RUSH Cancer Center Donor Impact Report 2023

2023 RUSH Cancer Center Donor Impact Report

Prioritizing People and Progress 1

Thank You for Your Support At the RUSH Cancer Center, our physicians and scientists have dedicated their careers to improving outcomes for people with cancer. Their innovative investigations and patient-centered approach have made RUSH a top destination for cancer care in the country — ranked among the nation’s top cancer programs by U.S. News & World Report in nine of the last 10 years.

They accelerate research, providing RUSH physicians and scientists with the resources they need to investigate new ideas and realize the potential of new therapies.

They expand the reach of the RUSH Cancer Center, so more families across Chicago can access the transformational discoveries, experimental treatments and high-quality care for which RUSH is known.

Your confidence in our cancer center teams brings their work to life.

Your gifts reflect our collective hope that one day, no one will have to fear a cancer diagnosis.

RUSH’s history of leadership in cancer care and research is only possible because of philanthropy. Your investments are critical to our work.

Thank you for your loyal partnership and faith in our work.

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From the Cancer Center Director The landscape of cancer care is changing in the most exciting ways. Advancements in screening are finding more cancers earlier, when they are more likely to respond to treatment. For people with more advanced cancers, treatment breakthroughs are increasingly effective at extending life and transforming diseases into manageable, chronic conditions.

More people with cancer are living longer lives, and more cancer survivors are alive today than ever before. And because of you, the nationally ranked RUSH Cancer Center is at the forefront of this incredible progress.

Clinicians and researchers at the RUSH Cancer Center are committed to providing people with cancer the care and support they need to thrive, beginning with their initial diagnosis and continuing throughout their lives.

In striving for this extraordinarily high level of cancer care, we opened the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building — the new systemwide home of the RUSH Cancer Center — in February 2023. This facility marks a pivotal moment in our history as we look to build on our cancer program, which puts patients at the center of everything we do. It gives our devoted clinicians and researchers more opportunities to collaborate and work with you, from launching new research studies to incorporating the most cutting-edge discoveries into care plans so patients can achieve the best possible outcomes.

There has never been a more hopeful and thrilling time in cancer care. Medical advancements, propelled by our donor community, are saving the lives of more patients who turn to us — and people far beyond RUSH who benefit from our discoveries. We are indebted to you and hope you take pride in our work, including the programs highlighted in this report.

With deepest gratitude,

Amina Ahmed, MD Director, Cancer Service Line Interim Director, RUSH Cancer Center

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The Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building: A New Home for the RUSH Cancer Center Designed with Patients in Mind: Practical Benefits for People with Cancer and Survivors

When RUSH University Medical Center leaders set out to design a new facility to serve as home to the RUSH Cancer Center in 2019, they visited leading cancer centers around the country for inspiration. They also conducted a series of patient focus groups that made it clear that comfort, privacy, convenience and infection prevention were priorities for them.

Patients with cancer deserve services designed around them: streamlined, supportive and highly personalized. This commitment to patients can be observed throughout the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building, which embodies RUSH’s efforts to change how complex care is delivered.

In February 2023, those plans were realized with the grand opening of the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building, the 10-story, 480,000-square-foot outpatient facility directly east of RUSH’s iconic hospital tower. Designed to optimize the patient experience, the building will accommodate a projected patient volume increase at the RUSH Cancer Center of nearly 50% by 2030.

“RUSH has grown and now reaches from downtown Chicago to Aurora, across suburban communities and to Northwest Indiana, to offer convenient access to the highest level of care for patients where and when they need it,” said Dr. Omar Lateef, president and CEO of RUSH. “This facility serves as a hub for much of this care, and it was built around what patients tell us is most important to them.”

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Details that promote healing: Every detail and finish was developed with patients in mind, with colors and décor scientifically proven to promote healing.

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Private infusion rooms: Bright, spacious infusion rooms on the seventh and ninth floors provide convenience and privacy, with TV monitors and plenty of space for a friend or family member to be with their loved one.

• Optimized lab services: Understanding that many patients need lab tests such as blood draws before appointments, RUSH placed an industry-leading laboratory on the first floor, adjacent to the lobby, to allow patients to stop there first.

The Joan and Paul Ruschlager Building, which earned LEED Gold certification for environmentally conscious design, serves as home to several of RUSH’s highly ranked neuroscience programs and RUSH Digestive Diseases.

Construction of the building was supported by a historic gift from philanthropists Joan and Paul Rubschlager, longtime supporters and grateful patients of RUSH for whom the building is named.

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Deep integration of clinical research: A team of RUSH Cancer Center experts focused on clinical trials is embedded in the building, and private meeting spaces allow research nurses and coordinators to meet with patients about studies.

