Moon Chen

OSU researcher leads national anti-cancer effort

An Ohio State University researcher is leading the first-ever national research effort aimed at reducing cancer among Asian Americans in the United States.

Moon S. Chen Jr., professor of health behavior and health promotion in Ohio State's School of Public Health, has accepted a $7.6 million cooperative agreement from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to lead a five-year program -- the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research, and Training (AANCART) -- which includes five other major cancer centers.

"AANCART brings together a dream team of cancer researchers, clinicians and community leaders,"said Chen, who is principal investigator on the project and a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The other investigators in the project are located at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Harvard University, Boston), Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (Columbia University, New York City), Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (University of Washington, Seattle), Northern California Cancer Center (University of California, San Francisco) and Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center (University of California, Los Angeles).

Collectively, nearly half of all Asian Americans in the United States live in the cities that host these centers.

The researchers face a difficult challenge: Asian Americans encompass more than 30 different ethnic groups and 800 different languages and dialects.

"We have people in this project who have worked with Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipinos and South Asians,"said Chen, who also has a long history of cancer-prevention research in Asian-American communities.

Asian Americans are often thought to be at low risk of developing cancer, but that perception is dead wrong.

The rate at which Asian Americans are dying of cancer is growing faster than any other racial group, for example. Cancer is the leading cause of death in Asian-American women, the only population group in the United States for which this is true, and cervical cancer occurs five times more often in Vietnamese-American women than in Caucasian women.

At the same time, many of the cancers that hit Asian Americans hardest are highly preventable, and that is the message that Chen wants to bring to Asian Americans across the country.

While the No. 1 and 2 cancer killers among Asian Americans are lung and colorectal cancers, as they are in the white population, the No. 3 cancer killer for Asian Americans is liver cancer.

"Liver cancer is almost invariably fatal,"said Chen, "but liver cancer is usually caused by hepatitis B infection, and we have a very effective vaccine against it, if we can get the vaccine to people early enough."

Likewise, deaths due to cervical cancer could be reduced in Vietnamese women through wider use of pap tests. The challenge here is to improve early detection and to overcome cultural barriers to cancer screening.

During the five-year period, the project will develop cancer awareness and prevention programs targeted to specific groups of Asian Americans. In addition, it seeks to increase the number of Asian Americans participating in clinical and prevention trials, train more Asian-American health workers in community cancer prevention, and develop and implement grant-funded research that will reduce the burden of cancer among Asian Americans.

Each regional center, while reaching out to all Asian Americans, will also specialize in certain groups and their particular cancer problems. The center in Columbus will develop interventions for use at other sites and serve as a data-management and statistical center.

"The fact that we have a faculty member who has the stature and the expertise to lead this multi-university effort is a great tribute to both Dr. Chen and to the institution,"said Ronald St. Pierre, dean of Ohio State's School of Public Health. "It does indeed fit the mission of the School of Public Health, the College of Medicine, and the Medical Center, and we're going to do all we can to make it successful."

Clara Bloomfield, director of Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center, agreed. "This cooperative agreement addresses a population of Americans that has long been overlooked in cancer prevention efforts. I'm proud that Dr. Chen has a leadership role in this initiative."

A private kickoff for AANCART will occur April 28th at the Athletic Club of Columbus in conjunction with the John Peter Minton Foundation Lecture, held in memory of Minton, a professor of surgery at Ohio State who died in 1990. The dinner will bring together the 15-member AANCART steering committee. Steering-committee members include Frederick Li, co-discoverer of the Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a genetic disorder that leads to a variety of cancers. Li was the 1999 recipient of the American Cancer Society Medal of Honor in Clinical Research, the highest award given by the society. He is also this year's John Peter Minton Foundation lecturer.

Other steering committee members include Dileep G. Bal, president-elect of the American Cancer Society; Reginald Ho, past president of the American Cancer Society and the only Asian American to head that organization; and Susan Shinagawa, a breast-cancer survivor. Shinagawa will share her story and experiences with other breast cancer survivors at a presentation to be held April 26 at the Franklin Park Conservatory beginning at 6:30 p.m. Breast-cancer survivors are invited to attend. For more information, call 293-6600.

Chen's cooperative agreement is part of a $60 million program initiated by the NCI to address the unequal burden of cancer within certain special populations in the United States over the next five years. It is one of the largest initiatives of its kind in the federal government.

Facts about cancer among Asian Americans

• While heart disease is the leading cause of death for all U.S. groups (all ages), cancer has been the No. 1 killer of Asian-American women since at least 1995.

• Asian-American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) women are the only U.S. population group that experienced an overall increase in cancer mortality for all cancers combined between 1990 and 1995.

• Between 1980 and 1993, the cancer death rate for AAPI women increased by 240 percent; 290 percent for AAPI men -- the highest for all U.S. ethnic/racial groups.

• The average annual percent change in prostate cancer for AAPI men increased 1.4 percent between 1990 and 1995. During the same period, the average annual percent change in prostate cancer for white American men decreased by 2.3 percent.

• Cervical cancer incidence rates in Vietnamese women are five times higher than the rate among white American women.

• Cervical cancer is the No. 1 cancer to occur in Vietnamese women, whereas lung cancer is the most common cancer for all racial and ethnic groups (including AAPI women).

