Breaking News: Gastric Cancer Foundation Scholar Receives Congressional Grant

March 2017

Gastric Cancer Foundation Scholar Receives Congressional Grant

We are proud to announce that the first recipient of the AGA-Gastric Cancer Foundation Research Scholar Award will receive Congressional medical research funding through the Department of Defense to continue his breakthrough research initiated with funding from the Foundation. Mohamad El-Zaatari, PhD, from the University of Michigan Medical School, will continue working on "Targeting B Cell-Mediated Type II Autoimmunity in Gastric Carcinogenesis."

"We congratulate Dr. El-Zaatari and are very impressed with what he has accomplished over the last three years," says Wayne Feinstein, Gastric Cancer Foundation Board Chairman. "Our Foundation makes strategic grants for innovative and productive early research so that talented scientists like Dr. El-Zaatari are able to leverage much larger grants to help find a cure. That strategy is having impact."

The second AGA-Gastric Cancer Foundation Research Scholar will be announced in May. For more information on the AGA-Gastric Cancer Foundation Research Scholar Award in Gastric cancer, visit our website.

Digging into DNA

Published in the Gastroenterology Journal, researchers have identified genetic variations that contribute to familial gastric cancer. Inherited mutations - which affect the PALB2, BRCA1 and RAD51C genes and have been implicated in other cancer types - impair a critical DNA repair mechanism called homologous recombination. These findings could improve preventive care and new gastric cancer therapies.

Meanwhile, other researchers have developed a technique to identify patients who are more likely to suffer recurrence of gastric cancer based on the degree of abnormal DNA methylation. Check out the study here.

Watch and Learn

Kick back and add these videos from our YouTube page to your watchlist. We've spent the last few months refreshing our site to share the latest videos on gastric cancer research. Be sure to watch the latest video from Oncology Live of Dr. Salah-Eddin Al-Batran with the institute of Clinical Cancer Research in Frankfurt discussing the future of treatment in gastric cancer. He shares how immunotherapies continue to show promise, with results demonstrating the activity of nivolumab (Opdivo) in patients with unresectable advanced or recurrent gastric cancer.

Subscribe to our YouTube page now to stay in the loop on latest videos and updates from the Gastric Cancer Foundation and friends.

Final Days of the KeVita Selfie

This is the last month of our KeVita #innerselfie campaign! KeVita continues to promote gastric cancer research by donating $2 to the Gastric Cancer Foundation for each inner selfie post shared with a photo. So grab your phone and strike a pose before the end of March! Stumped on what to share? Get ideas for creative posts here.

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