A five-year, $10 million grant award from the National Institutes of Health is supporting the establishment of the Physical Sciences Oncology Center at Penn, or PSOC@Penn. It is one of four centers the National Cancer Institute of the NIH is funding across the country as part of its Physical Sciences in Oncology Network. The network was started in 2009 in recognition of the fact that perspectives rooted in physics, mathematics, chemistry and engineering can all contribute to cancer research.

The Penn team members will make fundamental physical measurements as they clarify mechanisms of how tumors become palpably distinct masses and also how such physical changes contribute to tumor growth. Their research will focus on liver cancer; more than 30,000 people in the United States are diagnosed each year with liver cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, and the five-year survival rate is less than 15 percent. New methods to improve early detection and treatment of the disease are needed. Among the co-investigators is Dr. Emma Furth, who specializes in gastrointestinal, liver, biliary and pancreatic diseases.
Read the Penn News announcement.