# 07 Gastrointestinal Cancers

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · 2022 · $18,707

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The Gastrointestinal Cancers Program (GICP) is a multidisciplinary research program that has 84 members (52
primary, 31 associate, and 1 adjunct) from 26 departments. Scott Kopetz, Anirban Maitra, and Ernest Hawk
provide leadership from medical oncology, pathology, and prevention. The program provides a framework for
early detection, screening, prevention, and clinical trials and has 3 major themes: 1) Targeted Therapeutics and
Drug Development, 2) Prevention and Early Detection, and 3) Immunotherapy and Immunology. Each theme is
addressed by a Specific Aim. Aim 1: To integrate development and clinical evaluation of targeted therapeutics
with improved understanding of the heterogeneity of common and rare gastrointestinal malignancies; Aim 2: To
develop and implement strategies to improve early detection and prevention of gastrointestinal malignancies,
including dissemination of existing knowledge and development of novel approaches to improve standard of
care; and Aim 3: To develop and translate an increased understanding of the immune repertoire to improve
therapeutic interventions for gastrointestinal malignancies, with emphasis on combining current “off-the-shelf”
immune checkpoint inhibitors with targeted therapies, emerging immunomodulatory agents, multivalent peptide
vaccines, oncolytic viruses, and adoptive cellular therapies to overcome barriers to immunotherapy. Since the
last competitive renewal, total direct-cost funding has increased 157%. This includes annual direct-cost peer-
reviewed funding of $9.8M, including 1 P01, 1 U10, and 2 U01s, excluding a GI SPORE that has earned a
potentially fundable priority. Of this funding, $5.8M (59%) is from NCI grants. Since the last submission, program
members have authored 1533 published papers: 746 (49%) are intra-programmatic collaborations, 529 (35%)
are inter-programmatic collaborations, and 859 (56%) are inter-institutional collaborations. Forty-one percent of
articles have appeared in journals with IF >5, 14% in journals with IF >10, and 3% in journals with IF >30,
including Lancet, Nature, Science, Cell, Lancet Oncol, Nat Genet, Nat Med, Cancer Cell, J Clin Oncol, Cancer
Discov, and J Clin Invest. During the last grant period, new standards of care were established on the basis of
work led by program members. These include mTOR inhibition for several neuroendocrine indications, PD-1
inhibition for anal cancer, BRAF and EGFR inhibition for BRAFmut colorectal cancer (CRC), and PD-1 inhibition
with nivolumab and ipilimumab for microsatellite instability-high CRC. GICP members described the consensus
molecular subtypes of CRC and are in the process of using these subtypes to select patients for future clinical
trials/precision therapy strategies. Impactful preclinical work expanded on key concepts of collateral lethality, for
example, targeting metabolic gene malic enzyme 2 in SMAD4-deleted pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. GICP
members use 14 shared resources. Progra...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10467003
- **Project number:** 5P30CA016672-46
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Scott Kopetz
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $18,707
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1996-08-28 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10467003

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10467003, 07 Gastrointestinal Cancers (5P30CA016672-46). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10467003. Licensed CC0.

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