For more than four decades, William B. Fisher, MD, a medical oncologist at the IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital Cancer Center, has served cancer patients, their families, and the community of East Central Indiana. Dr. Fisher was one of six oncologists who founded Hoosier Cancer Research Network (known then as the Hoosier Oncology Group) in the mid 1980s, and served as its founding vice chair. He has remained a strong supporter of the vision for collaborative research to expand patient access to clinical trials throughout the state of Indiana and beyond. In honor of his longstanding commitment, HCRN recently presented Dr. Fisher with the organization’s first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award during an event in Indianapolis.

“Dr. Fisher was and is a pioneer in providing high-quality cancer care and bringing research opportunities to patients in the community setting,” said Hoosier Cancer Research Network Chairman Christopher A. Fausel, PharmD. “He has served his patients and families in the Muncie area with distinction and compassion for more than 40 years.”

“I have known but a few who even come close to possessing the heart and soul of Bill Fisher. He is the consummate physician who places the total care of his patients above all else,” said Patrick J. Loehrer, Sr., MD, director of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, and founding chairman of Hoosier Cancer Research Network. “Bill is a consummate friend who finds greater joy in others’ accomplishments than in his own and one whose heart aches for those in distress. He has spent a lifetime trying to make a difference, one person at a time. What I suspect he doesn’t appreciate is that he succeeded beyond his wildest imagination.”

Retired community oncologist John McClean, MD, from Galesburg, Ill., recalls Fisher’s enthusiasm and success in his leadership role with the organization.

“I first met Bill in the mid 1980s and found him to be smart, compassionate, and bounding with energy,” McClean said. “Under his leadership the HOG grew in participants and in the scope of our research. I feel his enthusiasm was one of the main reasons for this growth.”

[Photo: William B. Fisher, MD (right), pictured with fellow HCRN co-founders (from left) Lawrence H. Einhorn, MD, and Patrick J. Loehrer, Sr., MD, during an early Hoosier Oncology Group leadership meeting.]

The son of a Henry County physician, Fisher is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where his interest in oncology was sparked by Peter Nowell, MD, one of the co-discoverers of the Philadelphia chromosome, an abnormality associated with chronic myelogenous leukemia. Fisher completed fellowships in oncology and hematology at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio, and then served for three years in the military at Fort Carson in Colorado, where he practiced hematology/oncology. His desire to establish roots in community practice led him back to Muncie and to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in 1976, where he continues to practice today.

Fisher served as the initial director of oncology and directed the internal medicine residency program at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, where his residents included numerous East Central Indiana physicians. As principal investigator for more than 40 protocols at IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital, The IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital Cancer Center, and The IU Health Ball Memorial Cancer Center at Forest Ridge in New Castle, Fisher has assisted in the treatment of melanoma, lung cancer, head and neck cancer, lymphomas, Hodgkin’s Disease, breast cancer, and renal cell cancer.
 
Fisher and his wife, Terri, are financial supporters of cancer research through the George and Sarah Jane Fisher Fund. He established the fund in the mid 1990s in memory of his mother, Sarah Jane, and brother, George, both of whom died of cancer within the span of three years. Through the fund, Fisher established two awards, given annually by Hoosier Cancer Research Network to early-career cancer researchers as well as clinical research staff.

About Hoosier Cancer Research Network:

Hoosier Cancer Research Network (formerly known as Hoosier Oncology Group) conducts innovative cancer research in collaboration with academic and community physicians and scientists across the United States. The organization provides comprehensive clinical trial management and support, from conception through publication. Created in 1984 as a program of the Walther Cancer Institute, Hoosier Cancer Research Network became an independent nonprofit clinical research organization in 2007. Since its founding, Hoosier Cancer Research Network has initiated more than 160 trials in a variety of cancer types and supportive care, resulting in more than 300 publications. More than 5,000 subjects have participated in Hoosier Cancer Research Network clinical trials.