Updates by Specialty Division
Hematology/Oncology
Department of Medicine faculty physicians in the Hematology/Oncology division are active in nationally and internationally recognized medical research and provide exceptional education programs and patient care. The division provides high-quality patient care at IU Health’s downtown academic health center, the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, Sydney & Lois Eskenazi Health, Richard L. Roudebush Indianapolis VA Medical Center as well as its suburban facilities, including IU Heath West, and IU Health Schwarz Cancer Center.
Led by interim division director Jennifer Schwartz, MD FRCPC FASCO, the division holds a diverse group of faculty members, including clinicians, physician-scientists, PhDs, and adjunct professors. Our faculty in the Division have a long track record of success, including two American society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) presidents, one American Society of Hematology (ASH) president, four ASCO presidential candidates, and ten faculty who have served as chairs on various Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) committees.
Research within the division includes programs at the forefront of clinical, translational, and basic science investigation. Clinical research activities are led by world-renowned faculty members developing innovative protocols and augmenting the standard of care in cancer treatment and other hematological diseases. Translational research is ongoing in many laboratories, developing novel agents and strategies to address clinically relevant issues that impact patient care and disease management. New therapies are being developed at the bench and are being brought to the patient’s bedside.
The Hematology/Oncology team offers a combined three-year fellowship program. The highly competitive fellowship is one of the oldest programs in the United States, established by Lawrence Einhorn, MD, in 1975. Recently, we were one of only a select group of programs chosen to pilot a joint Hematology/Oncology – Palliative Care Fellowship Program.
News from 2023-24
$4.5 million gift from Tom and Julie Wood Family Foundation funds mobile lung cancer screening program at IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and IU Health
A mobile lung cancer screening program will soon take life-saving screenings to eligible high-risk Hoosiers statewide, thanks to a generous $4.5 million gift from the Tom and Julie Wood Family Foundation that will include matching dollars from Indiana University Health, bringing its impact to $8.5 million.
The program leverages the collaborative partnership between IU Health and the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. The gift was made jointly to IU Health Foundation and the Indiana University Foundation as it will support both patient care and research efforts focused on enhancing lung cancer screening and lowering lung cancer incidence and deaths.
Nasser Hanna, MD, made the announcement at this morning’s third annual meeting of End Lung Cancer Now, an initiative of the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. Hanna is the Tom and Julie Wood Family Foundation Professor of Lung Cancer Clinical Research at IU School of Medicine and the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and founder of End Lung Cancer Now. He’s also an IU Health lung cancer physician. Read More.
Lung cancer screenings to expand for Indiana veterans thanks to $1 million grant
Two researchers with the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Richard L. Roudebush Veterans Administration Medical Center have been awarded a three-year, $1 million grant to expand lung cancer screenings to veterans across Indiana.
Shadia Jalal, MD and Catherine Sears, MD received $1,025,753 from the National Center for Lung Cancer Screening and Lung Precision Oncology Program (LPOP), making Indianapolis a spoke site of a LPOP network regional hub location at VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. The network is the VA’s response to the Cancer Moonshot, which aims to prevent more than four million cancer deaths by 2047.
Sears is the local site investigator for LPOP-Indianapolis. She also co-chairs the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center’s lung cancer working group and directs the Roudebush VAMC lung cancer screening program. Jalal is program leader of the thoracic oncology program at the cancer center and leads the multidisciplinary thoracic oncology clinic at the Roudebush VAMC and will oversee veterans’ accrual to precision oncology lung cancer trials. Read More.
Jalal appointed Deputy Director of the National Oncology Program
Shadia Jalal, MD, a Professor of Medicine and the Lawrence H. Einhorn Scholar in Oncology, was named a Deputy Directors supporting the National Oncology Program at the VA after serving as a consultant. She has led the VA Clinical Pathway Development teams for Lung and Esophageal cancers for the National Oncology Program for the past couple of years.
In this new role, she will serve as a primary subject matter expert for medical oncology and provide clinical oversight for medical oncology at VA medical centers nationwide. She will continue to serve our local veterans with her key role in the thoracic oncology program and as our clinical trials leader. She will also maintain her clinical and lab research at IU.
$1.5 million gift to support prostate cancer research and cardiology research and education
In a gesture that continues their family’s long history of extraordinary generosity to Indiana University, Carmel residents W. Gerald and Diane Throgmartin made gifts earlier this month totaling $1.5 million to support lung and prostate cancer research and cardiology research and education at Indiana University School of Medicine.
The Throgmartins’ generous gifts will support four separate funds:
- The Jackie O’Donnell Fellowship in Cardiac Transplantation honoring retired cardiologist Jackie O’Donnell, MD
- The Betty Jo Throgmartin Lung Cancer Research Fund named for Gerald’s late wife honoring oncologist Nasser Hanna, MD
- The Jeffrey Breall Fellowship in Interventional Cardiology honoring interventional cardiologist Jeffrey Breall, MD, PhD
- The W. Gerald Throgmartin Prostate Cancer Research Fund honoring oncologist Nabil Adra, MD
The gifts for cardiac transplantation and lung cancer were made to funds previously created by the Throgmartins. The gifts for the interventional cardiology fellowship and prostate research establish new areas of support. Read More.
Noteworthy Awards and Recognitions
Jennnifer Schwartz, MD
Fellow, American Society of Clinical Oncology
Laura Vater, MD, MPH
Commencement Speaker, University of California San Diego
Commencement Speaker, University of Minnesota
Nabil Adra, MD
Forty under 40, Indianapolis Business Journal
Rylee Poole, Laboratory Research Assistant
First time author with Increased PIEZO1 Expression Is Associated with Worse Clinical Outcomes in Hormone-Receptor-Negative Breast Cancer Patients