LSU Health New Orleans has been awarded a five-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The grant will be used to conduct new research led by Dr. Jennifer Cameron, research professor, and Dr. Michael Hagensee, professor of infectious disease, in conjunction with the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center. The research project, titled the ROPINA trial, will study the increased risk of human papillomavirus (HPV) related head and neck squamous cell carcinoma in people living with HIV.

These studies will for the first time help researchers better understand the interplay between HIV, antiretroviral therapy, and HPV to reveal new opportunities to prevent head and neck cancers.

Cancer now represents one of the leading causes of illness and death for people with HIV/AIDS. According to the American Cancer Society, HIV patients are more likely to have other viruses that can cause cancer, including HPV. As of March 2024, more than 23,000 people in Louisiana were living with HIV.

The Research Project Grant (R01) is the original and historically oldest grant mechanism used by NIH. The R01 provides support for health-related research and development based on the mission of the NIH.

To learn more, visit www.lsulcmchealthcancercenter.org.

 

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About the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center
LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center has reimagined, reinvented, strengthened, and modernized how Louisianians tackle a cancer diagnosis and more importantly, how they can prevent it. Home to more than 100 cancer researchers, the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center’s research programs through the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Research Center of Excellence directly benefit the Louisiana community by conducting focused research necessary to better prevent cancer, detect it earlier when it can be more effectively treated, and to develop the new cancer therapies of tomorrow.  Through funding and critical partnerships such as those with LSU, LCMC Health, Tulane University, and Louisiana Cancer Research Center, LSU LCMC Health Center brings together cancer care and research in Louisiana to focus on the specific challenges the state faces to reduce the inordinate cancer burden.

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LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans (LSU Health New Orleans) educates Louisiana's health care professionals. The state's health sciences university leader, LSU Health New Orleans includes a School of Medicine with campuses in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Lafayette, the state's only School of Dentistry, Louisiana's only public School of Public Health, and Schools of Allied Health Professions, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. LSU Health New Orleans faculty take care of patients in public and private hospitals and clinics throughout the region. In the vanguard of biosciences research, the LSU Health New Orleans research enterprise generates jobs and enormous annual economic impact. LSU Health New Orleans faculty have made lifesaving discoveries and continue to work to prevent, advance treatment or cure disease.