Illinois Medicine

PHOTO: DARYL WILSON PHOTOGRAPHY abuzz with activity—from petri dishes being rocked on small teeter-totter- like machines to researchers methodically conducting tests and analyzing results—the ground floor is vacant, waiting for future researchers. Currently, the Cancer Research Center is most active in several areas—brain, pancreatic, breast, lung, prostate, leukemia and melanoma—but plans are to expand that scope. Many of the forms of cancers being studied at the Cancer Research Center, including brain and pancreatic cancer, are among the most devastating in terms of survival rates for victims. For many, once they are diagnosed, treatment options may be limited and survival short. But there is promise. Studies in the Peoria laboratory show that by manipulating enzymes responsible for signaling growth, research investigators can significantly alter cell activity. One method inhibited 95 to 100 percent of pre-established tumors in various cancers. "You cut off their nutrition, you cut off their ability to grow," says Christopher Gondi, PhD, who has carried on research under Rao's direc- tion for the past decade in Peoria. "What we've seen is that if you target more than one aspect of the tumor behavior, you tend to kill the tumor." Recruited to Peoria more than a decade ago, Rao and his team of researchers have received nearly $28 million in federal funding to conduct their research. During the past decade, their work has led to more than 150 scholarly articles published and some 180 abstracts presented. The research is studied worldwide; for example, Rao's patented discovery of a new anti-cancer treatment is pending toxicology testing with an India- based pharmaceutical company. Plans are that Phase One clinical trials eventually will take place in both Peoria and India. "The dream goal is that we discover a treatment for people that cures their cancer," Rusch says. "But we also share our knowledge through publications with the larger medical community, and they build on those results to make additional discoveries. So if the breakthrough doesn't happen here—which is the dream goal—then the breakthrough happens somewhere else based partly on what we've done here." An additional major focus of research at the Cancer Research Center is in the use of human umbilical cord blood stem cells. These stem cells have been observed in the laboratory not only migrating toward cancerous tissues but also killing tumor cells. They then also are capable of repairing and replacing destroyed tissue. With the umbilical cord blood stem cells being donated by new mothers through local hospitals, "the supply is es- sentially endless," says Rao. The Cancer Research Center expansion could have far-reaching im- pacts to the community beyond the research itself, such as the recruitment of new talent. For example, after finishing a highly sought-after neurosurgi- cal oncology fellowship at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston two years ago, Andrew Tsung, MD, Res '08, could have gone virtually anywhere ILLINOIS MEDICINE | 21

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