Universities that are fierce rivals on the playing field are uniting to face a common adversary: cancer.

An article explaining the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium (Big 10 CRC) quoted Ruth O'Regan, MD (pictured at upper right), professor and head, and Kari Wisinski, MD (pictured at lower right), associate professor (CHS), both of Hematology, Medical Oncology and Palliative Care.

Formed in 2013, Big 10 CRC encourages clinical researchers from across the consortium to work together to develop new clinical trials and open them to patients at participating Big Ten cancer centers. The UW Carbone Cancer Center offers consortium-wide clinical trials.

“It’s a way of both getting access to more trials for our patients and for us to initiate more trials that can be accrued more quickly because they’re open at multiple sites,” O’Regan said.

“I definitely see it as a benefit to our patients, because now they don’t have to go to Chicago or Ann Arbor or somewhere else to have access to a trial.”

Another important aspect of Big Ten CRC trials in improving patient outcomes is that all of these trials have correlative studies associated with them. These secondary studies provide lab researchers with, for example, blood or tissue samples allowing them to study the trial drug’s effect at the cellular or molecular level.

The information gleaned from correlative studies can inform clinicians how well the therapy is working, or even lead to the development of an improved cancer drug.

Resources:

• "Foes become friends to research cancer cures," UW Health, October 4, 2017