September 23, 2022 – Cleveland Clinic received a $7.9 million five-year grant from the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health to form one of three national centers as part of the newly established Radiation Oncology-Biology Integration Network (ROBIN).
In collaboration with Emory University, Cleveland Clinic researchers and clinicians will lead the studies with the goal of developing new cancer treatment approaches by improving understanding of the drivers of efficacy. Specifically, the team will study radiotherapy in combination with antibody-drug conjugates and immune checkpoint inhibitors.
A multidisciplinary team from the fields of radiation oncology, radiation biology and radiation physics research will allow for continuous sharing of information. In addition, the creation of a cross-training workforce development program will help build a pipeline of scientists in radiation biology, radiation physics and clinical radiation oncology.
The ROBIN center will draw upon Cleveland Clinic’s high patient volumes to generate comprehensive molecular data that will provide key information to enable physicians to select the best treatment for each patient.
A second clinical trial examining the effectiveness of treating recurrent head and neck cancer with radiation therapy and nivolumab, is being led by Shlomo Koyfman, M.D., a radiation oncologist at the Taussig Cancer Institute.
De-identified patient samples from those receiving the current standard of care and those in the clinical trials will be collected and stored at the Cleveland Clinic BioRepository, a 22,000-square-foot facility on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus that is managed by Azenta Life Sciences and facilitates precision-medicine biobanking through sample collections, transport and integrated tracking.