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Expanded space for supportive oncology: A suite on the building’s fourth floor offers services such as acupuncture, massage and counseling to help support patients’ and their families’ well-being and quality of life.

Take a virtual tour and learn more about the building’s patient-centered features.

• The latest in diagnostic imaging: For patients in need of imaging, the building features the latest technology for MRI, CT, PET scanning and other modalities — including one of Chicago’s most advanced MRI scanners supporting RUSH research.

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Making entry and exit easy: An adjoining six-story parking garage and valet parking make it easier for patients frequently coming in for care — such as those receiving treatments in radiation oncology, which is located on the first floor.

RUSH Chief Medical Officer Paul Casey, MD, MBA, introduces features of the new building and describes its benefits for patients in a video tour of the Rubschlager Building.

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Setting New Standards in Cancer Screening A conversation with Lisa Stempel, MD

Cancer screening saves lives. It’s a belief that Lisa Stempel, MD, chief of breast imaging at RUSH, has championed throughout her career. Dr. Stempel sat down with the RUSH Office of Philanthropy to explain how donors’ support of the Regenstein Breast Imaging Center is helping experts catch more breast cancers earlier and transforming screening practices.

RUSH has been an innovator in breast cancer screening for many years. What are some of the ways we’ve moved the field forward?

In 2017 we started offering automated breast ultrasound, or ABUS, which scans the entire breast. We started the program two years before Illinois required providers to notify women if they have dense breast tissue. We didn’t want to just send women a letter and not offer support. We wanted to give them the option of another test. A lot of women visiting us are now in the habit of scheduling their mammogram and ABUS together.

Mammography is an excellent screening tool for breast cancer. It is the most studied test in medicine and shows a 40% decrease in mortality for women who are screened. But mammography is not perfect. For two groups of women — those with dense breast tissue and those with a higher lifetime risk of breast cancer — it is not as good at identifying cancers. Other screening modalities in addition to yearly mammography should be pursued to find breast cancer at its earliest stage, when it is most treatable. RUSH has been a pacesetter in supplemental screening.

Your team launched the personalized screening program to recommend care tailored to women’s risk of breast cancer.

Why did you start this program, and how does it work?

Since 2007 the American Cancer Society has recommended MRI for women who are high-risk, meaning they have a greater than or equal to 20% lifetime risk of breast cancer.

The problem is, how do women know they are high-risk?

Some women know they are high-risk because they’re aware of a genetic mutation, but that’s a very small percentage.

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Three out of four women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history.

qualify for MRI is in the 30% range — double the national average. We’ve found 44 very early cancers with MRI, which is a very high number in two years.

In 2020 we started the personalized screening program using cancer risk assessment software. The assessment is free, and we offer it to every patient who visits any RUSH breast imaging location. We ask a few questions and use software that leverages additional information from the patient’s electronic medical record to calculate their lifetime risk of breast cancer.

Recently, we saw a patient who came in for a mammogram.

She was high-risk: Her mom and maternal grandmother had breast cancer. Her mammogram was read as normal, but she talked to the nurse navigator and came back for an MRI six months later. We found two cancers — one in each breast — and she had them both removed. No cancer was detected in the lymph nodes following surgery, and the patient is now cancer-free. Waiting for these cancers to grow large enough to be detected on a mammogram alone would have reduced the likelihood of this patient’s successful outcome.

We put three things in our report: if they are high-risk and meet recommendations for supplemental screening with MRI; if they meet the recommendations for genetic testing; and if they meet the recommendations for risk-reducing medication.

How does donor support make a difference for you and your colleagues?

We also brought in a nurse navigator, which is a gamechanger.

She reaches out to every patient who is high-risk, goes over what the results mean, explains the recommendations and then refers them to RUSH’s high-risk breast clinic. There, patients meet with advanced practice providers, breast surgeons and other specialists to help them navigate what’s next.

Philanthropy is the reason we have been able to do this work. It has funded research nurses, nurse navigation, data analysts, cutting-edge equipment and information technology specialists to build out this program as seamlessly as possible.

RUSH’s personalized screening program is garnering national attention. What impact has it had on patients and on the field at large?

Donor support also allows us to publish our results and share them with colleagues across the country. It helps us train new physicians in breast health and imaging. I’m proud that we’ve already had 12 medical students participate in this research.

