Material stiffness directs oral cancer migration

Active Project Grant Awarded Last action

Award ID
R01CA280279
Recipient
Awarding agency
Obligated
$1,468,630

Award facts

Assistance listing
93.396 Cancer Biology Research
Completion date 47% complete
Place of performance
La Jolla, CA 92093, USA

Award details come from USAspending.gov.

Description

Abstract
Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) is the sixth most common epithelial cancer worldwide with 50,000 new cases/year in US. Despite being less frequent, survival rates are relative lower. Clinically, OSCC presents as a necrotic lesion with stiffened borders; surgical resection requires significant tissue loss up to 2 CM surround the lesion, owing to the fact that these tumors are poorly margined and require significant resection to ensure all metastatic disease is removed. Even with aggressive surgical approaches, significant morbidity and mortality is associated with OSCC, and this dramatically reduces patient quality of life. While stiffened borders are a hallmark of the disease, IT is unclear to what extent microenvironmental properties, e.g., mechanical changes in extracellular matrix (ECM) stiffness, contribute to tumor progression and invasion. The role of stiffness has been well established in other epithelial tumors, e.g., breast, but our understanding in OSCC is relatively nascent; less than 10 studies have even peripherally addressed the issue. Preliminary data from our groups is the first to demonstrate that a stiffer environment induces epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of oral epithelial cells and that they adopt a more aggressive behavior of invasive OSCC (matte ET AL 2019; moon ET AL 2023). EMT of these oral tissues might contribute to frequent tumor recurrence observed in patients with excessively stiff tumor margins. Since OSCC is exceedingly invasive, learned behaviors within the stiffened tumor must be remembered and recalled once in softer adjacent oral tissues to facilitate the establishment of secondary disease. Thus, we hypothesize that tumor stiffness induces the acquisition and consolidation of mechanical memory, i.e., EMT and migration, which can be recalled later when the resulting OSCC cells disseminate and contribute to tumor metastasis, invasion, and recurrence. To test this hypothesis, we propose the following specific aims: specific aim 1: elucidate the mechanisms involved in mechanical sensing leading to "memory" acquisition and recall specific aim 2: determine to what extent epigenetic changes in OSCC induce "memory" consolidation

Transactions

Action Obligated Date
Amendment $112,050
Amendment $457,460
Amendment $112,050
Amendment $394,883
Original award $392,187

Subawards

Subrecipient Amount Awarded
Fundacao Empresa Escola De Engenharia DA Universidade Federal Do RIO Grande Do SUL Feeng Sub: 112,050.00 08/22/2025 Dr. Lamers is a dentist-scientist (DDS, PhD), Associate Professor in the Dentistry School, and Vice Dean of the Institute of Basic… $112,050

Quick answers

Who received award R01CA280279?

R01CA280279 was awarded to University Of California, San Diego by National Cancer Institute (National Institutes of Health) on July 8, 2024.

How much is award R01CA280279 worth?

$1,468,630 has been obligated on R01CA280279.

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