Dr. Adam Bass Describes His Genomic Research

Dr. Adam Bass describes his genomic research of esophageal cancer:

“Esophageal adenocarcinoma is an extremely deadly form of cancer whose incidence has been rising dramatically over the past several decades. Esophageal adenocarcinoma also carries a poor prognosis secondary to its propensity to spread (or metastasize) early in its development and also secondary to our inadequate treatments to treat cancer once it has spread. A key impediment to the development of better therapies for this cancer is our relatively poor understanding of the underlying biology of these tumors.  One way for us to better understand esophageal adenocarcinoma and build a foundation for new therapies is by identifying the specific genetic mutations (or changes in the DNA of the tumor) that are essential for the formation and survival of these cancers.

With this donation from TargetCancer, our research laboratory at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute can continue our ongoing efforts to characterize the genomic alterations underlying the development of esophageal adenocarcinoma. Our laboratory is working together with the Broad Institute to study the genome of esophageal adenocarcinoma.  Through these efforts we are already identifying new genes that may play critical roles in these tumors. Building off of these insights from the cancer genome, we will bring new findings into the laboratory where we will be able to perform focused study on new candidate genes that may be playing critical roles in these tumors.  These genomic and laboratory studies will thus provide a foundation for defining new therapeutic targets that can enable the development of improved therapies for patients with these cancers.  We are grateful for this support from TargetCancer that is allowing us to work towards greatly needed progress for this deadly and understudied cancer.”