So far, we have performed risk assessment on 42,000 women and identified 3,900 as high-risk. Our uptake for people who

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge several major

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supporters of this work, including the Regenstein Foundation, Sheli Rosenberg, the Burt Family Foundation, Dr. Sylvia E. Furner, the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund and the Lynn Sage Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

until they’re 40, and the incidence of breast cancer for women under 40 is significantly increasing. Nobody knows why, but I’m seeing it every week. I don’t think anyone will recommend we screen before 40, but we can find women who are high-risk so they can start screening between ages 25-30.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently issued recommendations that women should start getting regular mammograms at 40. What guidance do you have for women who hear differing guidelines? How could personalized risk assessment shape the future of screening recommendations?

What implications does your work have on the future of early detection and saving more lives from cancer?

Our program is set up as a learning health care system, so we gather data on all patients who participate. It lets us study everyone, not just people in clinical trials, and allows us to modify our recommendations based on this data.

There are a lot of recommendations out there, and it can get confusing. I prefer the American College of Radiology guidelines, which has recommended for years that we start screening at 40 and do it every year. These recommendations will unequivocally save the most lives.

There’s a lot of opportunity to use the personalized screening program for breast cancer as a model for other cancer screening programs. For example, lung cancer is responsible for the most cancer deaths around the world. It kills more women than breast and ovarian cancer, combined, but a very small percentage of eligible individuals get screened for lung cancer. We are adding lung cancer screening questions to our intake form in breast imaging to uncover women who qualify for lung cancer screening in the hopes of improving early detection of lung cancer.

I’d add that any recommendations to start screening later than age 40 disproportionately hurt Black women. Black women get breast cancer earlier, and they are more likely to get a very aggressive breast cancer that you must screen for every year to catch early enough to impact prognosis and survival.

I want to bring the cancer risk assessment tool into primary care, so all women can undergo risk assessment at age 25-30.

In the breast imaging center, we usually don’t see women

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Impact to Date RUSH’s personalized breast cancer risk screening program has been catching more cancers earlier and making a difference for women since 2019.

42,OOO women screened

3,900 identified as high-risk

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cancers detected with MRI and ABUS

96%

of cancers detected were Stages 0 and 1

44 MRI | 37 ABUS

12% of patients eligible for genetic testing

16%

27%

pursue genetic testing

pursue MRI

3.5 times the national rate

3 times the national average

19 papers, poster presentations, abstracts and manuscripts

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Personalizing Treatments for Better Care and Better Outcomes Highlighted updates from RUSH investigators

Our physician-researchers and basic scientists choose to work at RUSH because of our commitment to putting patients first. In an academic medical system like RUSH, they live out their missions in the clinic and the lab, dedicating themselves to investigating new ideas that could lead to better treatment options and improved patient care.

Creating a research program and launching pilot studies require time and resources, and competition for limited funding from federal agencies grows each year. Philanthropic gifts give researchers the support they need to build their teams, conduct powerful research and share their results with the scientific community. The findings from these early studies strengthen their applications for federal funding and nurture self-sustaining research programs.

At RUSH, investigators have leveraged pilot research funds from philanthropy to obtain millions in federal funding, averaging a return on investment of $10 to $1.

Jessica Slostad, MD Assistant Professor, Division of Hematology, Oncology and Cellular Therapy Department of Internal Medicine Every tumor has unique traits. As a result, some tumors respond better to currently available treatments than others do. Sometimes, the side effects outweigh the benefits.

Personalized approaches to care — which consider the genetics, lifestyle and environment of a person as well as the genetic makeup of their tumor — have the potential to transform how we prevent and treat cancer.

Dr. Slostad and her team believe their latest research can equip physicians with the information they need to better evaluate tumor responses and choose the therapy, from the very beginning of treatment, that will best treat a patient’s cancer.

Dr. Slostad’s project, funded in part by The Woman’s Board of RUSH University Medical Center, creates three-dimensional replicas of patients’ solid tumors, called organoids, in the lab and administers a panel of drugs to them. Researchers assess each organoid’s responses to the drugs and compare with the patient’s real tumor.

With your support, we are moving toward a future where physicians can use this data in real-time to identify the treatment most likely to support the best outcome for each person with cancer while reducing side effects.

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Christopher W. Seder, MD The Arthur E. Diggs, MD, and L. Penfield Faber, MD, Professor of Surgical Sciences Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery With incredible advances in oncology care, screening methods and minimally invasive surgical techniques, more men and women with lung cancer are leading longer lives. In just the last five years, the five-year survival rate has risen nearly 20%. Meanwhile, ongoing research is shedding light on challenges that people with lung cancer face to improve outcomes.

For example, research suggests that sarcopenia, or the loss of muscle mass and function, is prevalent in as many as 56% of lung cancer patients and is associated with negative effects on surgical outcomes and overall survival.

