National Cancer Institute awards K-State $450K for cervical cancer research

MANHATTAN, Kan. (KSNT) – A K-State biologist netted nearly half a million dollars in funding for research into cervical cancer, the university announced Thursday.

The National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health granted $454,466 to Nicholas Wallace, a K-State Divison of Biology professor. Wallace will use the funding to further his research on cervical cancer resistant to the standard chemotherapy treatment.

According to Wallace, some tumors are resistant to Cisplatin, the common chemotherapy drug for cervical cancer treatment. He has already discovered some cervical cancers become resistant by altering their response to damage from sunlight. These resistant tumors can be especially deadly, and with the funding Wallace said he hopes to learn other ways the tumors become resistant early.

“Our goal is to help doctors identify cervical cancers that would respond better if treated with a different approach,” Wallace said. “Sadly, there is currently no established method to distinguish cervical cancers that will respond to Cisplatin from those that will not.”

Wallace said he hopes the research will help improve the lives of woman fighting cervical cancer around the world.