Grace Blitzer, MD, an assistant professor and radiation oncologist in the Department of Human Oncology, recently earned an ASTRO-ACS Clinician Scientist Development Grant (CSDG). This three-year (9/1/2025 – 8/31/2028), $437,400 award supports her research on how cancer DNA from a blood test may be used to personalize the treatment of endometrial cancer patients .
Pilot trial investigating the role of circulating tumor DNA as a risk stratification tool to guide of adjuvant therapy in endometrial cancer
Deaths from uterine cancer are increasing across the United States while the treatment for endometrial cancer (the most common type of uterine cancer) has remained similar over the past several decades. All patients begin with surgery to remove the uterine cancer. This can be followed by chemotherapy, radiation, or a combination – depending on risk factors that were established in the 1990s. Dr. Blitzer has proposed the question, “Would survival rates and the quality-of-life during treatment improve if clinicians were able to better personalize each patient’s treatment plan?”
In this pilot clinical trial, Dr. Blitzer will be working closely with UWCCC Circulating Biomarker Core co-directors UW-Madison Department of Medicine Medical Oncologist Joshua Lang, MD, MS, and UW-Madison Department of Human Oncology Associate Chair for Research George Zhao, MD, as well as the UW-Madison Department of Gynecologic Oncology to follow women from their initial cancer diagnosis through at least one year of treatment.
The clinical trial will look at circulating tumor (CT) DNA levels over time to see if ctDNA can be used as a risk stratification tool to help guide therapy. The hope is that based on the level of ctDNA and an individual cancer’s mutations, clinicians will be able to determine an accurate and tailored treatment plan for the patient’s specific uterine cancer in the future. The long term goal of this research is to run a multi-institutional national clinical trial that can improve treatment selection and outcomes for future patients with uterine cancer.