The Targeted Therapy in Endocrine Cancers Section, Surgical Oncology Program, focuses on identification of new therapeutic targets and drug therapies that can improve the survival of patients with endocrine cancers such as adrenocortical carcinoma and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.

Our current research employs quantitative high-throughput drug screening for development of novel drug therapies, comparing the efficacy of drugs in combinatorial versus monotherapy in cell lines and animal models, establishing the most potent combination of drugs to be readily tested in clinical trials in endocrine tumors. A common disadvantage observed in a single-drug therapy is drug resistance, which can be overcome by synergistically targeting multiple mechanisms in the tumor, using a combination of drugs. We are interested in testing new combinations of small molecule inhibitors of potential targets in adrenocortical carcinoma and thyroid cancer, and understanding the molecular mechanisms through which these inhibitors influence the metastatic progression of the diseases.

Our research also emphasizes improving the uptake of drugs by the tumor tissues. In most of the solid tumors, the high interstitial fluid pressure (IFP) in the tumor microenvironment is the key barrier that impedes drug delivery to the tumor tissues, due to high cell density, abnormal extracellular matrix (ECM), increased vascular permeability and poor venous/lymphatic drainage. We develop novel nanomedicines to target the tumor microenvironment components and markedly reduce the elevated level of IFP, ultimately enhancing the drug efficiency.