# DYNAMIC MOLECULAR EVOLUTION OF TREATMENT RESISTANT CANCER

> **NIH NIH DP2** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2021 · $1,368,000

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract:
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. In some patients, cancer can be cured with
surgery and/or radiation. Many patients will develop advanced disease that must be managed with various
systemic medications and treatments. Unfortunately, the majority of patients in this group will eventually
develop treatment resistant cancer, which is often lethal. Despite its importance, our understanding of how this
resistance develops and evolves is limited. The primary challenge is that the study of treatment resistance
requires obtaining tumor samples before, during, and after it develops. However, obtaining these samples
involves surgical or other invasive procedures that carry some risk of causing a complication which could harm
the patient. Repeatedly obtaining tissue samples for research is not feasible for the majority of patients. We
propose to use a new “liquid” biopsy technique in which molecular information about the tumor is collected
from serial blood samples, which patients with cancer are frequently providing for a variety of laboratory tests
already. This information can then be used to understand how treatment resistance develops and how it
evolves over time. This will allow us to identify potential strategies to overcome this resistance, as well as
create tests to pick it up early so that treatment can be adjusted before the cancer grows and the patient gets
sicker. This strategy could be used across cancers and treatments and change the paradigm in how we
understand cancer progression as well as change how we monitor and treat patients.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10244626
- **Project number:** 1DP2CA271832-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** Shuang Zhao
- **Activity code:** DP2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $1,368,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-23 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10244626

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10244626, DYNAMIC MOLECULAR EVOLUTION OF TREATMENT RESISTANT CANCER (1DP2CA271832-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10244626. Licensed CC0.

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