Cancer Research

The UNT Health Science Center participates in a wide range of cancer research and treatment.

• In 2007, the Health Science Center partnered with the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders to form the Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders (ICBD). This new entity's mission is to eliminate cancer through excellence in research, prevention, patient care, education, and service to rural and other citizens of Texas and beyond.
• The ICBD houses the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) which serves as the focus for academic leadership in all aspects of cancer research and education within UNT Health Science Center and surrounding areas of Fort Worth and North Texas. The ICR membership includes the Health Science Center, the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, UNT-Denton, the University of Texas at Arlington, including the Automation and Robotics Research Institute in Fort Worth (both in Tarrant County), and Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth.
• In 2008, Paul Bowman, MD. senior pediatric hematologist/oncologist and chairman of the leukemia and lymphoma program at Cook Children's Medical Center, was named department chair for the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, bringing his expertise in pediatric oncology to the UNT Health Science Center.
• Researcher Fang Fang Zhang, MD, PhD, assistant professor of epidemiology, is using data collected from the Breast Cancer Family Registry, a NCI-sponsored international breast cancer registry, to determine if an integrated effect of diet, physical activity and body composition has an effect on breast cancer using a grant from the Susan G. Komen Foundation.
• Research by Stephen Mathew, PhD, research assistant professor of molecular biology and immunology, is researching natural killer cells - the first line of defense against viruses and tumors - to determine what makes these cells effective in some people to ward off disease such as cancer, but ineffective in others.
  For more information about the UNT Health Science Center's work in aging and Alzheimer's disease, contact the media office at 817-735-2446.