Dr. Matthew Stachler Awarded The Shure Family Charitable Foundation Award from the Prevent Cancer Foundation

Dr. Matthew Stachler MD, PhD, a physician scientist within the Department of Pathology, was recently awarded The Shure Family Charitable Foundation in memory of Max Shure Award from the Prevent Cancer Foundation for his project entitled "Immune Determinants of Barrett's Esophagus Progression". Dr. Stachler's laboratory studies the molecular mechanisms behind pre-cancerous cell progression into invasive cancer with a particular focus on the upper gastrointestinal system. The goal of these studies is to utilize this information to develop novel approaches for early detection, risk stratification, and therapy. Cancers of the upper gastrointestinal system, mainly cancers of the esophagus and stomach, are a deadly group of cancers that generally respond poorly to traditional treatments. Additionally, some of these cancers have recently seen a dramatic rise in incidence. Therefore, a better understanding of how these cancers form and better means to identify at risk patients early is of significant importance. In this project, Dr. Stachler's team is working to understand how inflammation may influence progression to cancer in the pre-cancerous cells of esophageal adenocarcinoma (termed Barrett's esophagus). While it is widely known that Barrett's esophagus develops in an inflammatory rich environment; the exact cell makeup of this inflammation, how the inflammation may change during the progression process, and how the inflammation interacts with the pre-cancerous epithelial cells is unknown. Additionally, it is unknown if there may be a difference in inflammation between patients who go on to progress to cancer versus those who despite having Barrett's esophagus never get cancer. In this study, Dr. Stachler's team will utilize new technologies that allow the quantification and spatial location of a wide range of inflammatory cells to be determined in a unique cohort of patients with Barrett's esophagus in which some of the patients progressed to cancer while others did not. Additionally, they will determine any immune regulatory pathways that may be upregulated or downregulated within the Barrett's esophagus cells. This information will be invaluable to develop more refined hypothesis on which immune cells and pathways are important in the progression process and to develop better systems to functionally test these hypotheses.