News Center

Xiang-Yang (Shawn) Wang, Ph.D., was recently awarded a $316,438 grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to support his studies of tumor recurrence after radiation therapy (RT). Wang is a member of the Cancer Molecular Genetics research program at VCU Massey Cancer Center, a Harrison Endowed Scholar in cancer research, professor in the Department of Human and Molecular Genetics at VCU School of Medicine and member of VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine.

The NCI grant was funded after a Massey pilot project led by Wang and Ross Mikkelsen, Ph.D., member of the Radiation Biology and Oncology research program, discovered preliminary data that established a previously unrecognized feature of an innate receptor in host-tumor interaction during radiotherapy. The receptor, known as SRA (scavenger receptor A), is a pattern recognition molecule expressed on myeloid cells that helps promote the formation of blood vessels in tumors following RT.

The overall goal of the research is to understand the biological processes by which SRA allows tumors to reoccur following RT.

The findings from the proposed research could potentially lead to new treatment strategies that enhance tumor response and reduce treatment failures in cancer patients.

To learn more, visit http://1.usa.gov/MrNzKk. 

Written by: Alaina Schneide