With the support of philanthropy, Dr. Seder and other RUSH collaborators investigated the association between sarcopenia and survival. Using CT scans, they measured muscle mass in lung cancer patients with and without sarcopenia in three areas of the spine. Their early results suggest that sarcopenia is associated with lower survival rates in males, and they are in the process of assessing if muscle volume shows a similar correlation. Their research is critical to helping physicians use imaging to predict patient outcomes after lung cancer surgery.

Deana Shenaq, MD Assistant Professor, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Department of Surgery

Rosalinda Alvarado, MD Assistant Professor, Division of Surgical Oncology Department of Surgery Surgery is by far the most common treatment for breast cancer, especially when it is caught early.

With more than 80% of women with a history of breast cancer leading longer lives, it is critical for surgeons to understand their patients’ perceptions of care, satisfaction with surgery and their quality of life. This feedback helps inform interventions to address physical and psychosocial outcomes of surgery, ultimately guiding patient-centered care and shared decision making.

At RUSH, Drs. Shenaq and Alvarado are spearheading a research initiative to enhance patient engagement in the reconstruction process. Powered by philanthropic support from Judy Guitelman and Dan Epstein, the multi-surgeon team is utilizing the BREAST-Q survey — the gold standard for measuring patient satisfaction following breast reconstruction — to learn how self-confidence, sexual well-being, clothing fit and pain level affect women’s well-being and how these factors may differ by race and ethnicity.

While the research is still ongoing, preliminary data suggest minority women feel less satisfied and confident over time. These early results show the crucial role donors have in improving care — ensuring every woman diagnosed with breast cancer feels her best, every day, for the rest of her life.

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Recognizing Trailblazers in Research and Patient Care at RUSH The Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund: Driving Cancer Breakthroughs Since 1970

Steven Gitelis, MD. Dr. Gitelis pioneered surgical resection and reconstruction methods known as limb-salvage techniques to improve the treatment of sarcomas, making amputation a rare, last resort. He has directed the Section of Orthopedic Oncology at RUSH University Medical Center since 1984.

For more than 50 years, the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund has raised crucial funds to support cancer research.

The Piccolo Fund’s long-standing relationship with RUSH has led to enhanced quality of life for cancer patients, including remarkable improvements in survival rates for embryonal cell carcinoma, the rare cancer that took the life of legendary Chicago Bears running back Brian Piccolo at age 26. The Piccolo Fund’s research investments at RUSH are furthering innovative approaches to prevent, detect and treat breast, ovarian and lung cancer.

Dozens of former patients, colleagues and friends hosted a gathering in May 2023 at Murphy’s Bleachers, the iconic sports bar across from Wrigley Field, to raise a toast in Dr. Gitelis’ honor. In addition to touching tributes and heartfelt speeches, the event raised awareness about orthopedic oncology research at RUSH, which has benefited significantly from philanthropic support during Dr. Gitelis’ career.

“It has been incredibly rewarding to see how cancer treatment has advanced over the decades since we lost Brian to this terrible disease,” said Joy Piccolo O’Connell, president of the Brian Piccolo Cancer Research Fund. “The commitment of RUSH’s researchers and clinicians to advancing treatments inspires all of us at the Piccolo Fund.”

“We have watched pediatric patients grow into adulthood and our adult patients’ hair turn gray,” reflected Patty Piasecki, NP, a nurse practitioner, a nurse practitioner who has worked closely with Dr. Gitelis for the past 39 years. “We have attended our patients’ weddings, met the children they thought they’d never be able to have and celebrated career, education and life milestones alongside them.”

Translational research supported by the Piccolo Fund has led to new and more effective treatment options for women, including targeted hormonal therapies such as Herceptin, which is now part of the standard of care for certain forms of breast cancer. The Piccolo Fund continues to support innovative initiatives at RUSH that have the potential to transform the field even more. Current efforts supported by the fund are advancing RUSH’s personalized breast cancer screening program, investigating how the flu shot can make breast cancer more responsive to therapies and examining the role a specific gene plays in triple-negative breast cancer.

Celebrating 50 Years of Steven Gitelis’ Excellence in Orthopedic Cancer Care

Grateful patients and colleagues hosted an event celebrating Dr. Gitelis’ 50 years in medicine in May at Murphy’s Bleachers. An expert in orthopedic oncology, Dr. Gitelis (second from left) was one of the nation’s first surgeons to perform bone transplants and helped establish the region’s first tissue banks for bones used in reconstructive procedures after cancerous bone tissue is removed.

