Ohio State is one of 51 National Cancer Institute (NCI)-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, a designation that the university has competitively maintained since 1976. The NCI has ranked the OSUCCC – James as “exceptional” — the highest descriptor — following each of its last three reviews for five-year re-designation as a CCC. The OSUCCC – James is one of only a few centers that are funded by the NCI to conduct both phase I and II clinical trials on novel anticancer drugs provided by the NCI.
As the cancer program’s 356-bed adult patient-care component, The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute is one of the top cancer hospitals in the nation as ranked by U.S. News & World Report and has achieved Magnet® designation, the highest honor an organization can receive for quality patient care and professional nursing practice. With 21 floors and more than 1.1 million square feet, The James is a transformational facility that fosters collaboration and integration of cancer research and clinical care.
Research Grant Funding
The OSUCCC – James has nearly 300 full or introductory cancer researchers who collectively represent 11 of the 15 colleges at Ohio State. Each researcher is in one of five multidisciplinary research programs: Cancer Control (CC); Leukemia Research (LR); Cancer Biology (CB); Molecular Carcinogenesis and Chemoprevention (MCC); or Translational Therapeutics (TT). In fiscal year 2020, OSUCCC – James researchers received 37 new research grants totaling $14.3 million from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), bringing the cancer program’s annual total NCI grant funding to $55 million. The OSUCCC – James ranks 15th among cancer institutions in the United States for total NCI funding.
Research Publications
In 2020, cancer researchers at the OSUCCC – James authored or co-authored 877 publications in peer-reviewed journals, including 178 that appeared in journals with impact factors of 10.0 or higher. Also, 94% of all articles published were collaborative among scientists within the five OSUCCC programs, and 90% of the publications were multi-institutional (involving collaboration with researchers at other institutions).
Patient Care
In 2020 the OSUCCC – James had an average daily occupancy rate of 80.7% and an average daily census of 278.5 inpatients. The institution also treated 99,509 patients in the outpatient setting and received 667,521 outpatient visits (including in-person and virtual via telemedicine).
Clinical Trials
Patients at the OSUCCC – James have access to hundreds of clinical trials offering sophisticated treatments, including some that are available nowhere else. In 2020 researchers at the OSUCCC – James opened 151 clinical trials to bring the total number of available trials to 613, of which 488 are interventional. The 2020 accrual rate for interventional trials at the OSUCCC – James was 34%. The five-year average patient accrual to interventional clinical trials here is 17% — well above the national rate of about 3% — and the five-year average for non-interventional clinical trials is 46%.
Total Cancer Care® Protocol
Since 2014, the OSUCCC – James has enrolled more than 60,000 patients for a 94% accrual rate in a Total Cancer Care® (TCC) protocol for voluntarily sharing de-identified clinical data that moves cancer research forward and personalizes cancer care. The TCC protocol helps clinicians understand differences among cancer patients and find ways to individualize prevention, detection and treatment.
ORIEN Precision Medicine Collaboration
The TCC protocol referenced above has been adopted by all 18 member institutions across the nation that constitute the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN), a research collaboration co-founded and co-anchored by the OSUCCC – James and Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. Through ORIEN, more than 300,000 TCC-consented patients across the nation have agreed to donate their clinical data for research to help scientists understand cancer at the molecular level, making ORIEN one of the world’s largest precision medicine collaborations to address this disease.
Drug Development Institute (DDI)
The DDI is a biotech-like institute embedded within the OSUCCC – James that employs a combination of targeted investments, strategic management and cutting-edge resources to drive projects from discovery to early-stage development of drugs for cancer therapy. Led by DDI senior director and clinical pharmacist Jeff Patrick, PharmD, the DDI is staffed by industry-trained scientists and employs a “dual-track” collaborative management process to ensure efficient advancement for all projects.
Project activities are divided between the DDI and investigators, and are executed in parallel to achieve this process. The desired outcome is to advance projects to the point of partnership with industry to ensure that translational research at the OSUCCC – James can benefit patients.
