Research

Sky Foundation, Inc. is providing financial support to researchers who are working to find a test that detects pancreatic cancer in its earliest stages. It is hard to find pancreatic cancer early. This is the main reason that people with this cancer often have a poor prognosis. More than 44,030 people will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year. 37,660 of them will die of the disease. By the time a person has symptoms, the cancer is usually large and has spread to other organs. Because the pancreas is deep inside the body, doctors cannot see or feel the tumors during a routine physical exam. Currently, there is no test that can easily detect this type of cancer before a person has noticed symptoms. According to the National Cancer Institute, overall pancreatic cancer incidence and mortality rates have changed very little in the past three decades.

Michael Tainsky, Ph.D. the Barbara and Fred Erb Endowed Professor of Cancer Genetics and Professor of Pathology, Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and Wayne State University, Detroit is working to find a test that will detect pancreatic cancer in earlier stages. Researchers are working on an advanced screening technology for pancreatic cancer that would provide a five-fold improvement in survival rates.

According to Dr. Tainsky, his blood screening technology will look for certain antibodies in a patient's serum because research indicates that cancers are viewed by the immune system as foreign entities. Cancers present proteins that the body's immune system recognizes as foreign, the same way it recognizes an invading virus. These antibodies, while they tolerate the cancer, can be used as a 'bio-sensor.' The screening test, then, involves profiling the serum in cancer patients and examining the antibodies.

"Some traditional single antibody biomarker tests only identify as few as 10% of patients having cancer because cancer patients have such different biological reactions," said Dr. Tainsky. But with his screening test, which has more biomarkers and improved sensitivity, false-negative results are significantly reduced and cancer patients can be diagnosed much more accurately. Over the course of the study, Dr. Tainsky and his team hope to identify 10-20 'ultra-reliable' markers and refine the screening test, with the goal of eventually seeing a pancreatic cancer screening test commonplace in clinical settings.

Steven P. Dudas Ph.D. is the project leader for the research program to identify circulating biomarkers for pancreatic cancer at Karmanos Cancer Institute. Dr. Dudas, a Research Associate in the Program in Molecular Biology and Genetics, joined the research team of Dr. Tainsky in 2006. His primary research interests have focused on the development of an early detection assay for the diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancers, in particular colon cancer. Dr. Dudas received his doctorial degree from the Department of Biological Sciences at Wayne State University in 1993. His post-doctorial studies were at the University of Michigan in the Department of Biological Chemistry. Prior to joining Karmanos Cancer Institute, Dr. Dudas spent 11 years at Henry Ford Health System conducting research in the Division of Gastroenterology.

Ann Silverman, MD FACG
Dr. Silverman is a Gastroenterologist and Director of Research at War Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie. She was director of GI research at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. Dr. Silverman attended medical school at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx , NY . She completed her post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boston and completed a gastroenterology fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland. Dr. Silverman has published a number of articles relating to digestive diseases and to studies of the hepatitis B and hepatitis C virus. She is a member of American Gastroenterologic Association, American Association for Cancer Research, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, and Fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology.

M. Margaret French RN, BScN, CCRP
Margaret received her BScN from the University of Windsor and is the manager of clinical research at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. Margaret's specialty is Oncology Research, and she has been at Henry Ford since 2004.

Osama Habib Alaradi, MD
Gastroenterologist
Senior Staff Position
Henry Ford Health System

Robert Luis Pompa, MD
Gastroenterologist
Senior Staff Position
Henry Ford Health System