New Cancer Center Will Focus On Hard-To-Treat Breast Cancers

By Jill Sheridan, IPB News | Published on in Health, Science
IU School of Medicine Dean Jay Hess (center) with Vera Bradley co-founders Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (left) and Patricia R. Miller (right). The Foundation has contributed more than $35 million for breast cancer research. (Courtesy of Indiana University Sc
IU School of Medicine Dean Jay Hess (center) with Vera Bradley co-founders Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (left) and Patricia R. Miller (right). The Foundation has contributed more than $35 million for breast cancer research. (Courtesy of Indiana University School of Medicine)
IU School of Medicine Dean Jay Hess (center) with Vera Bradley co-founders Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (left) and Patricia R. Miller (right). The Foundation has contributed more than $35 million for breast cancer research. (Courtesy of Indiana University Sc

A new Indiana University School of Medicine research center will focus on aggressive and hard-to-treat breast cancers.

The center will target diseases like triple negative breast cancer, which aggressively impacts young, black and Latina women.

Dean Jay Hess says the center is poised to advance new therapies.

“For example the combination of using genomic therapies with immunotherapies,” says Hess, “That’s a really new area and we want to be leaders in that.”

One of the goals of the Vera Bradley Foundation Center for Breast Cancer Research will be to increase clinical trial access to women facing cancer in Indiana. Hess says that access is important.

“The School of Medicine is really committed to having women across Indiana have access to physicians and experts in medical oncology but also to clinical trials,” says Hess.

The search is on for a center director to lead a group of about 30 researchers.

The center will add to Indiana University’s Precision Health Initiative.

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