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.

Growing up in Iran, Hashemi’s path to medicine was straight and unbroken. “We had a lot of friends and family who were in medicine,” recalls Hashemi. “I grew up in a family with pharmacists, dentists, and physicians around me. By middle school, I had already decided,” she says. “I could not see myself doing anything else.”

Hashemi completed medical school at the Iran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran. She then worked as a primary care physician and a researcher at the National Research Institute of Lung Diseases in Tehran. Subsequently, she came to the United States to continue her education. She completed two years of neuro-oncology research fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic, where her mentor was Manmeet Ahluwalia, MD. “He taught me a lot,” she recalls. “Under his mentorship, I wrote abstracts and papers, presented posters, gave oral presentations; all the basic things in research that one should learn, I learned with him. I am really grateful to him.”

After that, she completed her residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. That is where her interest in oncology solidified. “We had a huge variety of patient population in multiple hospitals at which we were rotating, including MD Anderson Cancer Center,” says Hashemi.

Ultimately, Hashemi’s path led her to genitourinary (GU) oncology. “During my residency, I worked with Dr. Nizar Tannir, a very well renowned GU oncologist at MD Anderson,” says Hashemi. “We studied long term survivorship in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinomas. Working with Dr. Tannir in both research and in his clinic made me further interested in GU oncology.”

Indiana University’s strength in GU oncology drew Hashemi toward her next step. “When I was looking for my fellowship program, IU seemed to be a very good place to train in GU oncology,” she says. “Dr. Larry Einhorn interviewed me for my fellowship, and I was fascinated by him. I found IU a very friendly place, and the mentors were supportive. So, I came here and not for a second did I regret it.”

That was in 2015. Now in her third year, Hashemi serves as chief fellow in hematology/oncology at the Indiana University School of Medicine. “GU malignancies are very diverse cancers, making it a very exciting field,” she says. “I’ve tried to focus in the past year on bladder cancer immunotherapy and combination therapies.”

Specifically, Hashemi seeks to learn whether combination therapies will improve responses or survival and if targeted therapies might exist for bladder cancer. “Right now, I’m working on a variant of bladder cancer that has a very poor outcome compared to the common urothelial carcinoma; it is called plasmacytoid urothelial carcinoma,” she says. “I have collected a cohort of patients who have plasmacytoid bladder cancer and analyzed their responses to a variety of treatments. We are sending those patients to our precision genomics clinic to look for possible targetable mutations. We are also doing epigenomic (methylation) assays and chromatin analysis to compare the plasmacytoid carcinomas with the common urothelial carcinomas. If any DNA hypermethylation is found, then we could try combining immune checkpoint inhibitors or chemotherapy with a hypomethylating agent.”

The depth of Hashemi’s contributions is seen in her patient-centered perspective. “What matters in the end is patients living longer and healthier,” she says.

Hashemi’s story is marked by both personal contribution and collaboration. “I have several mentors who have helped me on my research and career development,” she says. These include Drs. Larry Einhorn, Nasser Hanna, Roberto Pili, Costantine Albany, Shadia Jalal, Safi Shahda, and Hristos Kaimakliotis. “I have learned during my fellowship that close collaboration with basic scientists and pharmacists is crucial in conducting clinical research.” To Hashemi, the call to collaborate has never been stronger. “Another project I am currently working on is in collaboration with Dr. David Boothman. We are proposing a grant on a combination therapy for advanced urothelial carcinoma which includes a novel bioactivatible agent developed in Boothman lab.” “The filed of oncology is booming, there is a lot of information coming out,” she says.

Hashemi says she will use the funding from the George and Sara Jane Fisher Young Investigator Award toward her research in plasmacytoid urothelial carcinoma. “This could add to the literature on this disease with such an extremely poor outcome,” she says.

“I’m really honored to have this award,” Hashemi continues. “I want to thank HCRN and particularly thank Dr. Fisher. He and his family have contributed a lot to cancer research and to the IU fellowship program, motivating fellows and faculty in early career to work on research. Sometimes, we need a little bit of help to make one of our protocols start.”

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 conducted more than 180 trials in a variety of cancer types and supportive care, resulting in more than 350 publications. More than 7,500 subjects have participated in Hoosier Cancer Research Network clinical trials.