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: NIH grant funds trial of cancer symptom management app A pilot trial led by Sharla Wells-Di Gregorio, PhD, a psychosocial oncology specialist at Ohio State, recently suggested that use of a new intervention could drive clinically significant improvements in a symptom cluster (sleep difficulties, anxiety, fatigue, depression) experienced by patients with advanced cancer. Now, Wells-Di Gregorio, a member of the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James, has received a five-year $3.8 million NIH grant to conduct a larger randomized, blinded trial of the FOCUS (Finding Our Center Under Stress) app that will include 120 participants with advanced lung cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, myeloma or melanoma. Grant focuses on modulating biologic pathway to improve oral cancer treatment Oral cancer remains a major public health concern, but OSUCCC – James researchers have received a five-year, $3.2 million grant to study how the body’s oral glucocorticoid system affects oral carcinogenesis and how this biologic pathway can be modulated to improve treatment outcomes. The grant was awarded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research to principal investigator Steve Oghumu, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pathology at Ohio State and a member of the Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention Program at the OSUCCC – James. Researchers land NCI grant to establish course in effective oncology clinical trial design The National Cancer Institute (NCI) has awarded OSUCCC – James researchers a five-year, $1.57 million grant to establish a course that will educate oncology trainees and junior faculty from any cancer specialty in applying Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and scientific reasoning to clinical trial design. Titled “Clinical Trial Concept in the Oncology Landscape (CTC),” the virtual and in-person course will address a nationwide need for thorough training on clinical trial design and execution to eventually benefit patients with cancer and support the professional development of junior oncology faculty. Principal investigators are Claire Verschraegen, MD (project leader), and Dwight Owen, MD. Both are medical oncologists in the Translational Therapeutics (TT) Program at the OSUCCC – James. The course curriculum director will be Robert Wesolowski, MD, also a medical oncologist in the TT Program and co-investigator on this grant. Dr. Wesolowski is an expert in phase I clinical trial research. Pollock selected to receive prestigious SUS Trailblazer Award Raphael E. Pollock, MD, PhD, FACS, a renowned surgical oncologist and director of The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC), has been named as recipient of the 2024 Society of University Surgeons (SUS) Trailblazer Award. Founded in 1938 to promote excellence and leadership in academic surgery, the SUS presents this award each year to a surgeon who has made “trailblazing” contributions to the field of surgery and meaningful impacts in academic surgery. Dr. Pollock will accept his award Feb. 11 at the SUS 20th Academic Surgical Congress in Las Vegas. Besides leading the OSUCCC, in which he is a member of the Translational Therapeutics Program, Dr. Pollock is a professor in Ohio State’s College of Medicine, Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology. He also directs Ohio State’s Sarcoma Research Laboratory and holds the Kathleen Wellenreiter Klotz Chair in Cancer Research. As a physician-scientist, he specializes in treating patients with soft tissue sarcoma, a cancer of connective tissues (e.g., fat, muscle, tendon, blood vessels, nerves) that can occur throughout the body. He focuses his research on the molecular drivers underlying this malignancy. Dr. Pollock came to Ohio State in 2013 to direct the Division of Surgical Oncology, a position he held until 2017 when he became OSUCCC director. He was recruited to Ohio State from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he had been on the faculty for 31 years, including 17 years as chair of the Division of Surgery. Bhammar receives Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology Dharini Bhammar, MBBS, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at Ohio State and a member of both the Center for Tobacco Research (CTR) and the Cancer Control Program at the OSUCCC – James, has received the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncology (K12). The K12 is designed to increase the number of clinicians trained in clinical and translational cancer research, and to promote their development as cancer researchers. It allows the appointment of scholars proposing to serve as the lead investigator of an independent clinical trial, proposing an ancillary study to an existing trial, or proposing to gain research experience in a clinical trial led by another investigator. The award provides a minimum two years of support and is renewable. In the CTR and the Cancer Control Program, Dr. Bhammar focuses her research on questions related to tobacco control, obesity, respiratory function and exercise physiology. Through her K12 award, she plans to acquire new skills in tobacco regulatory science. The proposed clinical trial will be the first to examine the potential impact of extending a reduced-nicotine product standard to filtered little cigars, filling a gap in regulatory knowledge that hasn’t been possible prior to the advent of very-low nicotine filtered little cigars. Dr. Bhammar says this is important because the success of the FDA’s advance notice to pursue a reduced-nicotine product standard for all cigarettes depends on accounting for likely substitutes in the marketplace, such as filtered little cigars, that also need regulation to protect public health. Study results will inform how the FDA treats combustible cigarette alternatives in future rulemaking, including extending the reduced-nicotine standard to filtered little cigars. Medical oncologists land Diversity in Clinical Trials Career Development Awards Asrar Alahmadi, MBBS, and Arya Mariam Roy, MBBS, assistant professors in the Division of Medical Oncology at Ohio State, have received the Robert A. Winn Diversity in Clinical Trials: Career Development Award (Winn CDA). Supported by the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation, the Winn CDA is a two-year program that supports the career development of early-stage investigator-physicians from diverse backgrounds, helping them become independent clinical trial investigators who advance health equity through research and mentoring. The Winn CDA provides $120,000 annually for two years to institutions sponsoring scholars, who must be mentored by seasoned investigators at a clinical trial site or institution and must participate in their mentor’s clinical trial. Dr. Alahmadi, who also is in the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James, specializes in treating thoracic malignancies and focuses her research on identifying therapeutic vulnerabilities, cancer disparities and early drug development. Dr. Roy specializes in treating breast cancer and focuses on immuno-oncology and cancer disparities research. Two faculty members honored with Columbus Business First Innovators Awards Two faculty members at the Ohio State College of Medicine were honored with 2024 Columbus Business First Innovators in Healthcare and Life Sciences Awards. Joel Mayerson, MD, professor of Orthopaedics, was honored in the research innovation category. Kerry-Ann Mitchell, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, was honored in the patient experience category. The Innovators in Healthcare and Life Sciences Awards recognize those in the Columbus community who are spurring advances in research and new technologies that improve patient outcomes. As an orthopedic oncologist at the OSUCCC – James, Dr. Mayerson specializes in removing and replacing limbs or portions of bone and soft tissue that have cancerous tumors. As a specialist in neuroplastic surgery at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center and the OSUCCC – James, Dr. Mitchell treats patients with scalp, skull or brain disease, including cancer, that results in complex scalp or bone defects. Gastric cancer paper by Ohio State researchers selected for Cancers Journal Editor’s Choice Articles A paper titled “Therapeutic Immunomodulation in Gastric Cancer” that was published in the journal Cancers by corresponding author Sujit Basu, MD, PhD, and colleagues Venu Akkanapally, PhD (first author), and Xue-Feng Bai, MD, PhD, was selected by the journal for inclusion in the Editor’s Choice Articles of the MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing), a platform for peer-reviewed, open access journals in various fields of science and technology. Editor’s Choice articles are recommended by the editors of MDPI journals around the world that they believe are of particular interest. Drs. Basu and Bai are in the Translational Therapeutics Program at the OSUCCC – James, and Dr. Akkanapally is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Pathology at Ohio State. To read more about OSUCCC – James awards, honors, accreditations and more, visit cancer.osu.edu. For others news about the OSUCCC – James, visit our News & Media site or read our latest publication. ### MEDIA CONTACT: Amanda Harer  amanda.harper2@osumc.edu | 614-685-5420