This spring, Hoosier Cancer Research Network Chairman Christopher A. Fausel, PharmD, offered a unique challenge to friends and supporters of HCRN. Combining his interest in strength training and his passion for investigator-initiated research, Fausel invited pledges for every bench-press “rep” he could complete at the Arnold Sports Festival’s 5K Pump and Run event in Columbus, Ohio.
Twenty individuals responded with pledges of support for the Reps for Research challenge. Fausel reached his goal of 30 reps during the event, and HCRN received donations totaling more than $1,800 for investigator-initiated research.
HCRN will direct the donations received through Reps for Research to a study of circulating tumor cells in lung cancer, led by Shadia Jalal, MD, a thoracic oncologist and researcher at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center, whose research in recent years has focused on better understanding why lung cancer metastasizes, or spreads, to other organs. Until recently, it was not clear whether circulating tumor cells might play a role in cancer spread. But studies in mouse models have shown that circulating tumor cells are capable of forming tumors and metastasizing.
About Hoosier Cancer Research Network:
Hoosier Cancer Research Network (formerly known as Hoosier Oncology Group) conducts innovative cancer research in partnership with academic and community physicians and scientists across the United States and internationally. The organization provides comprehensive clinical trial management and support, from conception through publication. Created in 1984 as a program of the Walther Cancer Institute, Hoosier Cancer Research Network became an independent nonprofit clinical research organization in 2007. Since its founding, Hoosier Cancer Research Network has initiated more than 160 trials in a variety of cancer types and supportive care, resulting in more than 300 publications. More than 5,000 subjects have participated in Hoosier Cancer Research Network clinical trials.
