2023-2024 U.S. News & World Report ranked Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital (JHACH) nationally in seven pediatric specialties—neonatology, diabetes and endocrinology, nephrology, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, pulmonology and lung surgery and cancer. Researchers Ranjan Perera, Ph.D. and Masanobu Komatsu, Ph.D. each received grants from the Florida Department of Health Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program. Each grant provides about $600,000 over three years to support fundamental theoretical or experimental investigative research on cancer at the molecular, cellular and organismic levels, as well as discovery and development of new drugs or therapies.
Perera’s lab focuses on biomarkers and potential therapeutics for prostate cancer. Despite significant advances in therapy, improvements in prostate cancer-related mortality have been marginal. Current widely used, prostate-specific antigen testing has poor cancer specificity, and it does not differentiate indolent from aggressive disease, resulting in large numbers of unnecessary biopsies and overtreatment. The study will focus on improving the quality of life of men by improving decision-making during and after prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.
Komatsu’s lab is pursuing a novel therapeutic strategy to increase the power of a patient's immunity against cancer. The strategy to produce an “immune hot” environment in malignant tumors could revolutionize cancer patients’ care and may have broad application among adult and childhood cancers.