COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) announces the following awards, honors, grants and more that were recently given to the organization, teams or individuals: NHLBI-funded study will seek ways to reduce heart damage from anticancer drugs  A four-year, $2.8 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) will help researchers at the OSUCCC – James explore strategies for reducing the harmful effects that certain anticancer drugs have on heart muscle without diminishing those drugs’ ability to combat cancer. The project is led by multiple principal investigators (PIs) Alex Sparreboom, PhD (contact PI), Daniel Addison, MD, and Sharyn Baker, PharmD, PhD. Sparreboom and Baker are professors in the Division of Pharmaceutics and Pharmacology, for which Baker serves as chair. Addison is an associate professor in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. At the OSUCCC – James, Sparreboom is in the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program, Baker is in the Leukemia Research Program and Addison is the Cancer Control Program. Grant will support study of possible new therapy for patients with locally advanced bladder cancer Researchers at the OSUCCC – James will use a two-year, $493,488 Gateway for Cancer Research Grant to conduct a clinical trial of a novel presurgical therapy that may benefit patients with stage 2 and 3 bladder cancer who cannot be treated with the drug cisplatin. Principal investigator Yuanquan Yang, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at Ohio State, says about half of patients with stage 2 and 3 bladder cancer are not eligible for cisplatin prior to radical cystectomy (surgical removal of the bladder) – a standard of care for these patients – and so their chances of surviving for five years after surgery are less than 50%. ACS research grant will help Ohio State scientist study novel immunotherapy for breast cancer patients Scientists at the OSUCCC – James will use a four-year, $792,000 grant from the American Cancer Society to study a novel way of improving immunotherapy and extending the lives of breast cancer patients, many of whom are in advanced stages of the disease and have few or no effective treatment options.  Principal investigator for the Research Scholar Grant is Gang Xin, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Biomedical Science at Ohio State and a member of both the Translational Therapeutics Program and the Pelotonia Institute for Immuno-Oncology at the OSUCCC – James. Xin’s study seeks to enhance immune checkpoint blockade therapy.  Maddocks named to Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium Executive Committee Kami Maddocks, MD, professor in the Division of Hematology at Ohio State and medical director of infusion services at the OSUCCC – James, was named to the Executive Committee of the Mantle Cell Lymphoma Consortium (MCLC), which is a part of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. The MCLC is composed of nearly 150 international laboratory and clinical scientists whose research is focused on MCL, a rare and aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) that comprises about 6% of NHL cases in the United States. As an Executive Committee member, Maddocks will help guide the MCLC by identifying gaps in research and patient care for this historically understudied patient population. Toland named interim chair of Ohio State Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics Amanda Toland, PhD, was named interim chair of the Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics in the Ohio State College of Medicine effective March 1, pending approval by the University Board of Trustees. Former Chair Philip Tsichlis, MD, will remain as a professor in the department. Toland joined the department in 2005 as an assistant professor, becoming vice chair and rising to professor in 2020. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Human Genetics, and she also is director of the Genomics Shared Resource for the OSUCCC – James. Toland also is in the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program at the OSUCCC – James, where her research focuses on the genetics of cancer susceptibility to better prevent cancer in high-risk individuals, understand tumor growth, and identify new targets for therapy and prevention. Her work has centered on the genetics of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, colorectal cancer and hereditary breast cancer.  Media Contact: Mary Ellen Fiorino, Mary.Fiorino@osumc.edu