September 1, 2021:

This month, the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium features our member institution Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Coral Omene, MD, PhD, medical oncologist at Rutgers Cancer Institute and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Research Interests and Expertise:

Dr. Omene is a medical oncologist with a passion for women’s health who is dedicated to the care of treating and managing a diverse pool of breast cancer patients. She has devoted much of her research toward translating novel laboratory observations into discoveries to better care for breast cancer patients, with a particular focus on triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), which is known to be among the most aggressive breast cancers, with a poor prognosis, especially among African American women.

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September 1, 2021:

While the world continues to focus on the ever-challenging worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, groundbreaking research into potentially practice-changing novel therapies for oncology patients has continued. This year has been one of innovation in unprecedented times, and the field of gastrointestinal cancers has kept pace.

As an early phase clinical investigator at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, my research focuses on developing novel combinations to treat advanced biliary tract, hepatic, and pancreatic cancers. Unfortunately, the rising incidence of hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers, coupled with poor outcomes for these patients, continues to be a pressing reminder of our mission as researchers.

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August 26, 2021:

In this month’s Across the Consortium, cancer investigators, program managers, and administrators share their progress in oncology research and maintaining their excellent standing through NCI-designation and association accreditation. Learn about new tools that may help identify patients who are at high risk of cancer progression and relapse, as well as promising pre-clinical results to treat human estrogen-receptor positive breast cancer and their metastases in bone, brain, liver, and lungs. Also, find out which of our Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium members increased clinical trial enrollment by 167 percent, and minority participation in clinical trials to 56 percent of total enrollment. Read on to discover what’s new across the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium.

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August 24, 2021:

Robert Wesolowski, MD, associate professor at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, was recently appointed as co-chair of the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium’s Correlative Sciences Clinical Trial Working Group (CTWG). He joins fellow co-chair Thomas G. Sors, PhD, Assistant Director of the Purdue Institute of Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease. The group serves as a resource to advise investigators on the correlative aspects of Big Ten CRC studies in development.

“As a clinical trialist, this appointment fits my research interests,” said Dr. Wesolowski, a breast cancer medical oncologist at The Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James). “I think it is beneficial for both the working group and investigators to brainstorm ideas for correlative studies in clinical trials.”

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August 17, 2021:

Patrick C. Ma, MD, MSc, a professor at Penn State College of Medicine and a medical oncologist specializing in thoracic oncology at Penn State Cancer Institute, has been appointed to represent Penn State Cancer Institute on the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium Steering Committee.

The Steering Committee is composed of one researcher from each Big Ten CRC member institution and meets regularly to review activities of the consortium and decide matters of policy. The Steering Committee determines the criteria for approving concepts for development with the Big Ten CRC.

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August 6, 2021:
by Vijaya Bhatt, MBBS, MS

With the aging US population, we face the challenge of rising incidence of cancer in older adults. Older adults are at a higher risk of developing and dying from cancers. Several factors contribute to poor outcomes including cancer biology, multimorbidity, frailty, and social isolation, which has become worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Older adults are also frequently not well represented in clinical trials; this poses additional challenges by creating a knowledge gap in understanding how to optimally treat older adults with comorbidities. Improving outcomes in older adults with cancer requires multidisciplinary care, research collaboration and innovative trial designs. Read More

August 3, 2021:

Purdue Center for Cancer Research (PCCR) scientist Philip Low, PhD, Presidential Scholar for Drug Discovery and Ralph C. Corley Distinguished Professor of Chemistry – Biochemistry (Department of Chemistry) at Purdue University.

The latest research update from Dr. Low is the design, synthesis, and patenting of PSMA-617, an investigational PSMA-targeted radioligand therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. It began with a PCCR collaboration including Dr. Low, Timothy Ratliff, PhD, and Tom Gardner, MD, from Indiana University School of Medicine, who ran the first clinical imaging trial, funded by PCCR, to show the targeting agent was highly prostate cancer specific.

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July 22, 2021:

In this month’s Across the Consortium, get to know some the cancer investigators in the Big Ten, what doctoral candidates and graduate students are researching, what publications and accolades have been shared with Big Ten researchers, and more.

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July 21, 2021:

The Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium recently appointed Nancy Chan, MD (pictured right), a medical oncologist from Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and Sneha Phadke, DO, MPH, (pictured left), a medical oncologist from University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, as co-chairs of Big Ten CRC’s Breast Cancer Clinical Trial Working Group (CTWG).

Their leadership supports collaboration and mentorship within the working group, as well as development of Big Ten CRC breast cancer clinical trials from conception to completion. CTWG co-chairs serve two-year terms that are renewable. Co-chairs are responsible to develop agendas and facilitate for the working group.

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July 8, 2021:

Murali Janakiram, MD, MS, a medical oncologist at the Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, and Attaya Suvannasankha, MD, a medical oncologist at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, have been named co-chairs of the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium’s Multiple Myeloma Clinical Trial Working Group.

Dr. Janakiram is a graduate of Madras Medical College in Chennai, India. He completed his residency at Case Western University and MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio, and his fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. His research interests include disparities in multiple myeloma, genomics of adult T-cell leukemia lymphoma, and immune checkpoints PD-L1, B7-H3, B7x, and HHLA2. His clinical expertise includes cellular therapy and bone marrow transplant for multiple myeloma and lymphoma.

Dr. Suvannasankha is a graduate of Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. She completed her residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and a fellowship at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York. She joined the Indiana University School of Medicine in 2003 and currently serves as an associate professor at the IU School of Medicine and researcher at the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Suvannasankha’s research interests are in the molecular mechanism of drug resistance in hematologic malignancy and precision medicine. Her clinical expertise includes hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplant. Read More