Ludwig, Hilton Foundation launch research for colon cancer prevention

Expanding their current partnership, Ludwig Cancer Research and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation have launched a new $10 million, 5-year research program aimed at advancing dietary interventions and technologies for preventing colon cancer, according to a press release.

This program seeks to address current barriers to colon cancer prevention, including lack of knowledge about protective dietary interventions and avoidance of or lack of access to colonoscopy, the release said.

“Cancer is a leading cause of death and disability worldwide, so we believe this partnership could, in the long run, make significant contributions to the improvement of global health,” Steven M. Hilton, chairman, president and CEO of the Hilton Foundation, said in the release. “As lifestyles and eating habits change in developing countries, we can expect colon cancer rates to climb. This research will provide new information about dietary intervention and early screening to help people both in the United States and throughout the world.”

The research program aims to achieve three major goals:

To research and validate nutritional interventions and prepare them for clinical evaluation;
To develop noninvasive DNA tests for screening for precancerous growths and incipient colon cancers; and
To engage experts and patients to introduce new strategies for cancer prevention.

“There is a real and urgent need to build the evidence base for dietary cancer prevention, which has the potential to contribute meaningfully to curtailing the growth of colon cancer worldwide,” Robert L. Strausberg, PhD, executive director of Collaborative Sciences at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, said in the release. “Our team-based approach to the problem will link Ludwig researchers who have considerable expertise in cancer genomics and the development of innovative DNA and protein-based screening technologies with equally accomplished scientists who are probing the interplay between nutrition, symbiotic gut microbes and the immune system. We are very excited about the opportunity this partnership affords us to lay the foundations for practical interventions that will be of benefit to all people.”

The program will further current research on gut immunology performed by researchers at Memorial Sloan Cancer Center in New York, and will build on the development of DNA tests for colon cancer screening already being led by the Hilton-Ludwig partnership, according to the release.