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.
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.
This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network highlights the work of University of Arizona Cancer Center at Dignity Health St. Joseph’s as a featured member of Hoosier Cancer Research Network. Jue Wang, MD, FACP, professor of medicine and interdisciplinary oncology and section leader of the Genitourinary Oncology Division at the University of Arizona, shares his research and educational background.
Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have discovered how to predict whether triple negative breast cancer will recur, and which women are likely to remain disease-free. They presented their findings on December 13, 2019, at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, the most influential gathering of breast cancer researchers and physicians in the world.
Milan Radovich, PhD (pictured left), and Bryan Schneider, MD, discovered that women whose plasma contained genetic material from a tumor – referred to as circulating tumor DNA – had only a 56 percent chance of being cancer-free two years following chemotherapy and surgery. Patients who did not have circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA, in their plasma had an 81 percent chance that the cancer would not return after the same amount of time.
This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network highlights the Providence Cancer Institute in Portland, Ore., as a featured member of our network.
Rachel E. Sanborn, MD, is a medical oncologist at Portland Cancer Institute and is a member and co-chair of the HCRN Thoracic Clinical Trial Working Group.
This month, Hoosier Cancer Research Network highlights the University of Kansas Medical Center as a featured member of our network. Anup Kasi, MD, MPH, assistant professor of oncology at the medical center and a member of the HCRN Gastrointestinal Clinical Trial Working Group, shares his research interests and educational background in this investigator spotlight.
Investigators reported results from two HCRN studies during poster sessions at the 2019 World Conference on Lung Cancer, September 7-9 in Barcelona, Spain.
Study authors, led by Greg Durm, MD (pictured left), of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, reported results of the LUN14-179 study, in a poster titled “ChemoXRT w/ Consolidation Pembrolizumab in Unresectable Stage III NSCLC: Long-Term Survival Update and Analysis of Post-Progression Therapy.” (See abstract.)
LUN13-175 study authors, led by Ryan Gentzler, MD, of the University of Virginia, presented a poster titled “Ph I/II Carboplatin, Nab-Paclitaxel and Pembrolizumab for Advanced NSCLC (HCRN LUN13-175): Outcomes by Nab-Paclitaxel Dose.” (See abstract.)
A phase II, open label study for patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC), the most common type of kidney cancer, is currently enrolling subjects at selected Hoosier Cancer Research Network sites. The HCRN GU17-289 study, led by researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis, Ind., compares the positive and negative effects of using high-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) and entinostat to using IL-2 alone. The study also assesses the safety and tolerability of IL-2 and entinostat.
IL-2, also known as aldesleukin, is a biological response modifier that boosts the immune system in cancer treatment and is made in a laboratory setting. The human body also produces IL-2, which is a protein that enhances the growth of cells to build the body’s immune system.
Entinostat is an investigational Class I selective histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor that plays a vital role in regulating gene expression and inducing cell death, known as apoptosis, in cancer cells.
Shadia Jalal, MD, chief scientific officer for Hoosier Cancer Research Network and a thoracic medical oncologist and researcher at Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, understands the importance of process in directing research priorities and getting studies off the ground in a timely fashion.
Since succeeding Bert O’Neil, MD, as CSO in April 2019, Dr. Jalal has focused on ensuring HCRN and member sites can open clinical trials as quickly and efficiently as possible, so eligible patients can gain access to studies when they need them most.
“One of our goals should be to keep clinical research simple,” Dr. Jalal said. “Aside from our regulatory and internal review, it’s good to take a step back and reevaluate and ask, ‘is this step really needed’? From the day we think of an idea to the day we enroll the first patient we should make that process as quick and efficient as possible.”
Each year in the United States, more than 70,000 patients are diagnosed with bladder cancer, and more than 14,000 will die from their disease. The current standard for treating bladder cancer involves chemotherapy, but this approach is not adequate for many patients, particularly those whose disease has metastasized, or spread to other parts of the body.
A new Hoosier Cancer Research Network study may help researchers determine whether a novel approach involving a combination of immunotherapy drugs might benefit patients with advanced disease who are not eligible to receive cisplatin-based chemotherapy.
[Arjun Balar, MD (pictured), of the New York University Langone Medical Center, is sponsor-investigator of the HCRN GU15-215 study.]
The single-arm phase II study, known as HCRN GU15-215, involves the anti-PD-L1 antibody atezolizumab with bevacizumab, a VEGF-targeting antibody that may help to prevent the growth of new blood vessels that feed tumors. Bevacizumab may act in combination with atezolizumab to enhance the anti-tumor immune response.
