BCAN Announces 2017 Bladder Cancer Research Innovation Awardee

The aim of the Bladder Cancer Research Innovation Award is to support exceptionally novel and creative projects with great potential to produce breakthroughs in the management of bladder cancer. BCAN is pleased to announce the 2017 Bladder Cancer Research Innovation Award was granted to Seth P. Lerner, MD for his project “Proteogenomic characterization of muscle-invasive bladder cancer to identify mechanisms of resistance and targets for therapy.”

Dr. Lerner is Professor of Urology and holds the Beth and Dave Swalm Chair in Urologic Oncology, in the Scott Department of Urology at Baylor College of Medicine. He is also Director of Urologic Oncology and a member of the NCI-designated Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor.

His research project focuses on proteogenomics, a new field that integrates data from DNA, RNA and Protein-based ‘omics platforms to more deeply understand how the hallmarks of cancer are driven by the cancer genome. Dr. Lerner and his team hypothesize that integrated analysis of proteomics and genomics of primary muscle invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) and their patient-derived xenografts (PDX) will define mechanisms responsible for chemotherapy resistance and identify candidate driver genes leading to the identification of specific targeted therapies for those patients resistant to the current standard of care. Gaining these insights will directly expand the population that can be treated effectively with systemic therapy and improve overall patient outcomes.

“BCAN is excited to support the work of Dr. Lerner and his collaborators, to fill a much-needed research gap by focusing on patients whose muscle-invasive bladder cancer is resistant to the standard chemotherapy. Understanding genomic and proteomic properties of bladder tumors can inform innovative ways to identify specific targeted therapies to overcome chemotherapy resistance. This is precisely the type of exceptionally novel and creative research project that has great potential to produce breakthroughs in the management of bladder cancer.”

Andrea Maddox-Smith, BCAN CEO.