Head & Neck Cancer Program News
Researcher Spotlight: Alessandro Villa, DDS, MPH, PhD
Dr. Alessandro Villa is an Assistant Professor of Oral Medicine in the Department of General Dentistry at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Villa is also a member of the recently established Center for Oral Diseases (COD). Dr. Villa participates in the Oral Cancer Research Initiative (OCRI) as a clinical investigator. He is currently studying the oral complications of cancer and cancer treatment, and working on a predictive model for oral cancer in patients affected by potentially malignant oral disorders. In collaboration with other OCRI members, Dr. Villa is studying whether there are any demographic or histopathological... More
Head & Neck Cancer Symposium a Success
Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute co-hosted the first annual Head & Neck Cancer Symposium on April 28, 2014, in the Metcalf Trustee Ballroom on the Charles River Campus. The event, “Head & Neck Cancer Symposium: translating research to therapy and cure,” brought basic scientists and clinicians together to discuss the latest developments in head and neck cancer research and therapy. The intention of this meeting was to initiate and expand interactions between clinicians and researchers from diverse disciplines and to work toward bridging the translational gap. This daylong event was well... More
OCRI Hosts Second External Advisory Board Meeting
The Oral Cancer Research Initiative hosted its second External Advisory Board (EAB) meeting on November 21-22, 2013, at the Hotel Commonwealth. The Board members in attendance were Dr. Thomas Glynn from the American Cancer Society, Dr. Jennifer Grandis from the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Bruce Johnson from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Dong Shin from Emory University and Dr. Gregory Wolf from the University of Michigan. The purpose of the meeting was to present an update on the progress of the OCRI since the last Board meeting in November 2012, and to solicit advice on the development of a competitive SPORE... More
OCRI’s Application for Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Affinity Research Collaborative Funding Successful
We are delighted to report that the OCRI’s submission to the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research for funding was successful. As a result, a number of OCRI researchers will continue to collaborate on the OCRI ARC. The OCRI pre-ARC was formed in 2012 and submitted an application for funding in November 2013. The ARC is co-funded by the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research and the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. There are a number of ARCs on the medical campus, each consisting of approximately 5 to 8 investigators who focus on a research theme, explored... More
Researcher Spotlight: Manish Bais, DVM, PhD
Dr. Manish Bais is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at Boston University’s Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. Dr. Bais is also an important member of the Oral Cancer Research Initiative (OCRI). With funding from the OCRI, Dr. Bais travelled to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research in the summer of 2013 to receive mouse model training in the lab of Dr. Roberto Weigert. Dr. Bais has made large contributions to the initiative with the development of an orthotropic oral cancer mouse model. The orthotropic nude mouse models of non-metastatic and... More
History of Oral Cancer Research Initiative
Head and neck cancer represents the sixth most common cancer in the world, with oral cancer accounting for the majority of cases. From about 40,000 people diagnosed with oral cancer each year about 8,000 will die from the disease. Worldwide, new cases exceed 640,000 annually and their incidence is on the rise. Unlike other cancers, the statistics on oral cancer are startlingly sinister: half of oral cancers are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread to nearby tissues, at which stage the 5-year survival rate is 53 percent. Further, treatments used at later stage diagnosis are often painful and include disfiguring... More
OCRI Expands to Include Collaboration with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
The Oral Cancer Research Initiative was launched in November 2011 and has continually expanded to include a diverse group of researchers and clinicians from throughout the Boston University community. As the initiative developed, it became clear that in order to maximize our potential we needed to ensure that we had access to an adequate head and neck cancer population to support our translational research objectives. Moreover, it was evident that the initiative would benefit from strong clinical input from head and neck cancer clinical leaders who would be best positioned to push translational approaches. To facilitate enhanced collaboration with clinicians... More
OCRI Researchers Form Pre-ARC
The Oral Cancer Research Initiative was invited by Dr. Katya Ravid, Director of the Evans Center for Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research, to form a pre-ARC. Pre-ARCs serve as an intermediate phase of exploration of research themes before becoming a formal ARC (Affinity Research Collaborative). The pre-ARC is titled Etiology and Pathogenesis of Oral Cancer (EPOC) and the Directors are Maria Kukuruzinska, Avi Spira and Maria Trojanowska. The EPOC pre-ARC is a multidisciplinary collaboration involving a subset of OCRI researchers. As such, EPOC meets the major goal of the ARC program of “…focusing on a research theme, explored with the aid of different... More