The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center Survivorship Pilot Project Award Program is generously supported by the Schiff Family Foundation Cancer Survivorship Research Fund. Two $50,000 awards are granted annually for a two-year period to support research related to cancer survivorship. The most recent cycle awarded Jonathan Howell, MD, PhD and Kyle Wang, MD.

                  Jonathan Howell, MD, PhD     
                  Kyle Wang, MD     

The goals of the Survivorship Pilot Project Award Program are to:

• Encourage interaction, collaboration, and facilitation of exploratory research to test interventions, develop research methodologies, and explore novel areas of research in cancer survivorship
• Promote the entry of young investigators into the field of cancer survivorship research
• Generate preliminary data for projects that will lead to external funding and ultimately have a positive impact on cancer survivorship care

Preventing Bone Health Complications in Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Survivors

“This grant affords a tremendous opportunity for our research team to understand further the root causes of bone disease in patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as well as help clinicians advance patient care to correct and even prevent low bone density and fragility fractures,” said Dr. Howell, an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Department of Endocrinology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Dr. Howell will be using this award to support the Early Intervention with Zoledronate to Safely Prevent Bone Health Complications in Pediatric Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant Survivors project he is leading. This project studies both safety and efficacy of a medication, zoledronate, used in a novel way to increase bone mineral density and prevent fractures in children undergoing bone marrow transplantation (BMT).

“Patients arriving to BMT with low density or who have graft-versus-host disease following BMT are considered at high risk for future bone disease and will be recruited for the study,” explained Dr. Howell. “These patients will be given an intravenous dose of zoledronate with blood work and bone density x-rays performed before and after the infusion.”

Zoledronate is traditionally used by endocrinologists to treat children with osteoporosis who already have broken bones, but this project will study whether a preventative dose of zoledronate in high-risk patients is safe and can prevent brittle bones before fractures have a chance to occur.

“We hope the eventual outcome of our project and other future studies will be the safe prevention of bone disease as a complication in children undergoing bone marrow transplantations,” said Dr. Howell. “Some children with cancer eventually need bone marrow transplantation and our research could ultimately help to lessen the suffering they have as a result of bone fractures.”

With an overall research focus on the effects of congenital anemias and cancer on the endocrine system and the outcomes of chemotherapy, radiation, transfusions, and chronic steroid therapy on endocrine hormone function, Dr. Howell looks forward to the future opportunities his recent Cancer Center membership will provide along with this award.

“As a new member of the Cancer Center, I look forward to utilizing the resources available for research and collaboration with other members to find new avenues for improving patient care, specifically related to endocrine complications in children as a result of cancer treatment and bone marrow transplantation,” said Dr. Howell.

Improving Quality of Life by Diagnosing Cardiac Disease and Mitigating Cardiotoxicity

“My research broadly focuses on mitigating toxic effects and maximizing quality of life after cancer treatment – the tenets of survivorship,” said Dr. Wang. “One important survivorship topic is cardio-oncology, and I am excited to assemble a multidisciplinary team of oncologists, cardiologists, and survivorship researchers for this project.”

Dr. Wang, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Cincinnati, will be using this award to support the Coronary Calcification Assessment during Radiation Planning to Diagnose Cardiac Disease and Mitigate Cardiotoxicity project he is leading. This project proposes using oncologic CTs as a novel, cross-purposed, and cost-effective screening modality for diagnosis of coronary artery disease and cardiac risk stratification prior to radiotherapy for four selected cancer populations with unique baseline/treatment-related cardiac risks: head and neck, lung, esophageal, and breast.

“Cancer and heart disease are the top two causes of death in the United States,” said Dr. Wang. “Both share common risk factors like smoking and some cancer treatments can lead to or worsen heart disease. With this grant, I hope to lead a departmental effort to better identify and triage patients at high risk for heart disease using information already obtained for their cancer treatment.”

With this award, Dr. Wang and his team have secured the funding and resources necessary to implement this department-wide effort and obtain pilot data.

“This award will allow us to fund study personnel who will coordinate patient enrollment, create and maintain the screening-based registry/database, and conduct baseline and follow-up surveys,” said Dr. Wang. “Furthermore, this funding will allow our department to develop software or AI algorithms to optimize the presentation of calcification data obtained from radiotherapy planning CTs.”

With his main clinical role within the Brain Tumor Center and his membership to the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center, Dr. Wang focuses on clinical trial development and clinical research with residents and medical students on central nervous system malignancies.

“Since joining the Cancer Center in 2020, I have developed professional relationships with an exceptional and multidisciplinary team of staff, research coordinators, clinicians, academic researchers, and trainees,” said Dr. Wang. “My cancer center membership has optimally positioned me to pursue my interests in both disease site-specific and disease-agnostic research.”