Summary5 min read

Podcast Summary: Dr. Jun Zhang, Vice President of Oncology Research, OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute

Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Date: November 17, 2025
Guest: Dr. Jun Zhang
Host: Elizabeth Gregerson

Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Jun Zhang, Vice President of Oncology Research at the OSF HealthCare Cancer Institute. Dr. Zhang shares his perspective on oncology research priorities, the pivotal role of clinical trials, how health system leaders can support and scale cancer research, and his optimism about the future of oncology. The conversation delivers actionable insights for healthcare executives while offering hope and clarity around cancer care innovation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Dr. Zhang’s Background and Philosophy ([00:29])

Dr. Zhang is both a clinician (“thoracic oncologist” specializing in lung and related cancers) and a cancer biologist.
He emphasizes translational research:
“My passion is utilizing my experience to bring from the bench side, which is the laboratory, to the bedside... bringing new discoveries to our patients.” (B, [00:53])
He addresses a cyclical approach, using clinical questions to drive further research.

2. Research Priorities at OSF HealthCare ([02:05])

The oncology research efforts span “early stage preclinical laboratory research” through “clinical trials that benefit our patients directly.” (B, [02:10])
OSF is focused on two major areas:
- Prevention and Early Detection:
  “Prevention is in fact the best treatment for cancer. We want to get rid of cancer before it becomes out of control.” (B, [02:39])
- Innovative Treatments for Advanced Cancer:
  OSF established a "Breakthrough Treatment Center" to offer patients early access to clinical trials for potentially life-saving therapies.
  
  “Breakthrough treatment center is really focusing on bringing innovative trials... so that our patient can have early access to those potentially life saving treatments.” (B, [03:34])

3. Role and Impact of Clinical Trials ([04:27])

Clinical Trials as Standard-Bearers:
All new “standard of care” cancer treatments are grounded in successful clinical trials.
Accelerated Access:
Clinical trials “offer our patients early access to those potentially life saving treatments.” (B, [05:33])
Bench to Bedside:
Scientific discoveries require trials to become real-world therapies for patients.

“Clinical trial is in fact an essential and indispensable step before any treatment becomes standard of care.” (B, [06:05])

4. Advice for Health System Leaders: Building a Research Culture ([07:36])

Dr. Zhang outlines three essential principles for health systems:

Patient-Centric Mission:
“This mission must be patient centered... At a time when our patient, our beloved one, is diagnosed with cancer, every day matters and every hour matters.” (B, [07:47])
OSF describes staff not as employees, but as “mission partners.”
Innovation:
“Everybody’s cancer is different... any treatment we give to cancer cells, they will adapt… We have to keep chasing innovative treatments.” (B, [09:16])
Being willing to pursue “high risk, high rewarding research program[s].”
Open-Mindedness & Collaboration:
Partner with academic centers, other hospitals, and industry; leverage new technologies, especially artificial intelligence.

“Keep open minded, this will help us to keep learning... those are called three pillars to ensure that we have a successful research program.” (B, [11:13])

5. The Future of Oncology: Reasons for Optimism ([12:20])

Dr. Zhang’s major sources of hope:

Accelerated Drug Approval:
“In old days... for any chemotherapy drug to be approved, we had to wait for 15 to 20 years... But now... the next generation, with our more in-depth understanding of molecular biology, only took about three years to get approved.” (B, [13:18])
New regulatory pathways (e.g., accelerated approval) are expediting life-saving treatments.
Cancer as a Manageable Illness:
“We’re able to convert cancer really to a chronic disease such as hypertension, diabetes.” (B, [14:14])
Explosion of Knowledge:
Advancements in cancer biology, immunotherapy (“sometimes I’m able to cure... metastatic lung cancer”), and AI-enabled drug design and trial simulation.
- “Immunotherapy, sometimes I'm able to cure, I'm talking about not just treat, sometimes I can cure a patient with metastatic lung cancer.” (B, [15:10])
Cross-Disciplinary Benefits:
Understanding cancer leads to advances benefitting other areas of medicine and life sciences.
“We actually gain lots of knowledge not only just to conquer cancer but also to apply those knowledge to other branches of medicine or other parts of life science.” (B, [16:01])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Translational Research:
“Bringing from the bench side, which is the laboratory, to the bedside, which is a clinical setting, trying to really bring new discoveries to our patients.” — Dr. Jun Zhang ([00:53])
On Preventative Research:
“Prevention is in fact the best treatment for cancer.” — Dr. Jun Zhang ([02:39])
On Clinical Trials as Essential:
“Clinical trial is in fact an essential and indispensable step before any treatment becomes standard of care.” — Dr. Jun Zhang ([06:05])
On Mission-Driven Research:
“This mission must be patient centered... every day matters and every hour matters.” — Dr. Jun Zhang ([07:47])
On Innovation and Collaboration:
“We are dealing with a very challenging disease... any treatment we give to cancer cells, they will adapt... We want to collaborate with different mindsets.” — Dr. Jun Zhang ([09:16], [10:13])
On the Future of Oncology:
“We are converting cancer to chronic disease. This is something that really exciting to me.” — Dr. Jun Zhang ([14:14])
On Immunotherapy’s Promise:
“Sometimes I’m able to cure... metastatic lung cancer by immunotherapy. So it’s really amazing.” — Dr. Jun Zhang ([15:10])

