Indiana University:
A leader in advancing cancer research toward breakthrough discoveries
What will it take to develop cures for cancer, one of the leading causes of death worldwide? The strength of the nation’s largest medical school and the innovative research of the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Indiana.
Researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center at the IU School of Medicine are making groundbreaking cancer discoveries that are shaping patient care and guiding future advancements toward developing cures. From lab studies to clinical trials, they conduct all phases of cancer research. Their expertise and dedication prolongs and saves lives.
IU is where the cure for testicular cancer was discovered, and it’s the home of the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank, the world’s only biorepository for normal breast tissue. Faculty are building on a legacy of discovery, innovation and novel therapies to address one of the world’s greatest health challenges.
Research is the key to curing cancer, and the Indiana University School of Medicine is a top NIH-funded medical school. In 2023, the school received more than $243 million from the National Institutes of Health, ranking 13th in the nation for NIH funding among all public medical schools, according to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research.
“Indiana University is tapping all of the knowledge and new discoveries that we have to tackle some of the most difficult health care challenges,” said Dr. Jay L. Hess, dean of the IU School of Medicine and IU’s executive vice president for university clinical affairs. “We’re working to personalize therapies for cancer and other diseases so that patients don’t have to suffer the way that my mother and countless other people have. We have a clear vision, we’re recruiting top talent, we’re providing people with the tools they need, and we are going to make a difference in people’s lives.”
State-of-the art cancer centers
Part of IU’s strength lies in the comprehensive nature of its approach to discovering more about treating cancer. Faculty at several cancer research centers are conducting innovative research that leads to testing new treatments in clinical trials and developing cutting-edge cancer therapies. The IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Indiana and one of only 57 in the nation.
Finding a cure for cancer relies on a broad range of innovative basic, clinical and translational research. IU School of Medicine research centers and 12 high-tech research facilities at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center support protocol-defining discoveries that influence treatments. And they continue to expand. A transformative $20 million gift is advancing lung cancer research in prevention, detection and treatment and establishing the Tom and Julie Wood Center for Lung Cancer Research at the cancer center.
Treating testicular cancer and improving survivorship
It’s not enough to search for a cure for cancer; clinical research must also improve treatment, early detection and prevention for today’s patients.
Building upon the groundbreaking regimen developed by Dr. Larry Einhorn that cured testicular cancer, IU researchers continue to grow a robust research program focused on addressing resistant or recurrent disease and lessening the long-term side effects of treatment.
A new study led by Dr. Nabil Adra is exploring a targeted drug to block a specific protein that drives tumor growth. This therapy was initially developed for kidney cancer and has the potential to spare patients from the physical toll of chemotherapy while offering a longer-term treatment option. Einhorn and Adra are also studying ways to increase the cure rate for patients with relapsed disease by adding a maintenance therapy after high-dose chemotherapy.
Several medical disciplines intersect to treat and study testicular cancer, including oncology and urology. Cancer researchers at IU work closely with their urology counterparts to discover new treatment options and further the understanding of this disease.
“We have been providing surgical care for this disease for the past 60 years and have the world’s largest surgical experience in the complex management of advanced testicular cancer,” said Dr. Clint Cary, associate professor of urology at the IU School of Medicine. “Our group pioneered many aspects of surgery, including nerve-sparing techniques and surgical templates to minimize morbidity. Our medical oncology colleagues, namely Dr. Lawrence Einhorn, helped revolutionize care with the introduction of platinum-based chemotherapy. Together, our collective group has revolutionized the cure rate of metastatic testicular cancer.”
Innovating solutions for personalized treatment
IU researchers from several disciplines are also working to catch cancer earlier and provide more targeted treatments. Researchers at the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering are using the university’s Big Red 200 supercomputer and other high-performance computing resources to develop more effective treatments for cancer. By building “digital twins” of individual cancer and immune cells, researchers are working to simulate patient data to create personalized cancer treatments.
Unlocking new protocols for breast cancer treatment among Black women
To understand the mechanics of breast cancer, it’s important to fully understand normal, healthy breast tissue. More than 170 research projects around the world are advancing our understanding of how normal breast cells become cancerous by using breast tissue donated by thousands of women — and more recently, men — to the Komen Tissue Bank at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. IU researchers also recently completed the most extensive mapping of healthy breast cells to date, which furthers the understanding of how breast cancer develops and the differences in breast tissue among genetic ancestries.
At the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers are looking for ways to reduce the disparities in breast cancer prevention and occurrence. A recent $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute is funding an IU study that will use artificial intelligence to improve breast cancer risk prediction and reduce health inequities in cancer prevention care. A study led by Harikrishna Nakshatri, the Marian J. Morrison Professor of Breast Cancer Research at the IU School of Medicine, is unlocking the biology behind aggressive breast cancers in Black women to develop new targeted treatments.
Another clinical study found that personalized chemotherapy doses can be beneficial for Black patients, who tend to experience more incidents of peripheral neuropathy as a side effect of docetaxel chemotherapy.
“This study is really exciting because it shows us that we can do better in terms of designing and delivering research trials that ask questions that are important and necessary for underrepresented populations,” said Dr. Tarah Ballinger, the Vera Bradley Foundation Scholar in Breast Cancer Research at the IU School of Medicine. “This starts us down a whole line of research where we stop just describing that there's a disparity in breast cancer outcomes, and we actually start to change our practice so that we're intervening on it.”
Breast cancer research at IU involves multidisciplinary collaboration. A five-year, $2.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute is funding research by Liz Yeh, associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology, to study how certain immune cells support metastatic breast cancer development.
Curing cancer requires research, and IU is at the forefront of studies that prevent disease and improve treatment options. As these offerings expand at IU, they create the building blocks for tomorrow’s most needed medical breakthroughs.
This content was paid for and created by Indiana University. The editorial staff of The Chronicle had no role in its preparation. Find out more about paid content.
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