In 2022 RUSH celebrated the 50-year career milestone of internationally recognized orthopedic oncological surgeon

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Elevating Cancer Care Across the Chicago Region RUSH Cancer Center’s new Lisle location opening in late 2024 RUSH is advancing its mission of delivering seamless, top-quality care with plans for a new cancer treatment center in Lisle, Illinois.

The RUSH Cancer Center’s new location will streamline access and extend the continuum of cancer care for people living and working in the western suburbs. The new location will offer expanded services for infusion therapy, radiation therapy, supportive oncology, lab services, pharmacy and urgent cancer care. It will also include the latest technology in diagnostic breast imaging and diagnostic imaging (CT, MRI and X-ray).

RUSH Copley recognized for excellence in lung screening RUSH Copley Cancer Care Center has earned recognition as a Center of Excellence by GO2 for Lung Cancer for providing the Fox Valley community with patient-centered, evidence-based lung cancer screening. This recognition connects RUSH Copley to a nationwide network of 800 Centers of Excellence. GO2-designated Centers of Excellence are committed to responsible, high-quality screening practices. The GO2 designation ensures low-dose CT screening for lung cancer is carried out safely, efficiently and equitably.

Continually delivering more cancer services at RUSH Oak Park To provide more cancer services closer to the communities where people live and work, the RUSH Cancer Center continues to expand its offerings across the RUSH system. For example, patient visits to the RUSH Cancer Center at RUSH Oak Park Hospital have increased more than 55% since 2021. RUSH Cancer Center specialists embedded at RUSH Oak Park treat a wide range of cancers.

In addition to an expansion of cancer screening and infusion services, the radiation oncology program at RUSH Oak Park has dramatically grown with the installation of a second linear accelerator and other state-of-the-art equipment. The new technology accommodates more patients in need of radiation therapies and supports procedures previously offered only at RUSH University Medical Center in Chicago.

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Bone marrow transplantation and cellular therapy specialists Celalettin Ustun, MD (left), and Sunita Nathan, MD

Solidifying RUSH as a Leader in Bone Marrow Transplants and Cellular Therapy RUSH has been at the forefront of care for hematological malignancies such as leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma for decades, from performing Chicago’s first bone marrow transplantation in 1984 to recently carrying out some the first trials of tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte, or TIL, therapy in 2022. TIL therapy stands out from other cellular therapy approaches because it offers hope for treating solid tumors such as melanoma, lung and breast cancers.

Under the leadership of Celalettin Ustun, MD, the Coleman Foundation Chair of Blood and Bone Marrow Transplant, RUSH’s program continues to provide more of these complex, lifesaving treatments — delivering more than 100 transplants every year since 2021.

RUSH’s transplant center ranks among the nation’s highest performers because of its survival rates after transplantation.

Unique and collaborative care protocols have also allowed the team to deliver allogenic transplants (involving stem cells from a matched relative or unrelated donor) to older patients and those with medical complexities — patients who have sometimes been turned away by other transplant centers.

With donor support, RUSH’s program is also at the leading edge of care and research for chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, T-cell therapy. Viewed as one of the biggest immunotherapy breakthroughs in recent years, CAR T-cell therapy involves re-engineering a person’s cells to better fight certain forms of lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma. RUSH now averages one new CAR T-cell therapy patient per month, a significant number for this complex treatment.

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DONOR SPOTLIGHT:

Wanda Veld Showing gratitude to care teams by joining the Anchor Cross Society On March 16, 2011, Wanda Veld celebrated her new birthday, a day that many patients who have a stem cell transplant recognize when the healthy cells enter and reset the body.

donating as a way to honor her physicians, Parameswaran Venugopal, MD, and Stephanie Gregory, MD, during Doctors’ Day. “I give because RUSH is the best, and the doctors are topnotch,” Wanda said. “They all have positive attitudes. It’s a lot of the little things that I appreciate. It’s the caring spirit, along with the good care.”

Wanda overcame an aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma after more than a decade of treatment. A grandmother of six, Wanda has been receiving care at RUSH for more than 60 years.

Read Wanda’s full story:

Wanda is also an active member of the Anchor Cross Society, RUSH’s premier annual giving society celebrating donors who provide significant support year after year. She supports cancer care at RUSH with her gifts and was inspired to begin

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Your Support Inspires Hope, Healing and Discovery Charitable contributions from grateful patients and friends of the RUSH Cancer Center fuel innovative research, programs and collaborations that get us closer to a cure. Together, we are saving more lives and improving care for everyone throughout the cancer journey.

To support the RUSH Cancer Center or learn how you can continue your legacy of support through an estate gift, contact Charles Palys, director of development, at charles_palys@RUSH.edu or (312) 563-9049.

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