Researchers at FIU are advancing a personalized approach to cancer treatment that is showing increasingly promising results for patients with hard-to-treat disease, supported by new philanthropic investment that is helping expand the science behind the work.
A recent gift from the Tyler Trent Foundation is accelerating research led by Diana Azzam, whose lab is pioneering functional precision medicine — an emerging strategy that identifies the most effective therapies by testing large libraries of drugs directly on living tumor cells from individual patients.
The support comes as preliminary findings from the next phase of Azzam's clinical research indicate even stronger responses than those observed in her original study, reinforcing the potential of drug sensitivity testing to guide treatment decisions when standard approaches fail.
"Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death, and many patients eventually run out of effective treatment options," Azzam said. "What we're seeing in our latest work suggests that functional testing can reveal opportunities that traditional methods may miss."
Beyond genetics alone
Unlike conventional precision oncology, which relies primarily on genetic mutations to guide care, functional precision medicine evaluates how a patient's cancer actually responds to hundreds of existing drugs. Tumor cells grown from patient samples are exposed to a wide range of compounds, allowing researchers to observe real-time drug sensitivity and resistance.
In earlier clinical research, this approach generated treatment recommendations for all participants, with many patients experiencing improved outcomes. Early data from the newest clinical phase suggest that expanding the range of drugs tested may further enhance both the effectiveness and speed of identifying viable therapies.
The method has drawn particular interest for patients with recurrent or treatment-resistant cancers, including cases where genomic testing reveals few actionable mutations.
"Our goal is to find the right drug for the right person at the right time," Azzam said. "Functional testing gives us another powerful tool to do that."
Expanding the search for effective treatments
The Tyler Trent Foundation's gift will allow Azzam's lab to expand its library of FDA-approved generic medications and natural compounds — a carefully curated collection of safe, widely available molecules. Many of these compounds, originally developed as antibiotics, antifungals or antiparasitic, have shown unexpected promise in cancer research and may be repurposed for oncological use.
By focusing on medications with established safety profiles, results from this study are expected to support their earlier introduction in treatment, particularly when they demonstrate synergistic effects with standard therapies. This approach could allow lower doses of conventional chemotherapy to be used, helping reduce toxicity while maintaining or enhancing treatment effectiveness and accelerating the translation from laboratory discovery to patient care.
"When we identify a drug that works, it's often something physicians already know how to prescribe," Azzam said. "That significantly increases the potential for rapid clinical impact."
A legacy driving discovery
The Tyler Trent Foundation was established in memory of Tyler Trent, who died from osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer. During his illness, Tyler became known nationally for his optimism and advocacy, using his platform to encourage support for cancer research. His legacy has helped raise millions of dollars to advance cancer science and patient care.
