Trial Information

Investigation of the Immune Response to Gastrointestinal Tumors and Development of Novel Biomarkers for the Presence of Gastrointestinal Cancer

The first goal of this proposal is to collect cells from the peripheral blood, tumor
draining lymph nodes and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in patients with early or late stage
gastrointestinal cancers. These samples will be evaluated in a variety of immunological
assays to better understand the immune response to these two cancers. The second goal of
this proposal is to evaluate using novel proteomic, cellomic, and genomic techniques the
serum and peripheral blood lymphocytes of these patients for protein, cellular changes and
genetic markers that correlate with the presence of cancer. The information gathered from
these studies will directly enhance our ability to design, conduct and monitor novel
immunotherapeutic protocols for the treatment of patients with gastrointestinal cancer.