Cancer first impacted the life of Anne Noonan, MD, at an early age. “My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 10,” says Noonan, who grew up in Youghal, a small coastal town in Ireland. “Clinics and chemotherapy were parts of growing up.” While Noonan was in medical school at University College Cork School of Medicine, her mom’s breast cancer returned, and five years later, she passed away due to complications connected with the disease. “She is my inspiration to do this,” says Noonan, now an assistant professor of Internal Medicine and section chief of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James). Her determination to help create a cancer-free world while combining her two professional loves — treating patients and clinical trial research — brought Noonan to Columbus. In recognition of her cutting-edge research and commitment to her patients, Noonan is the OSUCCC – James physician of the month for February. Spouses, doctors, Buckeyes Noonan’s plan was to complete her oncology training and research fellowship at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and return to Ireland. But other opportunities — personal and professional — soon came knocking. While at the NCI, Noonan met her future husband, John Hays, MD, PhD, a research fellow in the program, who went on to join the staff at the OSUCCC – James in 2012 (the couple now has a three-year-old son, Liam). Noonan joined her husband at Ohio State a year later while the current home of The James was under construction on campus. “They had just started building the new James Cancer Hospital,” she says. “We were both on call the weekend it opened (in December, 2014) and it was very exciting to be part of something so important.” Clinical collaboration Noonan treats patients with gastrointestinal cancers, with her recent research focused on liver and pancreatic cancers. The opportunity to be part of a major comprehensive cancer center, and to collaborate with leading scientists, attracted her to the OSUCCC – James. “I have a lot of clinical experience with patients from my training in Ireland and a solid background in research from the NCI, helping me understand the basic science and to design early-stage clinical trials,” she says. “Most of the clinical trials are now translational, which means they go from the bench (the lab) to the bedside (patients) and then back to the bench to determine why something is working or why it’s not.” Noonan is currently collaborating with Kalpana Ghoshal, PhD, in research that combines a liver cancer treatment with another drug, ibrutinib — developed at the OSUCCC – James — that’s approved for treating certain types of lymphoma and leukemia. “We think that this combination can target signaling pathways within the liver tumor and stimulate the immune system,” Noonan says. As part of another clinical trial, Noonan and her OSUCCC – James collaborators (Shuiying Hu, PhD, Alex Sparreboom, PhD and Maryam Lustberg, MD, MPH) are combining two drugs to reduce the risk of neuropathy (tingling and numbness in the hands and feet). “We believe dasatinib can reduce the chance of oxaliplatin impacting and damaging the nerves,” she says. “Oxaliplatin is very effective in fighting cancer, but we’re often limited in how much of it we can give a patient because of the possibility of neuropathy, which often doesn’t go away.” Noonan has several other research and treatment ideas, and she is optimistic and excited about the future. Collaboration, she believes, is the key to creating a cancer-free world. “When I have an idea, I can figure out which other scientists here are working in this area and see what they think, and sometimes people come to me with an idea.” she says. “We have such great resources and so many great people here.”