INDIANAPOLIS — For Hoosiers and countless others, clinical trials at the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center have opened doors to promising new treatments and, for some, another chance at life. A nearly $2.2 million grant from the National Cancer Institute will support the cancer center’s work to advance clinical research.
The cancer center is one of 32 U.S. academic research institutions selected to serve as a Lead Academic Participating Site (LAPS) in the NCI National Clinical Trials Network (NCTN) from 2026 through 2032. The designation recognizes institutions that have made major contributions to therapeutic clinical trials — studies that test and advance new cancer treatments — through patient enrollment and scientific leadership, said Kathy Miller, MD, a nationally recognized clinical trials expert and principal investigator of the grant.
“This designation recognizes the commitment of the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center to groundbreaking clinical research and bringing the highest level of care to the patients who seek care at our center,” Miller, Ballvé Lantero Professor of Oncology at IU School of Medicine, said. Miller is also a physician-scientist at the cancer center's Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research.
The grant will enable the cancer center to:
- Make cancer treatment more personalized by using information from a patient's genes, biology, tumor samples, scans and other tests to help determine the best treatment.
- Lead research on rare cancers, where fewer patients and limited expertise can make clinical trials especially challenging.
- Share IU's expertise in immunology with other researchers in the NCTN.
- Train and mentor younger researchers into the next generation of leaders in cancer clinical trials.
Another goal of the NCTN is to ensure that all patients benefit from the network. That means clinical trials should include patients who are representative of the people affected by cancer in Indiana, across the United States and around the world, Miller said.
The effort includes reaching populations that are often underserved or underrepresented in clinical trials, including people of color as well as people who live in rural communities and may face challenges traveling to a clinical trial site.
“Their experience is equally important and contributes to what we learn,” Miller said. “And that’s particularly important to Indiana, where half of our counties are rural.”
The importance of including representative patient populations can be seen in research conducted by IU investigators. Miller said IU researchers recently used data from NCTN clinical trials to better understand the increased toxicity burden experienced by some Black patients with breast cancer and to explore genetic predictors of those differences.
The research, led by Bryan Schneider, MD, associate dean for clinical trials and Vera Bradley Professor of Oncology at IU School of Medicine, built on data from a previous clinical trial led by Miller. The findings led to changes in treatment guidelines for Black women with breast cancer by identifying ways to reduce treatment-related toxicity while maintaining the benefits of therapy. Tarah Ballinger, MD, associate professor of medicine and Vera Bradley Foundation Scholar in Breast Cancer Research at IU School of Medicine, is now leading ongoing research in this area. Schneider and Ballinger are physician-scientists at the cancer center.
IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators have contributed to and led NCI-supported clinical trials since the center’s inception, including trials involving rare cancers such as testicular cancer and thymoma. The cancer center currently has more than 200 clinical trials available.
The NCTN is a collection of organizations and clinicians that coordinates and supports cancer clinical trials at more than 2,200 sites across the United States, Canada and internationally. NCTN provides the infrastructure for NCI-funded treatment and primary advanced imaging trials to improve the lives of people with cancer.
Clinical trials play a critical role in turning discoveries made in the laboratory into better treatments for people with cancer.
“No matter how compelling the data from our basic scientist colleagues, at some point that new treatment needs to be tested in people to help us understand: Does this really work? In which patients does it really work? How do we best manage the side effects? Who’s at greater risk for those side effects? Is this truly better than our current best available treatment?” Miller said.
She added: “Without those clinical trials, we will never be able to offer better, more effective, less toxic therapy than what we have today.”
The breadth and depth of the cancer center’s research have earned its designation as the only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in Indiana and one of only 58 in the country. To achieve and maintain this designation, the cancer center must meet rigorous criteria in basic, clinical and population research.
As a LAPS, the cancer center’s physicians and researchers will work with the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center as an affiliate. The cancer center has a longstanding clinical and research relationship with the VA, including collaboration on cancer clinical trials.
To learn more about clinical trials at IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center, visit cancer.iu.edu/trials or watch the Simon Says Expert Series webinar “Clinical Trials 101.”
About the Indiana University School of Medicine
The IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability. According to the Blue Ridge Institute for Medical Research, the IU School of Medicine ranks No. 15 in 2025 National Institutes of Health funding among all public medical schools in the country.
For more news, visit the IU School of Medicine Newsroom: http://medicine.iu.edu/news