Throughout 2025, Ohio State doctors and researchers broke new ground in cancer research and treatment, saving lives today while working with patients to help build the future of oncology care. Read on for some examples of recent progress made possible by the OSUCCC – James’ interdisciplinary team of cancer care and research experts — including innovation in telemedicine, diagnosis and artificial intelligence — and click here to learn even more about Ohio State’s oncology breakthroughs from 2025. Artificial intelligence research could change breast cancer risk assessment Lobular breast cancer — or invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC) — makes up approximately 10 to 15 percent of all breast cancers diagnosed in the U.S. ILC is usually cured when caught early, but patients can be at higher risk for recurrence than those with more commonly-diagnosed conditions. With existing risk-identification methods often falling short, OSUCCC – James medical oncologist Arya Roy, MD, is focusing on artificial intelligence to improve ILC recurrence risk assessment. “We’re developing an AI model that analyzes higher-risk features obtained from digital pathology images of removed tumors, and combining those with the patients’ clinical features,” Roy says. “Then, an algorithm will help us predict the patients with higher risk of ILC recurrence.” Here’s how Roy’s AI research could lead to improved identification of ILC recurrence risk.   in 2025, Ohio State experts went in-depth on cancer care and research on our Cancer-Free World Podcast. Watch some of the highlights on the video player above, and check out the full episodes on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube. Telemedicine clinical trial is breaking new ground in cancer research Telemedicine is delivering hope to the homes of pancreatic cancer patients through a first-of-its-kind clinical trial. The study focuses on a rare form of pancreatic cancer but could become a building block in the creation of better treatment options for patients with multiple types of cancer. “This is the first nationwide telemedicine therapeutic clinical trial for cancer,” says Sameek Roychowdhury, MD, PhD, a physician scientist at the OSUCCC – James. “It’s a new way of thinking and providing access to clinical trials.” The trial involves an innovative, targeted treatment for fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) gene mutations, which affect approximately 1.5% of pancreatic cancer patients. The treatment has already shown promise through earlier studies. “Using a smart drug, we could turn the gene off and slow cancer growth and even make it shrink,” says Roychowdhury, who believes this trial will lead to others and make it more cost effective for pharmaceutical companies to create smart drugs for rare forms of cancer. Roychowdhury explains how his telemedicine clinical trial could change the future of cancer research. AI is helping patients prevent pancreatic cancer through cyst analysis Pancreatic cancer can present many treatment challenges, in large part because it’s difficult to diagnose at early stages. To detect precancerous pancreatic cysts, doctors insert a specialized endoscope equipped with ultrasound and light into the body — a process known as endomicroscopy. This technique produces hundreds of rapidly-captured microscopic images, which can be challenging for non-specialists to interpret. “Somebody with a trained eye who's been doing this for many years can diagnose this right away,” OSUCCC – James gastroenterologist Somashekar Krishna, MD, MPH, says. “But, you want this to be widely applicable, so we needed to help.” That help has come in the form of a new artificial intelligence program that analyzes endomicroscopy videos and identifies signs that pancreatic cysts might become cancerous. The AI assistance reduces the time spent on initial cyst analysis from hours to seconds. When concerns are identified, pancreatic cancer experts like Krishna verify the AI results, and can quickly move forward with treatment. “The accuracy of the AI is about 85% to 90%, and it only gets better with more cases,” Krishna says. “It can not only save lives, but also cut down on unnecessarily invasive surgeries and the risk of medical side effects from organ removal.” Krishna shares more details on AI’s growing role in pancreatic cancer prevention here. A clinical trial could find a new use for an existing leukemia treatment Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a rare but aggressive blood and bone marrow cancer that’s diagnosed approximately 18,000 times in the U.S. each year.   “AML is a good example of how, the better you understand a disease and the more clever you are in designing a clinical trial, it allows you to see successes where there were none before,” says Karilyn Larkin, MD, an OSUCCC – James hematologist. “In the past decade, there have been more than 10 new drugs approved for treating AML, which is phenomenal.”   Among the promising leukemia trials underway at the OSUCCC – James is a new study from Larkin and her team focused on a novel surface target on AML cells called the CD37 protein.   This CD37 protein had previously been seen on lymphomas (another type of blood cancer). A drug was developed but wasn’t more effective than existing, standard treatments.   “We discovered that CD37 is expressed more in AML and starts on the surface of the cells,” Larkin says. “It’s quickly pulled into the cells, and that nuance makes it a good target for delivering a toxic payload through the existing drug.”   The clinical trial began in June and is currently in its first phase. Larkin is the principal investigator of the study, which includes several additional cancer centers around the country. Learn all about this AML trial — a great example of clinical cancer research at Ohio State. Ohio State experts are raising the bar for cancer diagnosis Now it its sixth year, The James Cancer Diagnostic Center has become a vital resource for patients who think they may have cancer, enabling rapid diagnoses and the timely creation and implementation of treatment plans. “Since we opened, we’ve had about 7,000 total visits and approximately 40 percent have been diagnosed with some type of cancer,” says Tina Sowers, FACHE, the administrator of the center. As part of the OSUCCC – James, the center brings together Ohio State’s multidisciplinary cancer experts who work to provide comprehensive care for each patient on the day of diagnosis, including those without referrals from primary care physicians. Ohio State leaders created the center in 2020, as many people put off cancer screening during the pandemic. “The goal was to reach more patients and open a new front door to The James,” says Raquel Reinbolt, MD, medical director of the center, which also offers telemedicine visits for many patients. “This leads to earlier diagnoses and better outcomes and quality of life. That’s why we’re such strong advocates for screenings and for not ignoring symptoms.” The James Cancer Diagnostic Center: faster diagnoses are improving outcomes for patients at Ohio State.