By Maria Saporta
For decades, the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society (ACS) has been collecting data from more than 1.5 million Americans as part of its Cancer Prevention Study. Now ACS is teaming up with Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute to leverage that data to accelerate cancer research and improve patient outcomes.
That project is being made possible thanks to a $6 million, three-year grant from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation. The grant will go towards building a cloud-based technical infrastructure to connect ACS researchers with Winship researchers to study more than 400,000 biological samples — blood, buccal cells, saliva, stool, and tumor tissue — collected from participants who eventually got cancer.
The study solidifies the partnership between both Atlanta-based institutions to research cancer prevention and treatment in our population.
“This is something I had dreamed of doing for quite some time,” said Dr. Alpa Patel, principal investigator of ACS’ Prevention Studies and its senior vice president of population science.
With all the data ACS had collected, Dr. Patel has “wanted to maximize the use of those resources for scientific advancement.”
Patel said the emphasis will be to connect world-class researchers at Winship and ACS to work collaboratively on accelerating scientific discovery.
“It naturally made sense that we would be stronger working together than working apart,” Patel said of ACS and Winship. “In our conversations, we felt we had a lot of opportunities. The Woodruff Foundation saw the immense value in this partnership.”
“Since the American Cancer Society relocated its national headquarters to Atlanta [in 1989], we have had various degrees of partnership,” said Dr. Kim Kerstann, Winship’s chief administrative officer. “Many of the researchers within ACS are adjunct faculty of Emory University. Going way back, the ACS building actually was immediately adjacent to Emory’s campus.”
The relationship between both entities has strengthened over the years as Winship received its first designation by the National Cancer Institute in 2009. Then in 2016, it became an NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, the only one in Georgia.
Dr. Madhusmita “Madhu” Behera, Winship’s chief informatics and data officer, said having access to the comprehensive ACS data will be invaluable to the Institute’s researchers.
“One of the measures of success is the amount of research this is going to lead to that will end up in scientific discoveries,” said Dr. Behera, who added the project likely will lead to future research funding.
By the end of the three-year project period, ACS will have successfully built its data pipeline and engaged Winship experts in research using its data and specimens through 10 new collaborative pilot projects. Through this partnership, both institutions will have increased resources and research capacity, attracted new talent, and created new opportunities for future joint research funding opportunities.
“This partnership is certainly among our most exciting and innovative,” Dr. William L. Dahut, ACS’s chief scientific officer who is based in Bethesda, Md., said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful to the Woodruff Foundation for supporting this work that will significantly accelerate cancer research in Atlanta.”
Dr. Kerstann said the grant will facilitate the exchange of information between both institutions.
“By establishing both the partnership and the infrastructure, our investigators will be able to more readily partner with the ACS and have a more seamless transfer of not only the data but also the ideas,” Dr. Kerstann said.
“Around this partnership, we will be establishing a joint steering committee of premier scientists from both the ACS and Winship to share ideas and come up with new lines of research that would utilize this data,” she continued.
Another important Atlanta connection is Dr. Suresh Ramalingam, Winship’s executive director. He serves as editor-in-chief of CANCER, the peer-reviewed research publication of the American Cancer Society.
For Dr. Patel, one of the major advantages of having both entities located in Atlanta is that she can jump in her car and go to Winship for “brainstorming sessions” on how to deepen their relationship.
“Being in Atlanta is critical because science is becoming increasingly transdisciplinary and multidisciplinary,” she said. “When we can harness our collective strength is when we will be able to achieve the mission of ending cancer as we know it for everyone. I do feel like Atlanta has all the parts. Now we have to put all those parts together. This partnership between the American Cancer Society and Winship can play a huge part in fulfilling that vision.”
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