UF Pediatric Oncologist Awarded v Foundation Grant for Pediatric Osteosarcoma Study

University of Florida Health pediatric oncologist John A. Ligon, M.D., has been awarded a $600,000 grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research to study a personalized immunotherapy vaccine to treat relapsed pediatric osteosarcoma.

Ligon’s study, titled “Leveraging RNA-lipid Nanoparticle Vaccines to Induce Immune Response in Metastatic Pulmonary Osteosarcoma,” will use a nanoparticle vaccine originally developed by Elias Sayour, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor of neurosurgery and pediatrics in UF’s College of Medicine, to treat brain tumors. Sayour is undertaking a clinical trial funded by a National Institutes of Health R01 grant to test the vaccine.

“We are expanding the trial to treat even more patients and will use this grant to open a new arm for patients with unresectable tumors,” said Ligon, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics. “Nanoparticle vaccines are personalized vaccines derived from the patient’s own tumor, so they are not restricted to one disease type. It’s a really exciting platform — there are limitless possibilities for other types of cancer.”

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