USC Urology’s vision to change cancer treatment forever

Imagine receiving a stage three bladder cancer diagnosis at age 45. Overnight, your life changes: You leave your job due to your health issues. Suddenly, your family must adjust to life on one income. Worst of all, you’re not sure if you will be around to see your children graduate high school and begin lives on their own.

But imagine too that you have enrolled in a clinical trial at USC Urology, and in just six months, your tumors stop growing — and then began to shrink. You are able to stop chemotherapy. And a year later, there is absolutely no sign of your cancer. You have a future again.

This experience may be closer than you think. Many patients are getting their futures back thanks to the cutting-edge work of USC Urology and the Keck School of Medicine of USC, under the leadership of Inderbir Gill, MD.

A pioneer in robotic surgery who was part of the surgical team that performed the world’s first bladder transplant earlier this year, Dr. Gill is leading USC Urology’s efforts to completely change how urologic cancers and conditions are treated and potentially cured.

“Our team is helping fundamentally transform the practice of cancer treatment and surgery,” said Dr. Gill, who is chair and Distinguished Professor of the Catherine and Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, the Shirley and Donald Skinner Chair in Urologic Cancer Surgery in the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and founding executive director of the USC Institute of Urology, part of Keck Medicine of USC. “We want to keep patients as healthy as possible by shortening surgical recovery times and creating new therapeutics that preserve healthy tissue and minimize side effects.”

That work will be dramatically accelerated by a transformational philanthropic gift from an anonymous donor whose family has been directly impacted by Dr. Gill’s care. Their gift is believed to be the largest ever made to any department of urology.

“Dr. Gill and his team have made Keck Medicine of USC the destination of choice for people seeking best-in-class urological care,” said USC Interim President Beong-Soo Kim. “Their efforts to transform how we detect, treat and cure kidney, bladder and prostate cancer are life-changing for patients and physicians everywhere.”

Dr. Gill and the researchers of USC Urology have already made several incredible scientific discoveries that will lead to seismic shifts in cancer diagnosis and treatment. With continued investment in their work, these USC-developed solutions may impact patients worldwide in as few as two to five years.

In clinical trials, a novel bladder cancer medication developed by USC Urology has proven to be highly effective and safe, generating an adaptive immune response — meaning that even after stopping treatment, many patients’ bladder cancer does not come back. The medication has already received the FDA’s Breakthrough Therapy designation as well as a prestigious R01 Research Project grant from the National Cancer Institute, both indicators of exceptional promise.

The team’s efforts in radiogenomics allow them to use traditional imaging alongside cancer biomarkers to non-invasively help identify which kidney tumors are benign and which are cancerous — giving patients peace of mind and helping to eliminate unnecessary surgeries. USC Urology researchers are also developing a novel virtual prostate biopsy platform, which can accurately detect cancer from imaging and might replace today’s practice of conducting multiple — often 12 to 20 — uncomfortable biopsies to detect prostate cancer.

Dr. Gill’s experience and expertise in robotics includes the latest frontier of urologic cancer treatment: non-invasive focal treatments, which target a cancerous area in the prostate using cold, heat, ultrasound or other energies and help patients avoid a surgery to remove their entire prostate.

A surgical computer vision system — a robotic camera and AI, both trained on the world’s best data and thousands of sophisticated robotic surgical videos — will help surgeons everywhere make the best real-time decisions during delicate prostate surgeries. Flexible robotics are a path to a future where tiny robots are inserted into the body without any incision to kill tumors in a one-time, pain-free, office visit without incisions.

“The urology department at USC is a global leader in innovative robotic surgical and non-invasive approaches to cancer care,” said Carolyn Meltzer, dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. “Dr. Gill and his team are constantly developing the latest research breakthroughs to advance patient care.”

Dr. Gill’s vision will help shift cancer from one of the scariest diagnoses imaginable to something that may be treated quickly and humanely. Every new investment in their work speeds the pace of USC Urology’s contributions and spreads hope for patients around the world.

“Medicine at USC is a collaborative endeavor combining research, clinical care and technological advancements,” said Steven D. Shapiro, senior vice president for health affairs at USC. “The collective efforts of both the Keck School of Medicine and our academic health system, Keck Medicine, will bring innovations more quickly to those patients who need it most.”

“In this age of AI, the pace of innovation and new discovery is simply stunning to me. It opens the door to major breakthroughs in medicine,” said Dr. Gill. “With humility and heartfelt gratitude for this truly historic donation, my team and I couldn’t be more excited, and we will work relentlessly to contribute.”