tenure.

Supporting Emerging Scientists & Enhancing Research Momentum: The grants provided by Cancer Crusaders gave promising graduate students and postdoctoral trainees the financial resources needed to pursue their innovative research projects. These early-career scientists represented the future of cancer research, and by supporting their work, Cancer Crusaders helped to hasten the momentum of cancer research progress.

Building a Global Network of Cancer Researchers: The impact of Cancer Crusaders extends beyond Tulane Cancer Center. The skills and knowledge gained by these junior scientists have had a ripple effect. Many of the program's beneficiaries are now leading research efforts around the globe. Their continued work in the field of cancer research helps to create a collaborative and interconnected scientific community dedicated to eradicating cancer.

Fostering Breakthrough Discoveries: Many of the scientists supported by Cancer Crusaders have gone on to make significant contributions to cancer research. Their training and preparation, made possible by the Matching Fund Program, have enabled them to conduct groundbreaking studies that push the boundaries of our understanding of cancer.

We are very proud to report that eight of the Cancer Crusaders Matching Fund Trainees went on to become successful cancer research faculty members at Tulane University School of Medicine, where they are making inroads against cancer every day, thanks to your generosity:

Applicants must provide a clear rationale of the funding needed and the reason why the transformative experiment is critical for successful grant funding in the near future. Our goal is to support vital experiments that would be difficult for investigators to perform in their current funding situation but at the same time are potentially pivotal to future funding success.

Cancer Crusaders funds were recently awarded to Tulane Cancer Center Member Hua Lu, MB, PhD, Professor & Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Reynolds & Ryan Families Chair in Translational Cancer Research, for exactly this purpose.

Dr. Lu and his team are studying an anti-breast cancer molecule called CCDC3 and trying to determine its potential as a therapeutic target for future drug discovery.

The p53 protein is a tumor suppressor functional in the nucleus of cells throughout the body. Its job is to regulate cell division, growth and death by keeping cells from dividing in an uncontrolled way.

It does this by attaching directly to DNA. When the DNA is damaged by agents such as toxic chemicals, radiation, or ultraviolet (UV) rays from sunlight, this damage signal will lead to p53 activation. Once activated, p53 plays a critical role in determining whether the DNA will be repaired or the damaged cell will self-destruct. If the DNA can be repaired, p53 activates other genes to fix the damage. If the DNA cannot be repaired, p53 prevents the cell from dividing and signals it to undergo cell death. By stopping cells with mutated or damaged DNA from dividing, p53 helps the cells prevent the development of tumors and suppress their growth.

According to Dr. Lu, the formation of breast cancer is highly related to the deactivation of p53. One possible culprit is a gene called MDM2.

"Approximately 30% of breast cancers contain high levels of MDM2," said Dr. Lu. "It inhibits the activity of the p53 tumor suppressor protein, but the mechanisms for how normal breast cells activate p53 by blocking MDM2 activity are not completely understood."

Dr. Lu's project attempts to shed light by investigating how a newly discovered protein – coiled-coil domain containing 3 or CCDC3 - blocks MDM2.

CCDC3 is under-expressed in breast cancers, and low levels are well correlated with poor overall survival and higher rates of relapse. Dr. Lu's team hypothesizes that CCDC3 can suppress the growth of breast cancers by blocking MDM2, preventing the degradation of p53 and consequently activating p53.

“Over the past year, with Cancer Crusaders support, my lab has obtained some new data as to the tumor suppressive role of CCDC3 in breast cancer,” said Lu. “We are currently further validating these results by using both cell-based and animal model systems. With the published (in Oncogene) and unpublished results, we have submitted an R01 application that received a reasonably good score, though not fundable. We will obtain more critical data and plan to resubmit it back to the NIH in the coming cycle.”

Next generation sequencing enables the investigation of hundreds to thousands of genes at once in multiple samples and allows researchers to identify signaling pathway alterations within cells that lead to cancer. That information might then be used for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of many diseases, including cancer.

While NGS is a powerful tool in the laboratory setting, it also gives us the ability to explore what’s going on in the best model system there is – human beings. We no longer must rest our hopes entirely on tissue culture or animal models that may not extrapolate appropriately to humans. We can know what is really happening genetically inside of a tumor. It’s exactly the right environment.

Despite the great utility of NGS, this technology generates a massive amount of data that is impossible to interpret without high-end computational approaches. Because the ability to analyze NGS data is a limitation for many scientists, our Core provides users with the services of a bioinformatics professional to help them analyze and decipher it. Melody Baddoo, research scientist at Tulane Cancer Center, assists users in the application of specialized computer programs for processing and interpretation of the voluminous amounts of data gathered. She also makes it a priority to train them so that they gain the skills necessary to begin doing much of the analysis themselves. This is one service that sets our NGS Analysis Core apart.

In the past, our researchers utilized separate out-of-town facilities to perform these analyses. Now, because of ongoing support from the Cancer Crusaders, they have access to this incredibly important resource right here at home. The NGS Analysis Core is currently being used by researchers at Tulane, LSU and other institutions across the U.S. to study viruses and cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma, stomach cancer, and desmoplastic small round cell tumors.