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Research

Selected Studies

(Dr. Elizabeth Bartom and Dr. Masha Kocherginsky)
 
Community Outreach and Engagement

Catchment Area – Northwestern’s Cancer InFocus (Daniel Antonio and Michael Gurley)

ChicagoCHEC: Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative (Dr. Zequn Sun)

Staff/Faculty Spotlight

http://Dr.%20Lili%20Zhao

Dr. Lili Zhao

This month’s faculty spotlight is: Dr. Lili Zhao! Dr. Zhao recently joined QDSC in August 2024 as Professor of Biostatistics and Associate Director of Biostatistics in the Quantitative Data Sciences Core (QDSC) at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Zhao’ statistical research includes analysis of electronic health record data, survival data analysis, causal inference, Bayesian methods, machine learning (including reinforcement learning and federated learning). She has strived to develop, translate and promote the use of innovative statistical methodologies in biomedical research. She served as a Co-Investigator on numerous NIH-funded studies. She is currently the Principal Investigator on a R01 to develop powerful statistical approaches study adverse events following vaccinations.

Newsletter

A study Elizabeth Bartom, PhD, co-authored highlighted for the discovery of new cellular regulators of a cancer cell transcription factor linked to cancer resilience and tumor progression.
Masha Kocherginsky, PhD, faculty in the Department of Preventive Medicine Division of Biostatistics and Informatics, mentioned in the New York Times for her work on an editorial of a breast cancer study.
Masha Kocherginsky, PhD, and Jody Ciolino, PhD faculty in the Department of Preventive Medicine Division of Biostatistics and Informatics, were elected to the Board of Directors for the Society for Clinical Trials (SCT).
Hui Zhang, PhD co-authored a Northwestern Medicine study that used a novel ultrasound device to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier to deliver chemotherapy to treat glioblastoma, published in The Lancet Oncology.
Elizabeth Bartom, PhD, co-authored a study where investigators have discovered striking genetic differences in subsets of fetal immune cells, providing insight into morbidity related to premature birth.
Matthew Schipma, PhD, co-authored highlighted for a novel cellular pathway regulates DNA damage and structural changes in cardiomyocytes which contributes to the development of cardiac hypertrophy according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Circulation.

