Ohio State researchers awarded $12M grant to study thyroid cancer

Published in Business First

The National Cancer Institute has awarded Ohio State University researchers a five-year, nearly $12 million grant to study thyroid cancer.

The project, funding for which totals $11.9 million, will involve faculty members in several OSU departments of its Comprehensive Cancer Center, the school's veterinary medicine and pharmacy colleges and researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

The study, titled "Genetic and Signaling Pathways in Epithelial Thyroid Cancer," aims to pinpoint genes that predispose patients to develop the cancer and distinguish benign and malignant thyroid nodules to boost the accuracy of diagnoses. Researchers also plan to look at the genetics that change patients' sensitivity to treatments and work on therapies for patients with progressive thyroid cancer.

The research team is led by Dr. Matthew D. Ringel, a professor of internal medicine and co-director of Ohio State's thyroid cancer unit.

An estimated 37,000 people in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with thyroid cancer this year, while another 1,500 are expected to die from the disease, Ohio State said in a release. Statistics from the institute show thyroid cancer as the third-fastest growing cause of death for cancer patients in Ohio from 2000 to 2004.