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UH Cancer Center

Discoveries by a team of researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center on ways to improve prevention, early detection and treatment of mesothelioma was featured on the cover of the September issue of the prestigious Ca: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

The discovery was made by UH Cancer Center researcher and the study’s lead author, Michele Carbone, and collaborators that specific gene mutations cause mesothelioma and other cancers, and how asbestos and the mutation of the BAP1 gene interact in this process. “Mesothelioma: Scientific clues for prevention, diagnosis, and therapy” was highlighted in the peer-reviewed journal with the highest impact factor among all disciplines of science and medicine.

Michele Carbone

“I am proud of our world-renowned mesothelioma team in Hawaiʻi. Since I discovered that mesothelioma is caused by gene and environment interactions, it has been a great model to study how genes and the environment interact in cancer causation, and we are developing new therapies to treat cancer with BAP1 mutations,” said Carbone.

Novel ongoing clinical trials targeting BAP1 in mesothelioma are being reviewed at the International Mesothelioma Conference in July 2019 in New York, chaired by Carbone and sponsored by the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

Carbone was also elected into The Academy of Europe in the Category of Life Sciences Section Cell and Developmental Biology in July 2019. He added, “We can find better ways to prevent and treat mesothelioma. We have already done a lot in improving early detection and survival”

—By Nana Ohkawa

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