Selected Publications

Khan SA, Kocherginsky M. Contralateral Breast Cancer Remains a Complex Biologic Conundrum. JAMA Oncol. Published online July 25, 2024. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2024.2205
Fares J, Ahmed AU, Ulasov IV, Sonabend AM, Miska J, Lee-Chang C, Balyasnikova IV, Chandler JP, Portnow J, Tate MC, Kumthekar P, Lukas RV, Grimm SA, Adams AK, Hébert CD, Strong TV, Amidei C, Arrieta VA, Zannikou M, Horbinski C, Zhang H, Burdett KB, Curiel DT, Sachdev S, Aboody KS, Stupp R, Lesniak MS. Neural stem cell delivery of an oncolytic adenovirus in newly diagnosed malignant glioma: a first-in-human, phase 1, dose-escalation trial. Lancet Oncol. 2021 Aug;22(8):1103-1114. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00245-X. Epub 2021 Jun 29. PMID: 34214495; PMCID: PMC8328944.
Alasady MJ, Koeva M, Takagishi SR, Segal D, Amici DR, Smith RS, Ansel DJ, Lindquist S, Whitesell L, Bartom ET Taipale M, Mendillo ML. An HSF1-JMJD6-HSP feedback circuit promotes cell adaptation to proteotoxic stress. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024 Jul 16;121(29):e2313370121. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2313370121. Epub 2024 Jul 10. PMID: 38985769; PMCID: PMC11260097.
Gerratana L, Kocherginsky M, Davis AA, D’Amico P, Reduzzi C, Puglisi F, Cristofanilli M. Oncologist. 2024 Feb; 29(2): 123-131.
Sun Z, Chung D, Neelon B, Millar-Wilson A, Ethier SP, Xiao F, Zheng Y, Wallace K, Hardiman G. A Bayesian framework for pathway-guided identification of cancer subgroups by integrating multiple types of genomic data. Stat Med. 2023 Dec 10;42(28):5266-5284. doi: 10.1002/sim.9911. Epub 2023 Sep 15. PMID: 37715500.
Bell Burdett K, Unruh D, Drumm M, Steffens A, Lamano J, Judkins J, Schwartz M, Javier R, Amidei C, Lipp ES, Peters KB, Lai A, Eldred BSC, Heimberger AB, McCortney K, Scholtens DM, Horbinski C. Determining venous thromboembolism risk in patients with adult-type diffuse glioma. Blood. 2023 Mar 16;141(11):1322-1336.
Siddiqui MR, Li EV, Kumar SKSR, Busza A, Lin JS, Mahenthiran AK, Aguiar JA, Shah PV, Ansbro B, Rich JM, Moataz SAS, Keeter MK, Mai Q, Mi X, Tosoian JJ, Schaeffer EM, Patel HD, Ross AE. Optimizing detection of clinically significant prostate cancer through nomograms incorporating mri, clinical features, and advanced serum biomarkers in biopsy naïve men. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis. 2023 Sep;26(3):588-595. doi: 10.1038/s41391-023-00660-8. Epub 2023 Mar 27.
Musa, J., Kocherginsky, M., Magaji, F.A. et al. Epidemiology and survival outcomes of HIV-associated cervical cancer in Nigeria. Infect Agents Cancer 18, 68 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13027-023-00550-7
Abaza Y, Winer ES, Murthy GSG, Shallis RM, Matthews AH, Badar T, Geramita EM, Kota VK, Swaroop A, Doukas P, Bradshaw D, Helenowski IB, Liu Y, Zhang H, Im A, Litzow MR, Perl AE, Atallah E, Altman JK. Clinical outcomes of hypomethylating agents plus Venetoclax as frontline treatment in patients 75 years and older with acute myeloid leukemia: Real-world data from eight US academic centers. Am J Hematol. 2024 Apr;99(4):606-614. doi: 10.1002/ajh.27231. Epub 2024 Feb 11. PMID: 38342997.
Bryan LJ, Casulo C, Allen PB, Smith SE, Savas H, Dillehay GL, Karmali R, Pro B, Kane KL, Bazzi L, Chmiel JS, Palmer BA, Mehta J, Gordon L, Winter J. Pembrolizumab Added to Ifosfamide, Carboplatin, and Etoposide Chemotherapy for Relapsed or Refractory Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma: A Multi-institutional Phase 2 Investigator-Initiated Nonrandomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Oncol. 2023;9(5):683–691. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.7975
Hussain M, Kocherginsky M, Agarwal N, Adra N, Zhang J, Paller CJ, Picus J, Reichert ZR, Szmulewitz RZ, Tagawa ST, Kuzel TM, Bazzi LA, Daignault-Newton S, Whang YE, Dreicer R, Stephenson RD, Rettig MB, Shevrin D, Gerke T, Chinnaiyan AM, Antonarakis ES. Abiraterone, Olaparib, or Abiraterone + Olaparib in First-line Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer with DNA Repair Defects (BRCAAway). Clin Cancer Res. 2024 Aug 8. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-24-1402. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39115414.
Carbunaru S, Sun Z, McCall C, Ofori B, Marshall N, Wang H, Abern M, Liu L, Hollowell CMP, Sharifi R, Vidal P, Kajdacsy-Balla A, Sekosan M, Ferrer K, Wu S, Gallegos M, Gann PH, Moreira D, Sharp LK, Ferrans CE, Murphy AB. Impact of genomic testing on urologists’ treatment preference in favorable risk prostate cancer: A randomized trial. Cancer Med. 2023 Oct;12(19):19690-19700. doi: 10.1002/cam4.6615. Epub 2023 Oct 3. PMID: 37787097; PMCID: PMC10587942.
Mistry NA, Sun Z, Sweis J, McCall C, Marshall N, Ofori B, Hollowell CMP, Kittles RA, Schaeffer EM, Abern M, Gann P, Murphy AB. Development and Validation of a Prostate Biopsy Risk Calculator in Black Men. J Urol. 2024 Feb;211(2):223-233. doi: 10.1097/JU.0000000000003774. Epub 2023 Nov 2. PMID: 37917725.
Liu X, Guy CS, Boada-Romero E, Green DR, Flanagan ME, Cheng C, Zhang H. Unbiased and robust analysis of co-localization in super-resolution images. Stat Methods Med Res. 2022 Aug;31(8):1484-1499. doi: 10.1177/09622802221094133. Epub 2022 Apr 21. PMID: 35450486; PMCID: PMC9648350.
Arrieta VA, Chen AX, Kane JR, Kang SJ, Kassab C, Dmello C, Zhao J, Burdett KB, Upadhyayula PS, Lee-Chang C, Shilati J, Jaishankar D, Chen L, Gould A, Zhang D, Yuan J, Zhao W, Ling X, Burks JK, Laffleur B, Amidei C, Bruce JN, Lukas RV, Yamaguchi JT, Cieremans D, Rothschild G, Basu U, McCord M, Brat DJ, Zhang H, Cooper LAD, Zhang B, Sims P, Cloughesy TF, Prins R, Canoll P, Stupp R, Heimberger AB, Horbinski C, Iwamoto FM, Rabadan R, Sonabend AM. ERK1/2 phosphorylation predicts survival following anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in recurrent glioblastoma. Nat Cancer. 2021 Dec;2(12):1372-1386. doi: 10.1038/s43018-021-00260-2. Epub 2021 Nov 29. Erratum in: Nat Cancer. 2022 Mar;3(3):373. doi: 10.1038/s43018-022-00343-8. PMID: 35121903; PMCID: PMC8818262.
Antonio D, Burus T, Manning T, Gurley M, Di Salvo G, Heneche JA, Passaglia C, Kocherginsky M, Simon MA (2024). Enhancing catchment area tools: A de-identification method for integrating clinical trial data with Cancer InFocus. Preventive Oncology & Epidemiology, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/28322134.2024.2388564