Dr. Hui-Ming Chang
Dr. Hui-Ming Chang at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has been awarded a five-year, $3.5 million National Institutes of Health grant to study how dexrazoxane can protect the heart without hampering doxorubicin’s ability to fight cancer.
Preventing heart damage is especially important for the long-term survival of cancer patients, breast cancer patients in particular, according to a news release.
Chang is testing her laboratory findings at the newly opened UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Phase 1 Cancer Clinical Trial Unit. Cancer clinical trials at UAMS were previously limited to phase 2 and 3 studies.
Dr. Michael Birrer, the institute’s director and vice chancellor, called the trial “a significant milestone for UAMS and the Cancer Institute.”
The study, called the “Phoenix Trial,” is now recruiting 25 healthy women volunteers, ages 18-65. It will also recruit 120 breast cancer patients with non-metastatic, HER2-negative breast cancer.
If the first trial is successful, further trials could include other types of cancer, Chang said.
Sign up for Daily E-news
![Chris Gosnell, CEO of Farmers Bank & Trust of Magnolia: “How do we get younger people into the industry and how are we recruiting that talent and retaining it once we have it?” [Jason Burt]](https://arkansasbusiness.wppcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/JBP_2368_opt-150x150.jpg)
