How the immune system responds to radiation in rectal cancer
Dynamics of Immune Response in Irradiated Rectal Cancer
This project looks at how short-course preoperative radiation changes tumors, blood immune cells, and gut bacteria in people with rectal cancer to help personalize future treatments.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Weill Medical Coll of Cornell Univ NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (New York, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11189653 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You're invited to a small international project involving 50 people with rectal cancer who will receive standard short-course preoperative radiation. Doctors will collect tumor biopsies, stool samples, and blood during routine colonoscopies before and after radiation and again at surgery about six weeks later, and may also sample nearby lymph nodes. Researchers will apply single-cell and other multi-omics techniques plus AI analyses to map immune, tumor, and microbiome changes caused by radiation. The team will link these sequential tissue and blood findings to how tumors respond, with the goal of speeding better treatment ideas.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal candidates are people with rectal cancer planned for short-course preoperative radiotherapy who can provide biopsy, stool, and blood samples and are treated at one of the participating centers in the US or Europe.
Not a fit: People not receiving preoperative short-course radiation, with metastatic disease not headed to surgery, or unwilling or unable to provide the required samples are unlikely to benefit directly from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help predict who benefits from radiotherapy and guide more personalized radiation and immunotherapy combinations.
How similar studies have performed: Previous research has shown that radiation changes immune responses and the microbiome, but this coordinated, serial multi-omics approach across multiple centers is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
New York, United States
- Weill Medical Coll of Cornell Univ — New York, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Formenti, Silvia C. — Weill Medical Coll of Cornell Univ
- Study coordinator: Formenti, Silvia C.
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.