Nov. 21, 2016:

Patients with locally advanced bladder cancer often find themselves at a fork in the road when it comes to treatment decisions. The determining factor for many patients is whether or not they are candidates for surgery.

For those who can have cisplatin based chemotherapy and can undergo surgery, the standard approach is often well defined; but for those who cannot, the road ahead is not so clear. A new Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium study, led by Monika Joshi, MD, MRCP, of Penn State Cancer Institute, may help to open new options for these patients.

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Nov. 18, 2016:

In the season of gratitude, this month’s edition of Across the Consortium recounts more reasons to be grateful for the collegial partnership of the Big Ten Cancer Centers in the fight against cancer.  Get up to date on the stunning discoveries and monumental breakthroughs with far-reaching implications.  Be inspired by accounts of leadership.  Remember why we are stronger together.  All this and more as we take you Across the Consortium!

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Nov. 2, 2016:

Investigator Spotlight

Natalie Callander, MD, is a hematologist at the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center who focuses on the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma, the second most common form of blood cancer. She serves as co-chair of the Big Ten CRC’s Multiple Myeloma Clinical Trial group, along with Dr. Craig Cole of the University of Michigan. “Our mission at the Big Ten CRC is to foster collaboration between researchers and industry partners in order to develop novel therapies, particularly for patients with relapsed myeloma,” Callander said. “We also hope to provide young investigators a venue to explore new treatment paradigms.”

Callander is the Medical Director of the Myeloma Clinical Program at UW, where she has worked to increase the number of high quality myeloma clinical trials. Under her leadership, UW has become the one of the top accuers for myeloma clinical trials in ECOG (the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group). She also assembled a myeloma translational research group on campus, including Shigeki Miyamoto, PhD, Peiman Hematti, MD, Fotis Asimakopoulos, MB, PhD, and Alan Rapraeger, PhD, which has been working together now for nearly a decade. One of her projects involves collecting bone marrow samples from myeloma, patients, so that their tumor cells can be studies in a variety of ways. One investigation involves the study of how drug resistance develops and to identify new biological markers that could serve as therapeutic targets. Their group is also researching a personalized approach to treatment, where they test drug therapies on both cancerous and healthy cells culled from these donated bone marrow samples to accurately recapitulate the marrow microenvironment. “We hope that this approach will lead to a real time method of helping to decide the best treatments for relapsed patients, and ultimately spare them from ineffective and potentially toxic drugs,” Callander said. Read More