This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) features our member HealthPartners Institute and Arkadiusz Z. Dudek, MD. He’s a medical oncologist at Regions Hospital Cancer Care Center in St. Paul, Minn., an investigator at HealthPartners Institute, and a professor in the Department of Medicine at University of Minnesota.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Dudek is a medical oncologist who has more than 20 years of cancer clinical research experience, 21 years in the clinical management of cancer, and more than 19 years in the field of tumor biology, signal transduction, and cancer immunotherapy. His expertise is in design and execution of clinical trials for cancer therapy with a special interest in the development of novel cancer therapeutics. He has 18 years of experience serving in several leadership positions in clinical trial offices at the University of Minnesota and the University of Illinois. He chairs and manages a broad range of clinical trials (from phase 1 through phase 3, from cooperative group, investigator-initiated, and industry-sponsored studies) that are either therapeutic or non-therapeutic studies. He has authored and co-authored more than 125 publications in peer-reviewed medical and research journals for his work in lung cancer, melanoma, and kidney cancer. Dr. Dudek serves as medical officer in several startup oncology companies. Read More

A Hoosier Cancer Research Network study for patients with high-risk ocular melanoma, a rare type of cancer affecting the eye, is now open for accrual. According to the National Cancer Institute, ocular melanoma often doesn’t present early signs or symptoms.

Typically, patients with ocular melanoma can choose to have surgery to remove the eye, called enucleation, or receive radiation to the eye. After either treatment, patients are monitored for recurrence of their disease. Patients with high-risk ocular melanoma have a risk of cancer recurrence of up to 50% within 3 years after receiving initial treatment for their disease.

A number of treatment options are now available for patients with cutaneous melanoma, which begins in skin cells called melanocytes, the pigment-producing cells that generate pigments of our skin, hair, and eyes. However, progress in treating high-risk ocular melanoma has eluded researchers. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) features our member West Cancer Center in Memphis, Tenn., and Daniel Vaena, MD, a medical oncologist and hematologist and director of the Genitourinary and Phase I programs at West Cancer Center and Research Institute.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Vaena has particular interests in novel immunotherapy and molecular biomarkers for prediction of treatment efficacy. Dr. Vaena has expertise in clinical research auditing, clinical trials design and data quality, and has been a long-time member of the Alliance Cooperative Group Audit Committee.

West Cancer Center & Research Institute is the leader in comprehensive adult cancer care and research in the mid-south, providing a continuum of care to more than 30,000 individuals each year. With a 40-year history of clinical excellence and a longstanding commitment to groundbreaking research, West provides patients with a full spectrum of care, including access to Phase I through Phase III clinical trials. In 2019, West joined OneOncology — a partnership of the nation’s leading community oncology practices with a mission of driving the future of cancer care through a patient-centric, physician-led, data-driven, and technology-powered model. Read More

The American Society of Clinical Oncology’s ASCO20 Virtual Scientific Program will feature abstracts from three Hoosier Cancer Research Network studies. The program, taking place May 29-31, will feature more than 250 oral abstract presentations and 2,500 poster presentations from 24 disease-based and specialty tracks.

The abstracts featuring HCRN studies include an oral abstract for GU16-260, a poster discussion for GU14-188, and posters for GU14-188 and LUN14-179. Read More

A Hoosier Cancer Research Network study for adult patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) will help doctors determine whether some patients could forego bladder removal and receive standard chemotherapy drugs and the immunotherapy drug, nivolumab. It will also test whether adding nivolumab to chemotherapy drugs, gemcitabine and cisplatin, works better than chemotherapy alone for treating bladder cancer that has invaded the muscle layer of the bladder. Correlative tests, including genomic sequencing, will play a critical role in identifying biomarkers that might help determine which patients could be spared the removal of their bladders.

People with MIBC are typically treated with chemotherapy and a radical cystectomy, or surgical removal of the bladder. Chemotherapy preceding surgery has been shown to increase the likelihood of curing bladder cancer compared to surgery alone.

