Giving Compass' Take:

• The National Institutes of Health program project grant will help fund three research programs for the multidisciplinary team at the  University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to study an aggressive skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC). 

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A multidisciplinary team from University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center has received a five-year, $12 million grant to study Merkel cell carcinoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. Dr. Paul Nghiem, a skin cancer researcher at UW and Fred Hutch, is the principal investigator of the grant.

Merkel cell carcinoma, or MCC, is much rarer than melanoma, but patients are three times more likely to die from it. And the number of cases in the United States is growing rapidly.

The Seattle-based team has already collaborated on MCC research for more than a decade and made major contributions to the field. They led a pivotal clinical trial of an immunotherapy drug that transformed treatment for many people with the cancer.

The National Institutes of Health program project grant, known as a P01 grant, will fund three research projects:

  1. Immune responses to cancer-causing virus
  2. T-cell therapy for MCC
  3. Why do checkpoint inhibitors fail in MCC?

Read the full article about a grant that will help scientists study skin cancer by Jake Siegel at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.