The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has awarded a $673,000 grant to researchers at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia to develop a test for the early detection of lung cancer.
Dr. Martin Edelman, chair of the department of hematology/oncology, received the translational research partnership award in collaboration with Creatv MicroTech. The grant will allow him and his team to focus on using cancer-associated macrophage-like (CAML) cells to characterize suspicious lung nodules. The test will serve as second-level screening for patients whose CT lung screening scans are inconclusive.
Fox Chase and the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center expect to begin patient enrollment toward the end of this year. Drs. Rohit Kumar and Anil Vachani are co-investigators on the study.