Grant Award Summary

The National Cancer Institute awarded a $164,000 Project Grant to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center under the Cancer Treatment Research program (CFDA 93.395) for the period July 2, 2026 through June 30, 2028. The project focuses on characterizing osteosarcoma-specific glycosylation profiles of CD24, a membrane-anchored glycoprotein that functions as an immunosuppressive "don't-eat-me" signal enabling cancer cells to evade phagocytosis in the lung microenvironment. The research aims to facilitate the development of osteosarcoma-specific therapeutic antibodies that can selectively target tumor-associated CD24 while avoiding off-target effects on normal B cells and natural killer cells that also express this protein.

This research addresses a critical clinical need, as approximately 40% of osteosarcoma patients experience relapse with pulmonary metastatic disease, which carries a dismal prognosis despite aggressive treatment. By identifying and targeting osteosarcoma-specific CD24 glycoforms rather than the protein itself, this work seeks to enable more effective macrophage-mediated tumor cell killing during the earliest stages of metastatic progression, potentially improving long-term survival outcomes for patients with recurrent and metastatic osteosarcoma.