The phase II study, “Neoadjuvant gemcitabine, cisplatin, plus nivolumab in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer with selective bladder sparing,” also known as HCRN GU16-257, is now enrolling eligible subjects, ages 18 and above, at Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai in New York, NY; City of Hope in Duarte, Calif.; Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah; Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Ore.; Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Pa.; University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center in Madison, Wis.; and USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles, Calif. Up to 76 subjects will participate in the study. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) features our member University of Virginia Cancer Center and Ryan Gentzler, MD, MS, a thoracic medical oncologist and clinical investigator at the UVA Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center.

Research Interests and Expertise

Much of Dr. Gentzler’s research focuses on developing new drugs and therapeutic strategies for the treatment of patients with lung cancer. “While I have experience and interest in most areas of thoracic oncology, some areas of focus include combination therapy involving immunotherapy, novel combinations to overcome resistance for EGFR-mutant lung cancers, and new therapies for small cell lung cancer,” he said. “I also collaborate with basic and translational science researchers at UVA to study the immune microenvironment to further understand mechanisms by which lung cancer may be more vulnerable to immunotherapy.” Read More

Supporters of Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) donated more than $5,400 this spring through the Reps for Research challenge.

The annual event, led by HCRN Chairman Christopher A. Fausel, PharmD, and Jeanne Schilder, MD, involves contributions tied to the number of bench press repetitions they complete during the Arnold Sports Festival 5K Pump and Run event in Columbus, Ohio. The event took place on Sunday, March 8.

Thirty-four supporters answered the challenge in 2020, contributing $5,480 to support novel investigator-initiated research conducted by HCRN. Read More

In a phase II study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) investigators report that switch maintenance pembrolizumab leads to additional objective responses and significantly prolongs progression-free survival in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer achieving at least stable disease with first-line platinum-based chemotherapy.

The multi-center investigator-initiated study, “A Randomized, Double-Blinded, Phase II Study of Maintenance Pembrolizumab versus Placebo after First-line Chemotherapy in Patients with Metastatic Urothelial Cancer: HCRN GU14-182,” was led by the Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and included 30 member sites of HCRN. Read More

As the books closed on 2019, Hoosier Cancer Research Network approached a familiar juncture. The organization’s steady growth, both in numbers as well as in the range and quality of service we provide, have led us to full capacity in our present location. There is only so much creative reorganizing you can do in a limited space.

I am pleased to announce that this spring, HCRN will move to its new home at 7676 Interactive Way, on the northwest side of Indianapolis. This new location, visible from I-465 between the 71st and 86th Street exits, nearly doubles the square footage of our space in the 500 North Meridian building, and offers ample room to expand in certain key areas of immediate and future need, such as:

• Additional storage space and resources for the biorepository and correlative research team.
• Additional conference rooms to accommodate the active schedules of Clinical Trial Working Groups and study-specific teleconferences.
• Additional offices and cubicles for our growing staff.

In many ways, HCRN has come full circle, experiencing familiar challenges that come with growth. While it may feel like we’ve been here before, viewing our “story” in perspective shows each cycle has led the organization to a new stage in its development. Read More

As a member of the Hoosier Cancer Research Network, I am grateful to collaborate with outstanding investigators in the development of multi-center, investigator-initiated clinical trials. I’ve seen the value of this collaboration throughout my own professional development: from my oncology fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Larry Einhorn and Dr. Nasser Hanna to my current role as a lead investigator for a number of early-stage therapeutic clinical trials. HCRN has been a trusted and valuable resource every step of the way. In my new role as HCRN’s chief scientific officer, it is my goal to ensure HCRN’s research portfolio continues to reflect the scientific excellence and relevance for which it is highly regarded. Read More

Since pathology class in medical school in Nepal, Sravanti Rangaraju, MBBS, this year’s George and Sarah Jane Fisher Young Investigator Award recipient, has found studying peripheral blood smears intriguing.

“When you look at blood cells under a microscope, you can get clues to several diagnoses just based on that,” said Dr. Rangaraju, a third-year hematology oncology fellow at Indiana University School of Medicine.

