Cancer Mechanisms

Icahn School Of Medicine At Mount Sinai, New York NY

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

The Cancer Mechanisms (CM) Program of The Tisch Cancer Institute (TCI) is comprised of 57 members who share a common goal to catalyze basic research pertinent to cancer-relevant mechanistic discovery with the ultimate goal of generating new knowledge leading to enhanced diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of primary cancer and systemic recurrence of cancers highly represented in our catchment area (e.g., liver, lung, breast, and prostate cancer). CM members represent 14 Departments and Divisions. As of February 2024, CM Program members were awarded over $16M in direct cost peer-reviewed funding, with 39 NCI awards totaling $7.3M and other peer-reviewed cancer-related support of $8.7M, including 16 multi-PI grants. In 2020-2023, CM members published 432 papers of which 14% were intra- and 30% were inter-programmatic. CM’s ability to produce highly impactful science is exemplified by the fact that 43% of CM’s publications had a journal impact factor (IF) of ≥10. CM investigators publish in top-tier journals such as Cancer Discovery, Nature Cancer, Nature Cell Biology, Cell Stem Cell, Molecular Cell, Science Translational Medicine, Science Advances, and disease-focused journals such as Gut and Blood Cancer Discovery. Our premise is that basic research focused on genetic, epigenetic, biochemical, micro-environmental, metabolic, and developmental pathways that drive primary cancer initiation and maintenance, minimal residual disease, dormancy, and overt metastasis, will reveal novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets across both liquid and solid tumors. We aim to elucidate critical mechanisms of cancer across the three CM Aims and foster intra- and inter-program collaborations to accelerate the transfer of discoveries into translational and clinical success. We will achieve this goal using orchestrated intra-programmatic efforts within CM Aims (e.g., working groups, monthly meetings), and inter-programmatic collaborations with other programs such as Cancer Clinical Investigation (CCI), Cancer Prevention and Control (CPC) and Cancer Immunology (CI) and with disease focused groups including lung, blood, prostate, and liver cancer. Our strategic plan allows CM investigators, upon identifying targets, biomarkers, or molecules for therapeutic intervention, to work closely with the CCI program, which facilitates an accelerated translational or clinical path. Finally, our strategic plan will facilitate new collaborative research, training, and education opportunities within our program and in our community (via efforts with CRTEC and COE), high-impact publications, MPI/P01 submissions, clinical trials and translational output through partnership with CCI, and other team efforts that encompass CM’s exceptional science.