New CPRIT awards expand cancer prevention and treatment research in South Texas

UT Health San Antonio, the academic health center of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UT San Antonio), received nearly $3 million in new academic and prevention awards as part of the latest funding round announced by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).

The state agency, which focuses on funding evidence-based cancer research and prevention efforts, has now awarded UT Health San Antonio almost $170 million since 2010.

Expanding access to preventive salpingectomy in South Texas

Kate Lawrenson, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine, director of the department's Tissue Repository and Database and co-director for the Center for Inherited Oncogenesis, received CPRIT's academic research award of almost $1.2 million to improve access to fallopian tube removal (salpingectomy) – a safe procedure that can effectively prevent ovarian cancer.

Lawrenson partnered with Georgia McCann, MD, clinical professor, chief of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology and lead of the gynecologic oncology program at Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio.

The goal of this project is to maximize opportunities for fallopian tube removal in South Texas. We will work with pregnant patients who are planning to undergo a cesarean section and have requested to get their tubes tied. We will also work with individuals who are planning non-gynecologic abdominal surgery.

Fallopian-tube removal during non-gynecologic abdominal surgery has huge potential for local and global impact on reducing ovarian cancer diagnoses, since abdominal surgery is very common and offers an untapped opportunity to prevent these deadly tumors."

Kate Lawrenson, PhD, associate professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine

Testing novel methods to prevent and treat liver cancer

Xiaoli Sun, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology in the Long School of Medicine, received a $900,000 academic research award from CPRIT to advance her work on liver cancer, one of the most common and deadly cancers in the United States. This disease is especially prevalent in South Texas due to the region's high rates of obesity, diabetes and fatty liver disease (a condition where excess fat builds up in the liver).

Sun, a distinguished 2021 CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research, is also a member of the Mays Cancer Center, the Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies and the UT Health San Antonio Transplant Center.

"Our research is focused on a type of harmful fat-like molecule called oxidized phospholipids (OxPLs)," Sun said. "These form when the liver is stressed by too much fat and inflammation. They build up in both damaged liver tissue and tumors. Our findings show that OxPLs can worsen liver disease. They increase inflammation, damage healthy cells, and disrupt the immune system's ability to fight cancer. This makes it easier for cancer to grow and spread.

"This project aims to uncover how these harmful fats contribute to metabolic stress-driven liver cancer and how blocking them, with an antibody called E06, a natural protein that blocks OxPLs, can restore the immune system's ability to fight cancer," Sun said. "We hope our research will lead to new ways to prevent and treat liver cancer caused by obesity and metabolic disease. This work is especially important in high-risk communities like those in South Texas, where new solutions are urgently needed."

Advancing treatment and survival for women with therapy-resistant metastatic breast cancer

Zhijie "Jason" Liu, PhD, tenured professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine in the university's Long School of Medicine and noted 2016 CPRIT Scholar in Cancer Research, received a CPRIT academic research award of $899,991 to study endocrine-resistant metastatic breast cancer.

"Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers," Liu said. "While treatments like hormone therapy help many women, some stop responding to these treatments, especially when the disease is more advanced. For this project, we are studying specific mutations in the estrogen receptor α (ERα) that help cancer cells keep growing even when hormone therapy is used, which makes the cancer harder to treat and more likely to spread.

"Our research examines how breast cancer cells with ERα mutations use small non-coding RNAs and protein clusters to form 'enhancer condensates' that turn on cancer-growth signals, even without estrogen or during endocrine therapy," he said. "By better understanding how breast cancer becomes resistant to treatment, we hope to open the door to better therapies that could benefit people from all backgrounds, especially those with fewer treatment options. Our goal is to develop better treatments that help patients with hard-to-treat breast cancer live longer and healthier lives."

Leading breakthrough research that impacts Texas and the world

"CPRIT's unwavering commitment to funding groundbreaking cancer research and vital prevention initiatives across Texas is nothing short of transformative," said Jennifer Sharpe Potter, PhD, MPH, senior executive vice president for research and innovation at UT San Antonio. "It fuels the bold vision and relentless dedication of our world-class scientists and clinicians - leaders in their fields who have chosen UT Health San Antonio and the Mays Cancer Center as their home for discovery and impact.

"We are both proud and deeply humbled to serve this vibrant community," she said. "The spirit of collaboration and innovation here inspires us every day to push boundaries, accelerate breakthrough discoveries and deliver hope and healing to the people of South Texas and the world."