Background
Head and neck cancers are the sixth most common type of cancers worldwide, and more than 65,000 people are diagnosed each year in the United States. Despite prevention efforts and improved treatment, the overall five-year survival rate for head and neck cancer patients remains around 40%-50%. The low survival rate and low quality of life for patients are often due to limited detection and interventions for early disease.
NIDCR’s Response
In response, NIDCR and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) issued the Advancing Head and Neck Cancer Early Detection Research (AHEAD) notice of funding opportunity, or NOFO (formerly known as a funding opportunity announcement). The NOFO invited applications focused on early detection by applying molecular, cellular, and multi-omics signatures to clinical studies to distinguish benign from premalignant lesions and to identify prognostic signatures of the transformation from premalignant to malignant lesions.
The partnership between NIDCR and NCI enables AHEAD investigators to access valuable NIDCR and NCI resources to enhance their research capabilities, including NCI’s Early Detection Research Network, a national hub that provides infrastructure for discovery and validation of biomarkers for early cancer detection.
NIDCR-Funded Awards
In 2023, NIDCR, together with NCI, awarded seven grants totaling $4.4 million for up to five years of support.
| Award Number | Principal Investigator(s) | Institution | Award Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| *1U01CA290479-01 *Cofunded by NIDCR and NCI |
Ludmil B. Alexandrov Jorge Silvio Gutkind Scott M. Lippman |
University of California, San Diego | Mapping Immuno-Genomic Drivers of the Head and Neck Precancer Invasive-Disease Transition |
| 1U01DE033324-01 |
Sara Isabel Pai Ralph Weissleder |
Massachusetts General Hospital | Early Detection and Risk of Head and Neck Cancer Through Immune Based Spatial Omics |
| 1U01DE033329-01 |
Anna R. Giuliano Antonio Luigi Amelio |
Moffitt Cancer Center | Biomarker Approach to Screening for the Early Detection of HPV-Related Oropharyngeal Cancer (BASH OPC) |
| 1U01DE033330-01 |
Yu Leo Lei Steven Bennett Chinn Thomas D. Wang |
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | Advancing On-Slide and Optical Biopsy Tools to Detect High-Risk Oral Premalignancy |
| 1U01DE033348-01 |
Laura Rozek |
Georgetown University | Oral Dysplasias to Carcinomas: Multi-Omics Study of Progression |
| 1U01DE033351-01 |
Fatemeh Momen Heravi |
Columbia University | Immune and Transcriptomic Biomarkers of Progressive Oral Premalignant Lesions |
| 1R56DE033344-01 |
Hua Li Xiaowei Wang |
Washington University, St. Louis | Combined Imaging and RNA Analyses to Predict Head and Neck Cancer Recurrence |