This spring, Hoosier Cancer Research Network Chairman Christopher A. Fausel, PharmD, offered a unique challenge to friends and supporters of HCRN. Combining his interest in strength training and his passion for investigator-initiated research, Fausel invited pledges for every bench-press “rep” he could complete at the Arnold Sports Festival’s 5K Pump and Run event in Columbus, Ohio.

Twenty individuals responded with pledges of support for the Reps for Research challenge. Fausel reached his goal of 30 reps during the event (see video), and HCRN received donations totaling more than $1,800 for investigator-initiated research.
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Gregory A. Durm, MD, a hematology/oncology fellow at the Indiana University School of Medicine, is helping to break new ground in the fight against cancer by studying circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in lung cancer.

CTCs are cells that have broken away from primary tumors and have entered into the bloodstream. CTCs that survive the bloodstream’s assault could migrate to distant parts of the body where they can become the seeds of metastatic disease. Technologies to detect CTCs have improved in recent years, in part through collaborative multi-institutional efforts such as a parallel flow micro-aperture chip system developed and tested by Purdue University engineers and investigators at the IU Simon Cancer Center. Read More

Hoosier Cancer Research Network is pleased to announce the opening of a cancer clinical trial for patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer at select sites throughout the United States.

The study, known as LUN14-179, seeks to determine if the use of an investigational drug, Pembrolizumab, following standard chemoradiation treatment, improves the time to death or distant metastatic disease in patients with inoperable or unresectable stage IIIA or IIIB non-small cell lung cancer. The FDA has approved Pembrolizumab for the treatment of melanoma but it has not yet approved the drug to treat lung cancer. Read More

Hoosier Cancer Research Network recently honored two investigators with awards for their contributions to clinical cancer research.

Gabriela Chiorean, MD, received the 2014 Danny Danielson Translational Innovation Award. The award was created in 2013 by Donald C. “Danny” Danielson and is granted twice each year through the Walther Cancer Foundation to investigators working in partnership with Hoosier Cancer Research Network. The award supports the correlative components of clinical trial protocols when financial support is not otherwise available. Read More

As Hoosier Cancer Research Network celebrates our 30th anniversary, we acknowledge another significant milestone: the 40th anniversary of the discovery of the cure for testicular cancer by HCRN co-founder and board member, Lawrence H. Einhorn, MD.

Dr. Einhorn joined the Indiana University School of Medicine in 1973, just one year before his groundbreaking discovery testing the platinum-based drug Cisplatin with two additional drugs. He continues to serve as Distinguished Professor and Livestrong Foundation Professor of Oncology at the IU School of Medicine.

The following conversation with Dr. Einhorn introduces a new series of interviews with HCRN co-founders, who share their perspectives on the organization’s founding, development, and history, and on advances in cancer research. We thank each of our co-founders for their vision to create a vibrant academic-community partnership to advance cancer research in the State of Indiana and beyond. Read More

Hoosier Cancer Research Network, formerly known as Hoosier Oncology Group, recently honored Matthew Galsky, MD, as recipient of the Danny Danielson Translational Innovation Award.

The $10,000 award, granted by the Walther Cancer Foundation through the generous support of business and civic leader Donald C. “Danny” Danielson, is given twice each year to investigators working in partnership with Hoosier Cancer Research Network to support the correlative components of clinical trial protocols when financial support is not otherwise available. Read More

Hoosier Cancer Research Network, formerly known as Hoosier Oncology Group, recently honored Daniela Matei, MD, as the 2014 recipient of the George and Sarah Jane Fisher Young Investigator Award.

Dr. Matei received her medical degree in her native Romania before moving to the United States and completed her residency at SUNY at Stony Brook, NY, and fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles. She joined the Indiana University School of Medicine in 2002. Dr. Matei is currently an associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, and a researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center. Read More

Hoosier Cancer Research Network (HCRN) recently marked its 30th anniversary with a dinner and presentation of awards.

The event featured comments by HCRN co-founder Patrick J. Loehrer, Sr., MD and chairman of the board Christopher A. Fausel, PharmD, MHA, BCOP. HCRN honored five individuals during the June 19 event in Indianapolis. Read More

Former Hoosier Cancer Research Network vice-chair Robin T. Zon, MD, FACP, FASCO, will chair an Education Session during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.

Zon, along with Jeffrey S. Abrams, MD, of the National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and Nicholas J. Robert, MD, of Virginia Cancer Specialists, US Oncology Research Network, will present “The Changing Landscape of Federally Sponsored Trials” on Saturday, May 31, from 8:00 – 9:15 AM at the McCormick Place in Chicago. Read More

Lawrence Einhorn, M.D., the physician-researcher who developed the cure for testicular cancer, has been elected a fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Dr. Einhorn, Indiana University Distinguished Professor and a physician-researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, will be inducted into the American Association for Cancer Research Academy Class of 2014 during a ceremony April 4 in San Diego.

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Noah Hahn, MD, recently concluded his tenure as chief scientific officer of the Hoosier Oncology Group and associate professor of medicine at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center (IUSCC). Hahn joins the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center as bladder cancer program director starting April 2014.

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IU Simon Cancer Center breast cancer oncologist George Sledge, MD, is featured in the Discovery Channel documentary “Getting Personal: The Shifting Landscape of Cancer Care.”

New research is shedding light on the genetic causes of cancer, as well as the molecular make-up of individual cancers, paving the path for more effective therapies and more personalized “targeted” treatments. Read More

Dr. Daniela Matei received the Research Frontiers Trailblazer Award for her discoveries related to the biology of ovarian cancer at the second annual Research Day conference.

The Trailblazer award honors outstanding IUPUI researchers who are “showing great promise in becoming nationally and internationally known for their accomplishments in advancing the frontiers of knowledge.” Read More

ASCO President, Dr. George W. Sledge, was among the clinician, government and industry leaders selected to testify before the President’s Cancer Panel in Boston on September 22, 2010. The meeting, titled, “The Future of Cancer Research: Accelerating Scientific Innovation,” focused on assessing the past 40 years of cancer research and exploring potential future enhancements and advances in biomedical science. Read More

George Sledge, M.D., can add yet one more title to his long list of impressive credentials and titles: President of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). Dr. Sledge is most known for his ground-breaking work in breast cancer research, with a specific interest in the use of angiogenesis blockers, or disruption of the blood supply, in the treatment of breast cancer. Read More