Big Ten schools team up when it comes to cancer research

Downtown Indianapolis has been awash in Big Ten logos, fans and bands this month for the women’s and men’s conference basketball tournaments.

Indianapolis is also home to another sort of Big Ten gathering—this one with the goal of making academic cancer research run like a smooth motion offense. Based in Indianapolis, the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium, or Big Ten CRC, brings together cancer centers from within the academic conference to collaborate on clinical trials and other research.

“In cancer, you can’t really make a career unless you collaborate with others because you can’t open trials and enroll them on your own,” said Dr. Nabil Adra of the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The Big Ten CRC, which uses the Big Ten Conference’s official logo, specializes in something known as investigator-initiated trials.

That means a researcher, like a medical school professor, comes up with a concept and creates a clinical trial, rather than an organization like a drug company developing a project.

Since its founding in 2013, the Big Ten CRC has activated about 40 clinical trials, and more than 1,000 participants have enrolled in its studies.

The Big Ten CRC uses an Indianapolis-based nonprofit, the Hoosier Cancer Research Network, as its administrator and headquarters, with the group providing services including facilitation of clinical trial working groups and project management.

The goal is to combine expertise and resources to accelerate the development of new cancer treatments and therapies, especially through smaller clinical trials or research by newer scientists still building their publication records.

The IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer is a member and so is the Purdue University Institute for Cancer Research.

The Big Ten CRC—like the athletic conference—is growing coast to coast.

In February, the consortium added the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, which collaborates with the University of Washington School of Medicine.

Brian Stemme, CEO of the Hoosier Cancer Research Network, said the Big Ten CRC is working to add the cancer centers affiliated with the other new Big Ten schools from the West Coast.

The CRC organizes its complex network of more than 500 researchers into 18 working groups based on the specific type of cancer research.

For example, IU’s Adra is focused on prostate and testicular cancers, so he is a member of the Genitourinary Clinical Trial Working Group. Those groups meet every six to eight weeks, mostly via Microsoft Teams but at times in person, to discuss studies and research ideas.

“Anybody who has an interesting concept that they want to present, you can get feedback from your colleagues at other institutions,” said Adra, also an associate professor of clinical medicine at IU School of Medicine. “It’s a great avenue to develop trials and move them very quickly.”

The working group discusses current clinical trials—for example, to understand reasons for slow patient enrollment. Each working group also discusses potential new studies, their feasibility and whether they should be conducted through the CRC or elsewhere.

This is where the Hoosier Cancer Research Network, or HCRN, comes in as the Big Ten CRC’s administrator. The HCRN helps the researchers develop their concept and helps connect them with pharmaceutical companies or other funding agencies.

Stemme, of the HCRN, said his group also focuses on educational efforts such as assisting young faculty members with the budget and process of investigator-initiated trials.

The HCRN also is hosting an upcoming seminar where researchers meet with diagnostic and lab companies.

“This is much more of a technical discussion,” Stemme said. “It’s not a marketing discussion. It’s really kind of doctor-to-doctor.”