Highlights from the New ACS RFA-Funded Grants

At the American Cancer Society (ACS), we believe that collaboration allows cancer research to move faster and reach further. By partnering with other like-minded organizations to fund targeted RFAs throughout the year, ACS is able to invest in new grants that address important research gaps and bring focused attention to promising, underexplored areas of science.

"We're grateful to work with partners who bring both vision and shared purpose to this effort," said Christina Annunziata, MD, PhD, senior vice president of Extramural Discovery Science at the American Cancer Society. "Together, we can support talented researchers and fund projects that might otherwise struggle to find a foothold, giving promising ideas the opportunity to grow."

As part of our newly announced Spring 2026 grant slate, ACS is funding new research through five ongoing partnerships. Here we are highlighting the new grants funded through four of these efforts. The 19 new grants funded through our partnership with Yosemite were announced in January 2026.

ACS and Flatiron Clinical Trials Technology Research Impact Awards (CTTRIA)

Through a partnership dating back to 2019, ACS and Flatiron Health have worked together to promote clinically relevant cancer research that utilizes novel data technology to improve outcomes. Through this new Clinical Trials Technology Research Impact Award (CTTRIA), ACS and Flatiron are expanding their work to fund research designed to improve access to, and the representativeness and efficiency of cancer clinical trials, ultimately accelerating the development of new treatments to benefit patients. ACS is funding one award through this RFA during this funding cycle:

Judy Zhong, Ph.D.
Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Project Title: “Studying the Utility of Deep Learning Derived MRI Imaging Biomarkers for Localized Prostate Cancer”

Cancer clinical trials are essential for improving how we prevent, treat, and live beyond cancer, but many trials are slowed by manual paperwork, difficulty finding eligible patients, and gaps in long-term follow-up. In this project, Dr. Zhong will utilize the Clinical Pipe tool as part of the PARTIAL (prostate cancer surgery) trial at Weill Cornell Medicine to evaluate the tool’s ability to improve the accuracy and speed of collecting clinical trial efficacy and safety data. The research team will also determine whether the tool improved the efficiency of identifying eligible patients and the completeness of long-term follow-up data, which is especially valuable for prostate cancer survivors, who often live years after treatment and experience a range of late effects.

ACS IMPACT – Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Expansion Grants

ACS IMPACT – Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Expansion Grants (IMPACT-PCEGs) grants designed to accelerate the recruitment of Black patients into prostate cancer clinical trials, through the previously announced “Expanding Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials in the Community” RFA, with the goal of addressing the more than double mortality rate of this cancer in Black men compared to other demographics. This RFA is part of our larger cross-enterprise ACS IMPACT (Improving Mortality from Prostate Cancer Together) initiative that began in March 2023. These grants were made possible through a collaboration with Trial Library, Inc, and the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium.

ACS is funding one new IMPACT-PCEG as part of this award cycle:

Edouard Trabulsi, M.D.
Albert Einstein Healthcare Network
Project Title: “Enhancing Prostate Cancer Trials in North Philadelphia at Jefferson Einstein Medical Center, Community Site of Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center”

This project aims to expand access to prostate cancer clinical trials for underserved patients in North Philadelphia by strengthening research infrastructure and providing hands-on support to help patients learn about and enroll in clinical trials at Jefferson Einstein Medical Center. By increasing access to existing trials, opening additional therapeutic trials targeting localized and advanced prostate cancer, and addressing challenges like mistrust, low health literacy, and logistical obstacles, the program will ensure more patients can benefit from the latest advances in cancer care. Ultimately, this work seeks to reduce disparities in prostate cancer outcomes and advance health equity in underserved communities by ensuring equitable access to prostate cancer clinical trials.

Leukemia Exploration and Prevention (LEAP) Grant Program

The RUNX1 Research Program and the American Cancer Society (ACS) have partnered to make a demonstrable leap forward in the pursuit of cancer interception and prevention treatments for patients with RUNX1 familial platelet disorder (RUNX1-FPD) through the LEAP grant program. Projects funded through this RFA are focused on one of two topic areas:

• Basic research to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms that cause each leukemogenic step, beginning with germline RUNX1-mutated hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells (HSPCs) that acquire deleterious somatic mutations and expand over time, culminating in overt RUNX1-mutated leukemia.
  
  
• Translational research with strong scientific rationale aimed at enabling cancer interception or prevention approaches for RUNX1-FPD.

ACS is funding one new LEAP-Team award as part of this funding cycle:

Anupriya Agarwal, Ph.D.
Oregon Health & Science University
Project Title: “Investigating clinical efficacy and mechanism of low-dose sirolimus as an early intervention strategy for RUNX1-FPD patients”

This study will test whether an existing anti-inflammatory drug can safely reduce the risk of leukemia in people with RUNX1 familial platelet disorder, a rare inherited condition that puts patients at very high risk for blood cancer. The project builds on evidence that chronic inflammation is an early driver of cancer development in these patients and targets a single key pathway that controls many inflammatory signals at once. By using low-dose sirolimus, a drug already approved and well tolerated in other diseases, the study aims to intervene before cancer forms rather than waiting to treat it after diagnosis. This work could open the door to the first cancer-prevention treatment for this high-risk group and provide a model for preventing cancer in people with inherited cancer risk conditions more broadly.