Selected as one of the five new Cancer Grand Challenges team, Team PROSPECT aims to address the global rise in the incidence of early onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) by understanding the pathways, risk factors and molecules involved in its development. The team’s collective vision is to understand and ultimately reverse the network of causal factors throughout the life course that disrupts biological homeostasis to promote EOCRC.
The team has three overarching objectives for tackling this challenge:
Identify the risk factors associated with EOCRC
Characterize the underlying mechanisms of causal risk factors
Develop precision prevention strategies.
The Drew Laboratory will support Work Packages 2 and 4 by harmonizing biospecimen collections across sites and strengthening existing biorepository efforts at MGH and Wash U. St. Louis to increase the team's ability to perform deep multi-omic profiling of patients diagnosed with EOCRC and early onset colorectal adenomas. In addition, Dr. Drew and Dr. Andrew T. Chan will launch a precision prevention trial of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists in patients with a history of early onset colorectal adenocarcinoma at MGH that is expected to begin enrollment later in 2024.
Team PROSPECT brings together more than 35 investigators, ranging in career stages, across multiple nations (India, Italy, United Kingdom, United States) and institutions (MGH, Harvard University, The Broad Institute, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Washington University of St. Louis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Koch Institute, Institut Pasteur (France), Kings College of London (UK), University of Trento (Italy), and BALCO (India))
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