University of Illinois Cancer Center Associate Director for Clinical Research Oana Danciu, MD, was appointed by the Big Ten Cancer Research Consortium (Big Ten CRC) as chair of its Steering Committee.
The committee, which is composed of one researcher from each of the 15 cancer center member institutions, reviews activities of the consortium, decides matters of policy, and determines the criteria for approving concepts for development with the Big Ten CRC.
“Working closely with my steering committee colleagues and the Big Ten CRC team, I am looking forward to achieving our mission and goals. Through collaboration, expertise, and enhanced efficiency, we continue to advance cancer research and increase participation and access to clinical trials,” said Danciu, a breast oncologist at UI Health and associate professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Chicago.
Her research is focused on breast cancer, early phase clinical trials development, and experimental therapeutics. Her work has been presented at major national conferences, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Breast Cancer Symposium, San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, and ASCO Cancer Survivorship Symposium. Her extensive work includes developing a Phase I protocol with a new experimental agent, PAC-1 (first procaspase activating compound). PAC-1 is a small molecule that directly activates procaspase-3 and induces apoptosis of cancer cells.
She represents the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) in the Big Ten CRC’s Breast Cancer Clinical Trial Working Group, and this has led to collaborations with nationally recognized breast oncologists.
More About Big Ten CRC
The Big Ten CRC was created in 2013 to transform cancer research through collaborative clinical trials and observational studies that seek to improve the lives of patients with cancer by leveraging the scientific and clinical expertise of Big Ten universities.