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