The National Institutes of Health has awarded Providence Cancer Center researcher Michael Gough a $1.6 million, five-year grant.
Gough will use the grant to further his research exploring how chemotherapy and radiation interact with the immune system during treatment of pancreatic cancer.
In the first phase of the trial, Gough will add tumor-specific vaccine immunotherapy to the chemotherapy and radiation with hopes the treatment will shrink the tumor before surgery. The vaccine is currently being developed in the Providence laboratory of fellow researcher Keith Bahjat.
Gough will study how to optimize the radiation and chemotherapy to allow for the strongest immune response possible.
Typical chemotherapy and radiation often knock out a patient’s immune system for months or years, dramatically reducing the body’s ability to help fight cancer. The right balance will allow the immune system to contribute to the fight, according to Providence.
