Khincha Receives Flex Award for Metformin Trial in Li-Fraumeni Patients
, by DCEG Staff
Payal Khincha, M.B.B.S., M.S.H.S, staff clinician in the Clinical Genetics Branch (CGB) and Dr. Christina Annunziata in the Center for Cancer Research (CCR) have been awarded a CCR-DCEG Flex Award for their project, “Phase II clinical trial of metformin in patients with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS).”
This joint endeavor will be the first clinical trial of metformin as a chemopreventive agent in patents at extremely high risk of cancer due to an inherited mutation in TP53. If successful, this approach would decrease the number of cancers and/or delay the onset of cancer, as well as reduce associated morbidity, psychosocial consequences and quality of life challenges faced by families with LFS. In addition, information gained from this project may be applicable to chemo-preventive strategies in other hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes as well as to the general population.
Patients will be accrued from the CGB longitudinal LFS cohort study or recruited through patient support groups, the Li-Fraumeni Exploration Research Consortium centers.
About the CCR-DCEG Flex Program
CCR and DCEG pursue highly complementary approaches to cancer research and prevention. To foster integrative studies that take advantage of expertise in population-based epidemiological studies in DCEG and basic biology and clinical research in CCR, the FLEX program awards proposals for the formation of joint research teams to perform high-impact, collaborative research projects in the area of cancer mechanism, diagnosis, prognosis, susceptibility, predisposition, or prevention. Learn more about the program CCR-DCEG Flex Award program.