Fanconi anemia patients are dramatically predisposed to early-onset and aggressive head, neck, and anogenital squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). Treating Fanconi SCCs is challenging due to high-frequency recurrence and patient chemosensitivity, yielding an average survival rate of <2 years post-diagnosis. New treatment strategies are desperately needed....
Supported Research
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Grant description: Low blood counts due to bone marrow failure are a common complication of Fanconi anemia (FA) which affect health and quality of life. Metformin improves blood counts in mice with FA and may protect against DNA damage. Laboratory studies suggest that Metformin may...
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Excessive toxicity from chemotherapy and radiation makes treatment for SCC in FA quite challenging and leads to dismal outcomes, in fact fatal outcomes in most patients. Thus, there is clearly a need for a new approach both for prevention and/or treatment that has fewer and...
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Eighty percent of FA patients survive beyond age 20, carry a high risk for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oropharyngeal and anogenital regions connected with high morbidity and mortality. In addition to intrinsic genetic instability, HSCT and a number of other factors contribute to...
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Fanconi anemia (FA) patients are at exceptionally high risk of developing epithelial cancers. We aim to identify features of these cancers that provide new insight into their origins, and better ways to treat these cancers in the context of FA patients. As part of this...
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As a monogenic blood disorder with potential survival disadvantage, Fanconi anemia has long been considered an attractive target for conventional gene therapy but success has been elusive. Consequently, there has been increasing interest in developing techniques to catalyze correction of the disease-causing mutation at the...
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My lab has developed a rapid and efficacious Cas9-based approach to introduce programmed sequence changes to human cells with ease. This work takes advantage of our discovery that Cas9 is extremely long-lived on its target DNA, yet releases a flap of single stranded DNA after...
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Current therapy for FA is limited to allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT), a process associated with significant morbidity and mortality, particularly when an ideally matched donor is not readily available. Therefore, novel therapies that improve or replace SCT are needed. Progress in FA therapy has...
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By virtue of their inability to repair a specific form of DNA damage, persons with Fanconi Anemia (FA) are appreciably more susceptible to development of certain cancers. Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), which arises from the lining cells of the mouth, occurs at >500 fold...
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The objective of this proposal is to conduct a pilot study of metformin to treat FA. This pilot study will explore whether Metformin is safe and efficacious in improving hematopoiesis in patients with Fanconi Anemia. We will focus on pediatric and young adult patients with...
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“If I had waited another six months, my story wouldn’t be the same.” Katherine was born into a world shaped by loss. Her older sister, Gracie, was diagnosed with Fanconi anemia (FA) shortly after the family moved to the United...
Institution: Laboratorio de Citogenetica, Instituto Nacional de Pediatría, Mexico City, México Area of expertise: Medical genetics, dysmorphology. My work: I am a medical geneticist from Mexico City, introduced to the field of Fanconi anemia (FA) by my mentor, Dr. Sara Frias, whom...
At the Fanconi Cancer Foundation (FCF), we understand the critical importance of addressing mental health alongside physical health for individuals with Fanconi anemia (FA) and their family caregivers. Recent research on the mental health challenges faced by adults with FA...