After five years as chief scientific officer for Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN), Bert H. O’Neil, MD, recently stepped down from the role, a move that coincided with his transition from Indiana University to Eli Lilly and Company. Dr. O’Neil continues to serve as a member of the HCRN Board of Directors.
Having good mentors is something that this year’s George and Sarah Jane Fisher Young Investigator Award recipient, Shahid Ahmed, MD, values greatly. Through his personal drive and strong mentors, Dr. Ahmed pursued learning opportunities and research that led him to Indiana University School of Medicine, where he is currently exploring novel oncology research as a third-year hematology/oncology fellow.
A single arm phase II study, LUN15-299, for patients who have been previously treated for mesothelioma is being conducted by the Hoosier Cancer Research Network and led by HealthPartners Regions Cancer Care in St. Paul, Minn.
The clinical trial will test how the addition of an antiangiogenic therapy drug, ramucirumab, will work with nivolumab, an immunotherapy drug. Researchers hope the combined therapy will help keep the cancer under control.
Christopher J. Hoimes, DO, presented the Hoosier Cancer Research Network study GU14-188 at a poster discussion session October 20 during the 2018 European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Munich, Germany. Dr. Hoimes is sponsor-investigator of the study of neoadjuvant pembrolizumab and chemotherapy for locally advanced urothelial cancer.
See the HCRN GU14-188 poster and read the abstract here.
See coverage in UroToday:
Story provided courtesy of IU Simon Cancer Center.
Less than two years ago, Greg Durm, MD, was finishing up his hematology-oncology fellowship at IU School of Medicine. Now he has delivered an oral presentation at the world’s leading organization for oncology professionals.
Dr. Durm presented an oral abstract about a Phase II lung cancer clinical trial Monday, June 4 in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Nearly 40,000 physicians, researchers, and others from around the world attended the meeting.
Hoosier Cancer Research Network will host meetings for Clinical Trial Working Groups during ASCO 2018.
The following meetings will be at the Holiday Inn Chicago Mart Plaza River North, 350 West Mart Center Drive, Chicago, Ill. See map. All times are CT. Refreshments will be served at all meetings.
A remarkable thing happens when someone contributes to a cause bigger than oneself. But even more profound is the call to do so. That this calling goes beyond time and space is evident in oncology, where it echoes across generations and nations. This call continues to be answered, as proven by significant contributions and those who make them — those like Neda Hashemi Sadraei, MD.
Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) recently recognized Hashemi with the George and Sarah Jane Fisher Young Investigator Award. The award honors Indiana University oncology fellows and faculty members who have made significant contributions to clinical or basic science research, by providing support for research conducted in collaboration with Hoosier Cancer Research Network. In 2011, Dr. William B. Fisher and others generously established the award through the George and Sarah Jane Fisher Fund to challenge the next generation of cancer researchers.
Hoosier Cancer Research Network honored four individuals for their outstanding contributions to clinical research and advocacy during its annual holiday and awards dinner Nov. 30 in Indianapolis.
Investigators working on the HCRN LUN14-179 study, which involved the use of concurrent chemoradiation with consolidation pembrolizumab for unresectable stage III non-small cell lung cancer, anticipated that some patients would experience pneumonitis. But they did not know which of their patients might be more susceptible than others.
To learn more about the rates of pneumonitis among study participants, and whether biomarkers could be identified that might predict whether a patient might be more susceptible, researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center launched a retrospective analysis of the study data.
Angela Alistar, MD, has long considered both the emotional and physical well-being of patients as mutually paramount. A medical oncologist with Atlantic Hematology Oncology, Atlantic Medical Group, and the medical director of GI Medical Oncology at Carol G. Simon Cancer Center at Morristown Medical Center, Dr. Alistar held this conviction even before she pursued a career in medicine.
“Throughout my training and my career I have gravitated towards trying to understand the impact that illness has on patients and their families,” Dr. Alistar said. “Oncology seemed the appropriate fit for me because patients with cancer have high emotional needs and require tremendous support from their families and from their doctors,” she reflects. “This is why oncology is my path in medicine.”
For Dr. Alistar, compassion walks hand-in-hand with scientific passion. Before assuming her current role, she developed a research portfolio for GI cancers at Wake Forest School of Medicine, including investigator-initiated studies and Phase I studies in pancreatic cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, and colon cancer.
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