The focus of Dr. Oberley-Deegan’s laboratory is to reduce side effects associated with cancer therapy. Our main goal is to reduce radiation and chemotherapy induced toxicity to normal tissues while not protecting the tumor cells from being killed by these therapies.

We have five main areas of focus in our laboratory:

1. Protection of normal tissues undergoing radiation therapy
2. Understanding the role of metabolic disorders in radiation toxicities
3. Protection of normal tissues exposed to chemotherapy
4. Determine the role of tumor progression when mitigating normal tissue toxicity
5. Clinical trials in Anal Cancer and Rectal Cancer using a promising new radioprotector.

Dr. Oberley-Deegan’s laboratory is involved in several clinical trials currently ongoing at UNMC. There are two Phase II trials ongoing to investigate the role of a catalytic antioxidant as a radioprotector for anal and rectal cancer patients. There is an observational trial open to correlate adipose health and adiponectin levels to radiation-induced toxicities.