Multi-disciplinary UC Irvine researchers from the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Medicine, and Medical Center have received a $60,000 American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant for their proposal, “Closing an outcome disparity for Hispanic patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia: identifying a genetic predisposition to pegaspargase-induced liver injury.”
The American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant, in affiliation with the UCI Cancer Research Institute, provides funding for UCI faculty conducting basic and clinical cancer research.
The research team, led by principal investigator Dr. Shawn Griffin, includes co-investigators Dr. Gha-hyun Jeffrey Kim, Dr. Benjamin Lee, and Dr. Van Huynh.
Dr. Griffin is a health sciences assistant clinical professor in the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr. Kim is an assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr. Lee is a volunteer associate professor in the School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences and hematology/HSCT pharmacist in the UCI Health Department of Pharmacy, and Dr. Huynh is an associate clinical professor in the School of Medicine and holds several leadership positions within the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC).
Their proposal expands on previous research into outcomes and toxicity rates among Hispanic patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with chemotherapy regimens containing pegaspargase (PEG) at UCI. Through the utilization of the Experimental Tissue Resource (ETR) and Genomics Research and Technology Hub (GRTH), the researchers aim to identify the genetic factors that may predispose the patients to PEG-induced liver injury.
With the funding, the team plans to build a research program that continues to examine treatment-related toxicity among Hispanic individuals with ALL treated at UCI and address these patients’ outcome disparities. Their efforts will provide a large dataset, available to other UCI researchers, that contains outcome and genetic data on Hispanic individuals with Philadelphia(Ph)-like ALL. These explorations of a potential genetic predisposition to PEG-induced liver injury will allow for more individualized — and therefore, safer and more effective — treatment for patients.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to cancer treatment,” said Dr. Griffin. “This grant will help to give us a better understanding of how to personalize treatment for Latino/Latina patients with ALL.”
