“The grant money from the [ACS and Triological Society] has really given us a boost with which we can now move our research along at a faster pace, ” he said.
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September 2011
Seungwon Kim, MD, Assistant Professor, Department of Otolaryngology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh
Time is money, and Dr. Kim believes the money he received over the past three years has bought him the time to find novel ways to fight head and neck cancer. The project, originally backed by a $400,000 NIH grant award in 2008, targets both epidermal growth factor receptor and vascular endothelial growth factor receptor in oral squamous cell carcinoma, specifically studying how the use of both agents could help improve treatment. The goal is to help reduce the mortality rate of the disease, which Dr. Kim says has remained stagnant at roughly 50 percent for more than three decades.
Dr. Kim, in the third year of his five-year grant period, is becoming a subject matter expert in angiogenesis, particularly in its use as a therapeutic target. “This isn’t esoteric,” he said. “It has real translational impact on the care of our patients and how they are treated.”
The value of multi-year grant funding for his project, Dr. Kim said, can’t be overstated, noting that “a study like this is not something you complete in a year or two.” Physicians looking to tackle long-term research goals need to know there is a financial backstop that enables their work to translate from a laboratory setting to clinical application, he said.
The funding “was very significant because it freed me up from some of my clinical responsibilities so I could dedicate a larger chunk of time toward my research,” he said. ENT TODAY