A newly formed MetroHealth Center for Cancer Research brings together nationally and internationally recognized researchers to focus on more than curing one of the most feared diseases.
Backed by millions of dollars in support and grants and dozens of research assistants, the team will also focus on ending racial, ethnic, social and economic inequities that impact cancer diagnosis and treatment, according to a news release.
"We're doing this for the patients we serve, to ensure that they have the latest advances in cancer care and that they are able to participate in cutting-edge clinical trials in cancer care," said Dr. Bernard Boulanger, MetroHealth's executive vice president and chief clinical officer, in a provided statement.
The research team includes the following:
- Bingcheng Wang, director of the Division of Cancer Biology in the Department of Medicine and Director of Basic Sciences in the MetroHealth Research Institute, who has assembled a team of cancer researchers bringing cutting-edge care to the health system and its patients
- Dr. William Tse, chief of hematology and oncology at MetroHealth, who is training blood cells to become cancer-killing CAR T cells so that patients can beat cancer without the toxic side effects of chemotherapy and radiation
- Khalid Sossey-Alaoui, who's working to better understand triple-negative breast cancer, especially why it occurs more frequently in African American women
- Dr. Zhisan Wang, who is searching for a biological signal in patients' bodies that alert doctors to the presence of lung cancer long before it becomes deadly
"A lot of people can't get to the most advanced cancer care because they don't have the assets to do that," Tse said in a provided statement.
MetroHealth's location will help make care available to a large, diverse population and to patients who may have not been able to access it in the past, Tse said.
"MetroHealth plays a big role in caring for the underserved throughout the Cleveland area," Bingcheng Wang said in a provided statement. "And they are impacted differently by cancer, including having a higher chance of being diagnosed with aggressive forms of breast and prostate cancer. Because of that, MetroHealth is uniquely positioned to contribute to the understanding of racial disparities in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer."
Bringing a range of expertise, other contributing researchers on the MetroHealth team are Dr. Donald D. Anthony, Xiaonan Han, Dr. Ashwini Sehgal and Chengfeng Yang. All are MetroHealth-based investigators in cancer research and are already or are becoming full members of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, one of only 51 Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States designated by the National Cancer Institute.
"Fundamental to caring for our cancer patients is the continuous striving for better outcomes for all of them," said Dr. Benjamin Li, director of MetroHealth's Cancer Center, in a provided statement. "Investment by MetroHealth in discovering new knowledge and better treatments for our cancer patients is our commitment to improving cancer outcomes for our community."
