MADISON, Wis. — A team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center was the only group of scientists in Wisconsin to receive a grant from a new National Cancer Institute program aimed at answering “provocative questions.”

Research scientist Richard Halberg, formerly of Princeton, oncologist William Schelman and surgeon Greg Kennedy will use a two-year $360,000 grant to investigate if there is a way to tell if non-malignant lesions found in a colonoscopy will progress to invasive or metastatic colorectal cancer.

The answer could help identify patients at higher risk for developing colon cancer at screening and could also reduce the need for aggressive treatment of such lesions if there is no risk of progression to cancer.