Supportive Care in Cancer
Our mission is “to help good people through lousy times” by working with patients and survivors of cancer and their families and caregivers, to alleviate cancer-related toxicities and side effects in order to ultimately improve quality of care and quality of life.
For almost 50 years, the Division of Supportive Care in Cancer has conducted supportive oncology and cancer care delivery research locally in our local catchment area and nationally. We focus on investigating the etiology of symptoms and side effects from cancer and treatments like surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and other treatments so that we have an understanding of their development and why some patients develop significant symptoms and others do not, as well as why some patients develop chronic symptoms whereas others do not. We also have a major emphasis on developing and executing clinical trials aimed at both prevention and management of side effects from cancer and its treatments. Our team has pioneered several notable interventions including behavioral interventions including yoga, exercise, diet, nutrition and pharmacologic interventions including anti-inflammatories. We have led multi-year observational research studies across the lifespan from adolescent and young adult survivors to older adults with cancer, studying trajectories of side effects and biomechanisms and physical function outcomes. We also apply implementation science approaches to ensure that interventions as accessible and feasible in real-world clinical settings and workflows.
Our faculty research members are internationally known for their impactful contributions to the field of supportive care and survivorship, for training new supportive care researchers, and fostering multidisciplinary collaborations. These faculty are supported by over 50 Division staff member colleagues and over 20 student trainees who are integral to our success. To read more about faculty research programs, click on individual investigators’ pages below and also see program links below featuring our research and team.
Over the past several years, we have adapted several of our local and nationwide study protocols to include both in-person and remote research procedures. Both our PEAK Human Performance Lab and Cancer Control and Psychoneuroimmunology labs (CCPL) have supported researchers within the Division, the Department, and University Wide, including several members of the newly designated Wilmot Cancer Institute.
In fact both of these labs help investigators locally as a shared resource as part of the Human Biophysiology Shared Resource, and nationally as part of the URCC NCORP Research Base. Five of our faculty hold leadership roles within WCI as part of our Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG).
Given the growth of our Division over the years, especially over the past five years, we have substantially increased our overall funding. Our Division maintains an extramurally funded research program of approximately $10M annually with funding predominately from the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society. We support several faculty with career development awards as well as R21 and R01 level grants supporting early-Phase to Phase III trials as well as observational research designs and qualitative research in supportive cancer care.
Several of these grants are supported by our URCC NCORP Research Base infrastructure, which is only one of 2 housed within academic cancer centers. This program allows us to make a nationwide impact toward our mission. We also accrue for NCORP studies locally through our Division infrastructure and via collaborations with our colleagues at Wilmot.
Lastly, we all take great pride in training early-stage investigators from early learners in high school and college through postdoctoral researchers and early-stage faculty. Our world-renowned NCI-funded T32 program in supportive cancer care research training continues to train fellows that ultimately achieve career development awards and academic positions nationwide in cancer research. We have trained 50 fellows over 21 years that are currently at 21 unique academic institutions nationwide with 4 in industry positions.
If you have interest in learning more about our research priorities or to collaborate with us, please feel free to contact us!
Michelle Janelsins, PhD, MPH, FSBM
Division Chief of Supportive Care in Cancer
Useful links for more information on our Supportive Care in Cancer division:
- URCC NCORP Research Base
- NCI Clinical Oncology Research Program (NCORP)
- Peak-Lab: Physical-Exercise-Activity- Kinesiology
- Clinical and Translational Cancer Control Research Training Program (T32 Training)
- Cancer Control & Psychoneuroimmunology Laboratory (CCPL)
Who We Are
Michelle Janelsins, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Surgery and
Division Chief of Supportive Care in Cancer
Yuri Choi, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Surgery
Viktor Clark, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Surgery
Nikesha J. Haynes-Gilmore, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Umang Gada, M.S.
Senior Associate of Surgery
Joseph Guido, M.S.
Senior Associate of Surgery
Charles Kamen, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Surgery
Chin-Shang Li, M.S., Ph.D.
Professor of Surgery
Po-Ju Lin, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Surgery
Lindsey Mattick, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Research Assistant Professor of Surgery
Jeremy McGuire, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Surgery
Supriya Mohile, M.D., M.S.
Professor
Gary R. Morrow, Ph.D., M.S.
Professor of Surgery
Karen Mustian, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Surgery
Jonas Ndeke, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor of Surgery
Luke Peppone, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Surgery
Hongying Sun, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery
AnnaLynn Williams, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Junqiang Zhao, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Surgery
Contact Us
Kate Kessler
Administrator and T32 program Coordinator
(585) 275-9959
Christopher LeStorti
Administrator for Finance
(585) 276-5687
Sarah Strause
Executive Director, Research Operations
URCC NCORP Research Base
(585) 275-1398
ReKeeta Goodfriend
Administrative Assistant for All Other
Division Inquires
(585) 275-5513
News
Awards:
Receiving the 2025 Team Player Award:
Alisha Chakrabarti (left) and Cynthia (Cindi) Sweet (right)
Receiving the 2025 Professionalism Staff Award:
Ashley Mack (left) and Kelly Murphy (right)
- Dr. Luke Peppone was featured in the ASCO Daily News, featuring Luke’s Olanzapine NCORP RCT, with Kevin Spath presenting a first-author abstract showing that effective nausea control was the key mediator of olanzapine’s effect in improving quality of life, with over 50% of the improvement in quality-of-life scores attributable to improved nausea. Nausea Control Mediates the Relationship Between Olanzapine and Improved Quality of Life in Those Receiving Chemotherapy at the 2025 ASCO Quality Care Symposium
Dr. Luke Peppone was promoted to Assistant Professor with tenure. Congratulations on this amazing achievement of being granted tenure!
Dr. Karen Mustian was recently awarded by the Government and Prime Minister of India for her research on yoga and cancer, just announced at the World Health Organization’s Global Annual Summit on Traditional Medicine in New Delhi.
Dr. Charles Kamen, Senior Faculty Awardee for the Dr. David Satcher Community Health Improvement Award.
Dr. Charles Kamen was awarded an American Cancer Society cancer equity grant for his transformative work exploring the distinct challenges faced by LGBTQ+ cancer patients. This $4M award will allow Dr. Kamen and his colleagues to establish the "Q" Cancer Research Center to work across academic medical centers to help LGBTQ+ cancer patients access safe, inclusive, and effective healthcare.
Dr. Gary Morrow received the URMC Lifetime Mentoring Award.
Dr. AnnaLynn Williams was the lead author in a publication in Nature Communications exploring why patients with adolescent and young adult cancer survivors age faster than their peers who did not have cancer. This novel area of inquiry, led by Dr. Williams, also seeks to develop ways to combat this phenomenon and reverse the process.
Congratulations to our Newest T32 team members, Jonas Ndeke, M.D., Ph.D. and Rachel Rodenbach, M.D., who have been accepted to the Harvard Workshop on Research Methods in Supportive Oncology this year, 2026.
Dr. Karen Mustin was recognized from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and its foundation, Conquer Cancer, announced that Karen Mustian, PhD, MPH, at the Wilmot Cancer Institute, is the winner of the 2025 Walter Cancer Foundation Supportive Oncology Award. One of 11 special awards given by ASCO at its annual meeting, May 30 to June 3, 2025, the Walter Award honors individuals whose research has contributed substantially to supportive cancer care, which includes managing side effects and research aimed at improving quality of life during and after cancer treatment.