UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences collaborates on nationwide pediatric cancer study

Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Published January 27, 2016 This content is archived.

The University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is part of a collaborative study that has been published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology titled "CELF4 Variant and Anthracycline-Related Cardiomyopathy: A Children’s Oncology Group Genome-Wide Association Study."

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“This is perhaps the largest genome-wide association study for this type of drug toxicity so far. ”
Javier Blanco, Clin. Biochem., PhD, associate professor, pharmaceutical sciences

A variant in the CELF4 gene significantly increases the risk of cardiomyopathy among patients that had been treated with relatively high doses of a chemotherapeutic drug known as anthracyclines. The study, led by Dr. Smita Bhatia, University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Cancer Center, involved 484 survivors of pediatric cancers with and without drug-related cardiomyopathy.

Javier Blanco, Clin. Biochem., PhD, associate professor, pharmaceutical sciences, contributed laboratory studies to further investigate the genetic association. Adolfo Quiñones-Lombraña, post-doctoral associate, pharmaceutical sciences, is co-first author of the study. 

The Children’s Oncology Group (COG), a National Cancer Institute supported clinical trials group, is the world’s largest organization devoted exclusively to childhood and adolescent cancer research. The COG unites more than 9,000 experts in childhood cancer at more than 200 leading children’s hospitals, universities, and cancer centers across North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe in the fight against childhood cancer.

Institutions participating in the study:

  • University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
  • Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor–University of California
  • State University of New York at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  • University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Texas Children’s Cancer Center
  • Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • University of Minnesota
  • Emory University and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
  • St Jude Children's Research Hospital