• Vietnamese men have the highest rates of liver cancer for all racial/ethnic groups.

• The incidence of liver cancer in Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese populations are 1.7 to 11.3 times higher than rates among white Americans.

• Korean men experience the highest rate of stomach cancer of all racial/ethnic groups, and a five-fold increased rate of stomach cancer over white American men.

• Filipinos have the second poorest five-year survival rates for colon and rectal cancers of all U.S. ethnic groups (second to American Indians).

• Native Hawaiian women have the highest incidence and mortality rates of endometrial cancers for all U.S. women.

• Significant variations are seen in smoking prevalence among AAPI populations. Markedly higher smoking rates are seen among Southeast Asian populations than among other Asian groups. Smoking rates are significantly higher among AAPI men than among AAPI women, regardless of country of origin.

• Studies have found a higher density of tobacco billboards and store displays in Asian neighborhoods of many U.S. cities. In San Diego, the highest number of tobacco displays are found in Asian-American stores (6.4/store), compared to Latino (4.6) and African-American stores (3.7), with the lowest number of store displays found in San Diego's white neighborhoods.

• The term "Asian"refers to persons from many countries, ethnic groups and cultures, including the following: Asian Indian, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Nepalese, Pakistani, Sikh, Sri Lankan, Thailander and Vietnamese.

High-tech tenant headed to Science Village

The Science and Technology Campus Corp. (scitech) has landed a key tenant and launched Ohio State, its partners and central Ohio into cutting-edge research in the emerging fields of bioMEMS (bio-micro-electromechanical systems), also known as nanotech-nology.

iMEDD Inc., a California bioMEMS start-up company, announced April 5 that it would move its headquarters from Silicon Valley to the scitech campus at Ohio State. In addition to leasing office space in Science Village, iMEDD will rely on scitech's 16,000-square-foot MicroMD laboratory -- the only facility in the world designed specifically for bioMEMS research -- now under construction at Kinnear and North Star roads.

iMEDD is seeking to commercialize methods of delivering drugs via micro-engineering technology, which have potentially revolutionary applications for treating diabetes, cancer, heart disease and other health problems.

Mauro Ferrari, professor of mechanical engineering and internal medicine and director of the Biomedical Engineering Center at Ohio State, is scientific founder of iMEDD, a consultant to the company and head of its scientific board. A world leader in nanotechnology, Ferrari holds more than 20 patents and patent applications.

Speaking to area business leaders and members of the local news media, President Kirwan, Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman and scitech President Ora Smith, along with Carl Grove, president and CEO of iMEDD, discussed the partnership and its potential for the University and the central Ohio community.

"iMEDD provides a wonderful example of what it means to strengthen academic entrepreneurship,"Kirwan said. "It also demonstrates the power of collaboration among faculty and the private sector. Two other key Ohio State leaders, Pascal Goldschmidt, director of the Heart and Lung Institute, and Michael Caligiuri, associate director for clinical cancer research at the Comprehensive Cancer Center, will be intimately involved as iMEDD further develops the drug delivery technology. This team, along with scitech, promises to open a whole new field for our University and our state."

Ferrari explained how microchip technology can create novel solutions to better diagnose and treat disease. "Our nanotechnologies are infinitesimally small drug delivery devices, offering a host of potential applications," he said. "For example, our drug devices may be able to replace frequent insulin injections with a one-time implantation of tiny silicon capsules beneath the skin. We're also working on applications to treat myocardial infarctions and serve as chemotherapeutic agents. Because our systems can be targeted directly to certain areas of the body, they can transport drugs to solid tumors without subjecting a patient to the often debilitating side effects of chemotherapy. We will need continued support for university-based research as we explore our products' many potentials."

iMEDD is also led by two biotech entrepreneurs, Nick Arvanitidis, chair of the board, and Grove. Arvanitidis and Grove have worked together for more than 15 years and last led SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals, which was recently acquired by ALZA Corp.

Grove said iMEDD expects to spend the next 18 to 24 months exploring possible product uses, including:

• oral delivery of peptides and proteins such as insulin for diabetes or certain drugs for anemia that typically can be administered only by injection.

• harpoon-like natural killer cells to cancerous tumors.

• biocapsule implants to isolate cells and allow for transplantation without immunosuppressive therapy.

• straight-to-the-heart treatment of heart attacks.

Smith noted that private sector support is vital to scitech's success. "Our center will foster the growth of bioMEMS research, whether it is undertaken by new firms, divisions of larger companies or the research arms of major corporations. We blend public resources and smart investments with private dollars and know-how. A next big step is to see how our investment community responds and supports these initiatives."

iMEDD hopes to bank on central Ohio venture capital. Arvanitidis said the region exhibits the strength to build a bioengineering niche in a global economy. "One of the things that attracted our company here was the incredible excitement, support and encouragement we're receiving from both public and private sector representatives,"he said. "Central Ohio reminds me of what Silicon Valley used to be, with its spirit and its willingness to invest in new technology and ventures. We think this bodes well for the community and for the success of iMEDD."

Mayor Coleman agreed: "We are blessed with incredible resources through scitech and The Ohio State University. What we see here today is the initial spark of what could become a great catalyst, fueling central Ohio's emergence as a bioengineering powerhouse."

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