Bruce Campbell

Research Grant in Honor of Bruce Campbell
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Bruce Campbell, a Texan who grew up in the Amarillo area completed his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at the University of Texas, Austin,  and spent most of his professional career in the processing and manufacture of our nation's defensive weapons including high explosive pyrotechnics and nuclear weapons with serving in our military.  Bruce was the Managing Program Engineer for the manufacture of a thermonuclear weapon (Hydrogen Atomic Bomb) and was exposed to a large number of energetic elements such as uranium, plutonium, tritium, etc.

Ten years after retirement, he was diagnosed with stage four non-small cell lung cancer in 2010 which was attributed to his prior work environment.  He had chemotherapy treatment in Amarillo under the direction of M.D. Anderson (MDA).  In 2012 he became a patient of John Heymach, M.D., Ph.D. at MDA Houston, and was one of the first patients accepted for a clinical trial of the new Immunotherapy drug in 2013.  He had infusions every three weeks for two years.  After fifteen days of radiation in 2016 he was diagnosed cancer free.

Bruce and the love of his life, Carol Ann still live in Amarillo, TX.

Rexanna's Foundation is honored to recognize Bruce Campbell through a grant that will be given annually to research dedicated to lung cancer patients.

Grant Proposals

Grant proposals will be received from researchers beginning November 1st in recognition of Lung Cancer Awareness Month and accepted through December 31st. Grant selections will be announced by the last Monday in January of each year. Award recognition will take place at the Houston Lone Star Huddle Up in Houston, Texas every February.
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March 29, 2025
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Funded Research

2025

Funded by —
Bruce Campbell Grant

Innovative Engineered T Cell designs for the treatment of drug-resistant lung cancers

Researchers:
Drew C. Deniger & Alexandre Reuben

Our lab has already discovered and validated 21 unique T cell receptors (TCRs) with in vitro efficacy – ability to recognize and kill tumor cells in the lab. Prior work by academia and industry has demonstrated some proof of concept that introduction of TCRs into patient T cells to generate TCR-T cells resulted in objective clinical responses. However, these results were neither durable past 1 year nor resulting in complete responses, and most patients treated had little or no clinical benefit even if tumor shrinkage was observed. We aim to build upon these proof-of-concept reports and build a cellular therapy that has increased potency and persistence and could be the framework for incorporation of other TCRs that could target any immunogenic peptide/HLA complex for immunotherapy of multiple cancer histologies or autoimmune disorders. We anticipate that, if successful, these studies will be the foundation for Phase I clinical trials in the THNMO department at MD Anderson for patients with refractory lung cancers.

2024

Funded by —
Bruce Campbell Grant

Evaluating the effects of KRAS-inhibitor resistance on the tumor-immune microenvironment and metastasis in NSCLC

Researchers:
Don L. Gibbons, MD, PhD, Department of Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology UT MD Anderson Cancer Center | Samrat Kundu, PhD, Assistant Professor, Thoracic-Head and Neck Medical Oncology

It is critical to comprehend why some patients respond well to KRASi combination with IO while others do not. The progress of this promising class of KRAS inhibitors towards combination clinical trials and eventual approval as frontline cancer therapies will be greatly aided by this pre-clinical research.
1st Annual

Pamela Henicke Grant

2020 Recipients
Primary Investigator:
Dr. Monique Nilsson
Dr. Le
Dr. John Heymach

The total grant of $50,000 will be focused on developing new strategies for enhancing anti-tumor immunity in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer. The identification of new and effective therapies for EGFR-mutant, TKI resistant tumors is currently a critical unmet need.
Pictured from left to right: Lisa Spain (Executive Director of Rexanna's Foundation), Dr. Le, Kenedy Henicke (Pamela's daughter), Greg Henicke (Pamela Henicke's spouse), Lawson Henicke (Pamela Henicke's son), Dr. John Heymach.