FRESH HOPE IU MEDICAL RESEARCHERS PRESENT PROMISING CANCER STUDY RESULTS
Zionsville residents and IU Medical researchers Dr. Bryan Schneider and Dr. Milan Radovich Writer / Christy Heitger-Ewing Photography Provided
Anyone who has beaten cancer likely often wonders, “What if it comes back?” Two Indiana University School of Medicine researchers, Dr. Bryan Schneider and Dr. Milan Radovich, have exciting new findings, however, that spell good news for cancer patients. Schneider and Radovich came up with a biomarker finding for women diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer that is now being taught and used worldwide. This pioneering research is part of the larger IU Precision Health Initiative, which
received $120 million in funding from the IU Grand Challenges Program to also research diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes, multiple myeloma and pediatric sarcomas (childhood cancers). According to Schneider, breast cancer remains one of the most common cancer types for women in the U.S., with more than 250,000 women affected annually and approximately 40,000 dying of the disease. Triple-negative breast cancer tends to target young women and black women. Because it’s an aggressive form of breast cancer, even though it makes up a minority of cases, it causes a disproportionately high rate of mortality. 16 / BROAD RIPPLE MAGAZINE / JANUARY 2021 / atBRip.com
“Women with triple-negative breast cancer who had Stage 1 through 3 disease are treated with chemotherapy followed by surgery,” says Radovich, noting that there are two post-surgical outcomes. Either chemotherapy melts all of the tumor away (this occurs in approximately one-third of patients), or patients have residual disease post-surgery. “Even though we remove that cancer, they are at high risk of their cancer coming back, usually with a vengeance as the disease most often metastasizes to other organs and becomes lethal,” Radovich says. Schneider and Radovich analyzed ctDNA
