This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network features our member, the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, and Christos Kyriakopoulos, MD, associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, and a medical oncologist and researcher at UW Carbone Cancer Center.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Kyriakopoulos is an institutional principal investigator for the HCRN study GU16-257, “Neoadjuvant gemcitabine, cisplatin, plus nivolumab in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer with selective bladder sparing.” His research interests include clinical trials in prostate cancer, bladder cancer, and kidney cancer. He is particularly interested in imaging and immunotherapy studies in prostate cancer. He is also the study chair of the national trial EA8153, a study led by the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute (NCI), that examines the role of chemo-hormonal therapy in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer who have already received docetaxel. Read More

The Hoosier Cancer Research Network study, LUN14-179, “A Phase II Trial of Concurrent Chemoradiation With Consolidation Pembrolizumab (MK-3475) for the Treatment of Inoperable or Unresectable Stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC): HCRN LUN14-179,” affirms the effectiveness of consolidation immunotherapy after chemoradiation in adults with unresectable stage IIIA or IIIB non-small cell lung cancer. The study demonstrates that the addition of pembrolizumab in Stage III NSCLC may be associated with prolonged time to metastatic disease or death (TMDD), progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), after treatment with chemoradiation. The findings were recently published in the Clinical Lung Cancer journal and American Cancer Society’s Cancer journal. The median TMDD was 30.7 months, the median PFS was 18.7 months, and the median OS was 35.8 months. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network features our member Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and William P. Harris, MD, associate professor of medicine for the University of Washington School of Medicine and a medical oncologist at Fred Hutch.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Harris is a GI medical oncologist with a main research focus on hepatobiliary oncology. Specific areas of interest include interventional trials targeting therapy for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma and biliary tract cancers, and retrospective and prospective analyses assessing translational biomarkers and imaging features, which might predict response to systemic therapeutic interventions and combinations of local therapeutics and systemic therapy in treating liver tumors. Additional areas of involvement include medical education in medical oncology for pre-clinical medical school students, global health teaching, collaboration with the Uganda Cancer Institute, and involvement with patient advocacy foundations that optimize use of resources to facilitate research and patient care for patients with GI malignancies. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network features our member Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center and Naomi Haas, MD, Director of Kidney and Prostate Cancer Clinical Research at Penn Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Haas is an international expert in the conduct and design of adjuvant clinical trials for kidney cancer and a national expert in prostate and kidney cancer therapeutics. Dr. Haas is an institutional principal investigator for the HCRN study GU16-260, “Phase II study of front line therapy with nivolumab and salvage nivolumab + ipilimumab in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma,” and participated in GU16-257, “Neoadjuvant gemcitabine, cisplatin, plus nivolumab in patients with muscle-invasive bladder cancer with selective bladder sparing.”

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Haas’ research interests include early phase cancer clinical trials in kidney cancer, prostate cancer, and studying emerging treatment plans including those that use CAR T-Cell therapy, immune checkpoint inhibition, angiogenesis, and epigenetics. She also gained experience in retrotransposon, a type of genetic component that copies and pastes itself in different genomic locations by converting RNA back to DNA, through her early work in a basic science lab at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network features our member Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and Michael B. Atkins, MD, deputy director of the cancer center, William M. Scholl Professor, and vice chair of the Department of Oncology. Dr. Atkins is an international leader in translational and clinical research, with more than 30 years of experience working on melanoma, kidney cancer, and cancer immunotherapy research. He is a member of the HCRN Genitourinary Clinical Trial Working Group and is sponsor-investigator of the HCRN GU16-260 clinical trial. He also serves as chair of the Medical Advisory Panel for the Melanoma Research Alliance and co-chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee and board member for the Melanoma Research Foundation.

Prior to working at Georgetown, Dr. Atkins worked as a professor at Harvard Medical School and served in multiple leadership roles, including deputy chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology, director of the Cancer Clinical Trials Office, leader of the Biologic Therapy and Cutaneous Oncology Programs at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, co-principal investigator of the Harvard Skin Cancer SPORE, leader of the Dana Farber Harvard Cancer Center Kidney Cancer Program, and director of the DF/HCC Kidney Cancer SPORE.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Atkins’ research interests include immunotherapy, anti-angiogenic therapy, molecular targeted therapy, and predictive biomarker development, particularly in kidney cancer and melanoma. He has published more than 450 research and review articles, four books and has lectured extensively in these areas. He is associate editor of the Journal of Immunotherapy and serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer. Read More

Erica Stringer-Reasor, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology & Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has been appointed as a co-chair of the Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) Breast Cancer Clinical Trial Working Group.

Dr. Stringer-Reasor joins fellow co-chair Carey K. Anders, MD, a professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and a medical oncologist and researcher at Duke Cancer Institute (DCI). She succeeds Filipa Lynce, MD, a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who recently completed her term as co-chair. HCRN co-chairs serve two-year terms and may serve additional terms with the support of their colleagues.

Clinical Trial Working Groups (CTWGs) provide a forum where researchers from member institutions collaborate to discuss and develop study concepts, identify potential co-investigators and sites to participate in studies, and review the progress of ongoing clinical trials. CTWGs also provide junior investigators an opportunity to receive scientific feedback and mentorship from their senior peers. The Breast Cancer CTWG meets by teleconference every other month, and (when face-to-face meetings are possible) in-person during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium annual meetings. Read More

Investigators participating in Hoosier Cancer Research Network’s Thoracic Clinical Trial Working Group have named three of their colleagues to serve as co-chairs of the group. The new co-chairs are (pictured from left) Greg Durm, MD, assistant professor of clinical medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and a researcher at the IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center; Mary Jo Fidler, MD, associate professor, Department of Internal Medicine at Rush Medical College, Rush University; and Ryan Gentzler, MD, associate professor of medicine: hematology and oncology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. They succeed former co-chairs Karen L. Reckamp, MD, MS, director of the Division of Medical Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, and Rachel E. Sanborn, MD, medical oncologist at Providence Cancer Institute. HCRN co-chairs serve two-year terms with the potential to serve additional terms with the support of their colleagues. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) features our member City of Hope and Joseph Chao, MD, a medical oncologist and researcher at the cancer center. Dr. Chao is a member of the HCRN Gastrointestinal Clinical Trial Working Group and has participated as an investigator on the HCRN GI16-288 and GI17-319 studies.

Research Interests and Expertise

I am a GI medical oncologist with a clinical focus on caring for patients with gastroesophageal cancers. My research interests involve clinical trials exploring novel therapeutics that are continually needed for this disease, particularly in advanced stages. Realizing that improving precision medicine and immunotherapy approaches requires in-depth knowledge of oncogenic mechanisms and tumor biology, I have extended my research efforts into translational analyses and biomarker development. Recent interests include work exploring more in-depth gastroesophageal cancer intrapatient intratumoral heterogeneity and its impact on the tumor immune microenvironment. Read More

This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) features our member Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and Nasser Hanna, MD, a medical oncologist and researcher at the cancer center. Dr. Hanna is a former chairman of the HCRN board of directors and a current member of the HCRN Thoracic Clinical Trial Working Group.

Research Interests and Expertise

The majority of my research has been in the field of lung cancer. My recent focus has been on the incorporation of immunotherapy for earlier stages of lung cancer and to tailor the duration of therapy based upon circulating tumor DNA as a marker for minimal residual disease. Read More

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

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

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

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

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

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