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Center for Genetic Origins of Cancer

Center for Genetic Origins of Cancer

Press Contact: 202/225-4071 (office)

Project Name:	Center for Genetic Origins of Cancer
Project Address:	1500 East Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Amount Requested:	$5,800,000
Federal Department or Agency:	Department of Defense
Individual or entity requesting this appropriation:	University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center
Value to Michigan’s 15th Congressional District and the American taxpayer:
More than 1.4 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer this year. In the United States, one out of three women and one out of two men will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. Cancer will kill more than 560,000 Americans this year. It is the number one cause of death in the United States for persons under 85. Cancer is the second leading cause of death among children between age 1 to 14 in the U.S. The goal of the Center for Genetic Origins of Cancer (CGOC) at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMCCC) is to accelerate the discovery of molecular signatures of cancer(s) and rapidly develop personalized treatments for cancer patients. This top priority for this University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center initiative is to deliver the right treatment, to the right patient at the right time. Contemporary cancer therapy remains surprisingly limited by a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment, whereby treatment decisions are based on the clinical stage of disease, with insufficient reference to the individual underlying biology that might be driving the malignancy. The Center for Genetic Origins of Cancer will combine analysis of an individual's genetics, the molecular properties of that person's cancer, and key clinically-determined characteristics with a larger data set of patient profiles with similar diseases, to guide prevention and treatment strategies. Given this background, the UMCCC Center for Genetic Origins of Cancer (CGOC) as a collaborative partner with the U.S. Department of Defense National Functional Genomics Center (NFGC) will focus its Year-3 funding on further developing three important programmatic areas of institutional strength including: 1) integrative oncogenomics and novel cancer gene fusion discovery, 2) unique animal models of cancer and 3) functional genomics of cancer stem cells.

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