In 2020, the DDI received a $10 million gift from the Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation to establish the Riney Family Foundation Myeloma Center for Advanced Research Excellence (Myeloma CARE). This support will enable the DDI and the OSUCCC – James myeloma program to advance multiple myeloma research. The Myeloma CARE programs will be led by Don Benson, MD, PhD. Benson will collaborate with the DDI’s senior director of Biochemistry Jerry Hilinski, PhD, who will lead the DDI efforts to push new therapies from bench to bedside.
The DDI advances research through its Pipeline and Pilot Funding Programs. Pilot funding provides up to $50,000 of early validation support to determine if the project has drug-development potential and would be considered for inclusion in the DDI Pipeline Portfolio. For select projects that require unique support, the DDI may provide Ohio State investigators with funding for regulatory filing needs or to initiate a Request for Proposals Program to explore additional disease indications. A list of projects under development for 2021 includes:
DDI Pipeline Portfolio
Activated B Cells as a Therapeutic Cancer Vaccine Platform – A novel B cell-based therapeutic cancer vaccine, with the potential to be personalized to an individual’s tumor signature, is being developed for use in treating a variety of cancer types.
DHODH Inhibitors for Treatment of Hematologic Malignancies – Recent proof-of-concept research has rekindled interest in targeting cancers through inhibition of dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH). The Ohio State University, in collaboration with Hendrix College, is developing a series of DHODH inhibitors for treating hematologic malignancies, including acute myeloid leukemia. Over the past year, preclinical studies have demonstrated that the lead molecule has best-in-class activity in cancer models. DDI scientists are positioning this molecule for Investigational New Drug (IND) submission to the FDA.
Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulator (ER-β Agonist) as a New Approach to Targeting Cancer – A novel series of selective non-steroidal estrogen receptor beta agonists is in development for treating cancer, precancerous conditions and potentially non-cancer indications. This project initiated the DDI’s first RFP program to harness the power of the Ohio State network to explore additional applications in 11 cancer and seven non-cancer disease indications. Several of these indications have shown promising potential and are being pursued for drug development.
Selective RAL A GTPase Inhibitors as a Cancer Treatment – The Ral A protein has been shown to be a critical node in signaling pathways that allow growth of several types of cancer. This team is developing first-in-class, selective inhibitors of Ral A.
Myeloma CARE Program Pipeline
Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor as a Target for Multiple Myeloma – The aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) has been implicated as a sensor of environmental chemicals and as a critical regulator of B-cell development. This team is developing small molecule inhibitors of AHR that both disrupt cancer cell proliferation and also strengthen the body’s antitumor immune response to address the significant unmet need in myeloma.
Mps1/TTK Kinase Inhibitor as a Treatment for Cancer – Mps1 is a protein that regulates cell division, and its overexpression is associated with poor outcomes in multiple myeloma as well as other hematologic and solid tumor types. This team is developing selective inhibitors of Mps1.
DHODH Inhibitors for Treatment of Hematologic Malignancies – As stated earlier, recent proof-of-concept research has rekindled interest in targeting cancers by inhibiting dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (DHODH). Because of compelling literature precedent and preliminary data at Ohio State, DHODH inhibitors developed as part of the DHODH program in the main DDI pipeline will be evaluated in multiple myeloma as a single agent and in combination with other multiple myeloma therapeutics.
Characterization of Multiple Myeloma Samples – Since 2011, the OSUCCC – James’ multiple myeloma program has banked over 400 patient samples. The DDI will be harnessing the full potential of this myeloma registry by extensively characterizing these samples and obtaining invaluable insight into myeloma etiology and progression. This will further enable the development of bespoken multiple myeloma models to be used to enhance the power of the research being performed in Myeloma CARE.
Pilot Programs
Evaluating CD74 as a Target for CAR T-Cell Therapies.
Principal Investigator (PI): Lapo Alinari, MD, PhD
Testing the Ability of Fasnall to Block Coronavirus
Replication. PI: Jesse Kwiek, PhD
Evaluating the Inhibition of Mitotic Proteins Mps1 and MKLp2 as a Therapeutic Strategy for Glioblastoma.
PIs: Matthew Summers, PhD, and Morgan Shrock, PhD
Evaluating Sumolyation Inhibition as a Promising Approach to Treat Acute Myeloid Leukemia.
PIs: Bethany Mundy-Bosse, PhD, and Aharon Freud, MD, PhD