Federal Project Grant Award Summary

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) awarded Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research a Project Grant totaling $546,842 (awarded July 1, 2026; completion June 30, 2031) under the Cancer Detection and Diagnosis Research program (CFDA 93.394) to conduct research on germline determinants of tumor development and treatment response. The project will deliver a meta-analysis framework and functional validation studies identifying how inherited germline variants influence somatic tumor features, tumor evolution, and patient response to cancer therapies, with particular emphasis on immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) treatments. The research will integrate germline, somatic, histological, and clinical data across multiple institutional cohorts to uncover genetic contributions to cancer progression and treatment-related adverse events.

The award supports two primary research aims: (1) establishing a meta-analysis framework to identify germline determinants of somatic alterations driving tumor evolution, including functional validation and causal inference analyses; and (2) quantifying effects of germline-somatic interactions on treatment response and adverse event outcomes using novel statistical and artificial intelligence methodologies. The multi-institutional approach will build upon preliminary single-institution genome-wide association study (GWAS) findings to provide expanded insights into the genetic basis of cancer development and therapeutic outcomes across diverse patient populations.