During her internship at the Northern Railway Central Hospital in India, she cared for a patient who was presumed to have tuberculosis due to enlarged lymph nodes, but actually had lymphoma.

“Through residency, I was interested in non-malignant hematology. I wanted to treat and workup anemias and blood clotting disorders. That completely changed when I entered fellowship because my first rotation was on the inpatient leukemia service. I was completely blown away by the disease biology of leukemia.” Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) features our member The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Peter H. O’Donnell, MD, deputy director, Center for Personalized Therapeutics; associate director, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenomics Fellowship Program; and associate director, Paul Calabresi Oncology Training Program (K12) at The University of Chicago. Read More

Hoosier Cancer Research Network is moving to a new office location this spring, and our mailing address is changing. The following FAQ outlines how this change will impact certain areas of our operations. If you have any questions not covered below, please call our offices at 317-921-2050, or send an email to contact@hoosiercancer.org. Read More

A Hoosier Cancer Research Network multi-site phase II study led by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai/Tisch Cancer Institute is testing the poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib in metastatic urothelial cancer patients with somatic DNA damage response (DDR) alterations in their cells. The study is open to accrual at HCRN member sites, including: Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit, Mich.; Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City, Utah; Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, N.Y.; Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Md.; The University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chicago, Ill; and the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Urothelial cancer forms in cells that line the urethra, bladder, renal pelvis, and ureters. Bladder tumors often have mutations in genes involved in repair of DNA damage.

“We know in urothelial cancer that, based on genomic sequence studies that have been done, a lot of mutations occur in these DNA damage repair genes, but it has never really been tested whether or not these gene mutations in bladder cancer render tumors more susceptible to these drugs called PARP inhibitors,” said Matthew D. Galksy, MD, sponsor-investigator of the study and a medical oncologist at Mount Sinai. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) features our member Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Institute’s Guru P. Sonpavde, MD, a long-time HCRN investigator. Read More

Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center is leading a phase II clinical trial that will test the PD-L1 checkpoint inhibitor atezolizumab plus chemotherapy in patients with advanced urothelial cancer who are cisplatin-ineligible and whose cancer worsened after treatment with a PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor.

The study, HCRN-GU17-295, is open to accrual at the IU Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis and Methodist Hospital in Omaha, Neb. Read More

Hoosier Cancer Research Network investigators presented a trials in progress poster featuring the HCRN study GU17-295 during the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s 2020 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium on Friday, Feb. 14, in San Francisco, Calif.

The poster, titled, “Phase II trial of atezolizumab plus chemotherapy after progression on single-agent PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitor in cisplatin ineligible patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma HCRN GU17-295,” was presented during Trials in Progress Poster Session B: Urothelial Carcinoma; Penile, Urethral, Testicular, and Adrenal Cancers. See abstract.

“This phase two study aims to investigate continuation of immunotherapy beyond progression and the addition of chemotherapy in patients with cisplatin-ineligible metastatic urothelial carcinoma,” said Nabil Adra, MD, MSc, sponsor-investigator of the study and a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center. “If successful, we would like to investigate the mechanism of re-sensitizing tumors to immunotherapy with the addition of chemotherapy.” Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) highlights our member the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Autumn McRee, MD, associate professor of medicine and director of the GI Clinical Trials Program at the cancer center, shares her research interests in this investigator spotlight. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) highlights the IU Health Ball Memorial Cancer Center as a featured member of our network. Maitri Kalra, MD, a medical oncologist at the cancer center, shares her research interests in this spotlight. Read More

The Hoosier Cancer Research Network study, HCRN ESO17-325, a phase II study for adults with previously treated metastatic esophageal cancer, with one of three genetic mutations, including homologous recombination (HR) in tumor tissue; defective or loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in tumor tissue; or a germline mutation in the blood, was featured as a trials in progress poster during the American Society of Clinical Oncology‘s 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium on Jan. 23, 2020. The study, which is open to accrual at Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center and Moffitt Cancer Center, tests the safety and efficacy of the PARP inhibitor, niraparib, versus the current standard of care. Read More