December 3, 2007                                                

SIU Med School Receives National Grant to Study Liver Cancer

A faculty member at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded a two-year federal grant from National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health.  The grant is for the study of how a normal protein called Aldose reductase-like-1 (ARL-1) interferes with the successful treatment of liver cancer. 
The project has a total budget of $317,900.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a rapidly increasing type of human cancer and is ranked as the eighth leading cause of cancer death in the United States.  It is widely resistant to drugs used in chemotherapy.  The research will determine how ARL-1 allows cancer to resist chemotherapy.  The study also will evaluate the protein as a possible target for anti-cancer drugs.  This research may lead to the development of an effective treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma and thus reduce patient deaths due to the disease.

The principal investigator for the project is Dr. Deliang Cao, Ph.D., assistant professor of medical microbiology, immunology and cell biology and member of the SimmonsCooper Cancer Institute at SIU.

Cao’s research, which previously has been funded by the American Cancer Society, now totals $1 million.  His research focuses on the role of ARL-1 in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of liver and colon cancer.

Cao joined SIU's faculty in 2005.  He earned his doctoral degree at the University of Hong Kong (1996), his master’s degree at Harbin Medical University (1989) and his medical degree at Hengyang Medical College (1984), all in China.

-30-