Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
The Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center’s mission is to leverage translational research, education, and patient care to decrease the mortality and suffering caused by cancers of all kinds. The center also has a special focus on its service to the state’s racial, ethnic, and rural-area populations and underserved communities. It was designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute in 1999, seven years after it was established. It is the only cancer center to have earned that designation in the state.[3]
The cancer center’s clinical practitioners partner with Indiana University Health and the Indiana University School of Medicine, offering advanced care in modern and comfortable facilities. Its researchers collaborate with both the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research and the Harper Cancer Research Institute, which is a partnership between the IU School of Medicine and the University of Notre Dame. This collaborative research is concentrated on four separate programs: cancer prevention and control; experimental and developmental therapeutics; hematopoiesis and hematologic malignancies; and tumor environment and metastasis. Its scientists’ motto is Research Cures Cancer, while its physicians work every day to translate their discoveries into better outcomes for patients. The facility also emphasizes individualized supportive care and access to clinical trials.[3]
Facts about the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center
The IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center is actively recruiting for 211 clinical trials.
It has 13 shared facilities and has received 549 grants, totaling $53 million in external funding.
IU’s 300 cancer center members are also faculty at IU schools of medicine, nursing, public health, and others.
An IU Cancer Center physician, Larry Einhorn, MD, developed the cure for testicular cancer. He treated patients with the same platinum-based drug cisplatin that is used to treat patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma.
The IU Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center is home to the Komen Tissue Bank, the world’s only biorepository for healthy breast tissue. It is also home to the Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research and the Brown Center for Immunotherapy.
In 2016, IU introduced the Grand Challenge Precision Health initiative, whose goal was to use every tool available to cure three types of cancers: triple-negative breast cancer, pediatric sarcomas, and multiple myeloma.
IU is one of just 33 leading cancer centers designated to be a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, allowing its physicians to have a role in determining the recognized standard of clinical care for cancer patients.[3]
History
Indiana University first started offering classes in 1891, and 23 years later, in 1914, it began to offer medical training to nursing students in conjunction with the opening of Long University. In 1919 the Indiana University School of Medicine Building was completed, and in the years that followed, several other hospital buildings and clinics opened.
By the mid-1970s, the university health system expanded to include several specialty medical service programs, including the Riley Intensive Care Clinic, the Riley Hospital Pediatric Cardiac Catheterization Clinic and Laboratory, and the Elks Cancer Research Center. In 1992 the IU Hospital and Outpatient Center was completed and marked the opening of the IU Cancer Center, which was designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute in 1999.[1]
In 2009, the IU Cancer Center was renamed the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center in recognition of a $50 million gift from Bren Simon and her late husband, Melvin. The donation supported the 2008 expansion of the cancer patient care facility and established the Joshua Max Simon Cancer Research Fund, a faculty recruitment and research endowment memorializing the Simons’ son.[2]
Mesothelioma and Lung Cancer Care
Patients diagnosed with early-stage, intermediate, and advanced-stage lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma seeking care at IU’s Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center will receive state-of-the-art treatment in a modern, comfortable setting. The lung center takes a multi-disciplinary approach in which patients navigate the system with the help of compassionate support staff and see a team that includes pulmonologists, oncologists, and surgeons.
In addition, the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center offers patients diagnosed with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma access to the complex surgical procedure known as cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy, or CRS-HIPEC.
The treatments offered by the cancer center team are supported by a robust research program designed to improve patient outcomes, and mesothelioma and lung cancer patients seeking care are offered access to clinical trials.
Research
Researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center are constantly working to change the way cancer is treated at their facility and around the world. Their work has led to advances in genomics, immunotherapy, bioinformatics, and other sciences and is transforming knowledge about cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, and survivorship.
Researchers and clinical staff collaborate in designing and leading clinical trials, as well as teaching medical students and caring for patients.
Notable Staff and Mesothelioma Specialists
The expansive medical staff at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center works together to provide patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer with personalized care and compassionate treatment guided by experience, knowledge, and discovery. Among the notable physicians providing care are pleural specialists Dr. Nasser H. Hanna, Dr. Chadrick Denlinger, and Dr. Francis D. Sheksi.
Together, the physicians and researchers at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center provide comprehensive services, from diagnosis to treatment to support, to patients diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer.