Key Timestamps

[00:29] – Dr. Zhang’s background and philosophy
[02:05] – OSF’s dual research priorities: prevention/early detection and breakthrough treatments
[04:27] – Role of clinical trials in standard of care and innovation
[07:36] – Advice to health system leaders: mission, innovation, collaboration
[12:20] – Why Dr. Zhang is optimistic about the future of oncology
[13:18] – Changing timelines for drug approval
[14:14] – Cancer as a chronic illness
[15:10] – Successes with immunotherapy

Conclusion

Dr. Zhang’s vision for oncology research at OSF HealthCare—and for the field at large—is grounded in a deeply patient-centric ethos, a relentless commitment to research innovation, and an eagerness to collaborate across disciplines and sectors. His optimism is rooted in real progress: faster drug approvals, breakthroughs in immunotherapy, AI’s transformative capacities, and an expanding knowledge base that is redefining what’s possible for cancer care and beyond.

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Transcript12 lines

[00:01]
A
Hello and welcome to the Beckers Healthcare Podcast. I'm Elizabeth Gregerson, a reporter here at Beckers and I'm thrilled to interview Dr. Zhang, Vice President of Oncology Research of the OSF Healthcare Cancer Institute, on the podcast today. Dr. Zhang, thank you so much for joining me. I am so grateful to share your insights with our podcast audience. Could you give us just a brief little intro about yourself and your organization?
[00:29]
B
Thank you. It is really nice to be here today. I'm Dr. Zhang. I am a medical oncologist, primarily focused on thoracic oncology, meaning that I take care of patients with their cancer develop in the thoracic cavity or chest in that case, primarily will be different kinds of lung cancer. But also I treat patients with thymic cancer, mesothelioma. Now at the same time I was also trained as a cancer biologist. Therefore I also conduct research. My research spanned basically from really preclinical laboratory research, all the way to different phases of clinical trials to help our patients. Really my passion is utilizing my experience or expertise to bring from the bench side, which is the laboratory, to the bedside, which is a clinical setting, trying to really bring new discoveries to our patients. But at the same time, if I see some important questions arising from clinical side, I'm trying to answer that as well through research.
[01:46]
A
Perfect. I'm so grateful to have you to share your perspective. As vice president of oncology research, I'd love to know what some of the first priorities, the top focuses will be for you and for OSF in terms of oncology research.
[02:06]
B
Sure. When we're talking about oncology research, this is basically cover a full spectrum of various research activities. As I mentioned earlier, that includes really early stage pre clinical laboratory research and and all the way to the clinical trials that we benefit our patients directly. But then even in a clinical trial setting, we have other research such as for example, outcome research, translational research, quality research, and even cost effective analysis to see which treatment is the best for our patients. With all this research, we have made two major focus. Both me and also our OSF Cancer Institute. We're trying to focus in two major areas. One is the prevention and early detection of cancer. As we know that prevention is in fact the best treatment for cancer. We want to get rid of cancer before it becomes out of control. But then when cancer really becomes advanced or sometimes metastatic, then we want to have really innovative clinical trials or new treatment for our patients. For that reason, we have established what we call breakthrough treatment center. So breakthrough treatment center is really focusing on bringing innovative trials Especially early phase clinical trials so that our patient can have early access to those potentially life saving treatments. So those are two things that we are trying to kind of make it better and hopefully the best.
[03:55]
A
Yeah, it kind of sounds like the best of both worlds in those two focuses of prevention and then those breakthroughs in treatment that are so important as well. I cover oncology news for Beckers and I've slowly began to see clinical trials play a bigger role in health systems strategy. What role do clinical trials play in your plan at osf, particularly in that treatment center that you were just talking about? I'd love to kind of get a peek behind the curtain there. Sure.
[04:27]
B
I think clinical trials, by definition, it includes both interventional clinical trials and also the correlative clinical trials. Now, primarily we're focused on interventional means that we provide new treatments for patients. Let's say a patient is diagnosed with cancer, come to my clinic, if he or she is not interested in any clinical trial or not eligible for any clinical trials, then we offer that patient what we call standard of care. Standard of care is basically those treatment that is already proven to be efficacious and safe and got FDA approval and is covered by insurance. Therefore any oncologist that can prescribe the treatments and patient can get such therapy in any treatment center. Now, interesting that especially for oncology area, all those new standard of care, their approval is based on previous successful clinical trials. In other words, any new treatments must have gone through rigorous stages of clinical trials from phase one, then phase two, and quite often phase three to demonstrate the treatment is really efficacious and safe, therefore can get FDA approval and after that, that treatment becomes standard of care. So from that perspective, clinical trial is in fact an essential and indispensable step before any treatment becomes standard of care. But then at the same time, imagine that for any treatment to get approval, it takes many years. So if we do have clinical trials, then as I mentioned earlier, that we can offer our patients early access to those potentially life saving treatments. Now, at the same time, from science perspective, we know that new targets, new treatments, they develop in the laboratory setting by our scientists. I mean, sometimes could be whole lifetime or many decades, but eventually, if you want to translate those discoveries to benefit our patients, all those things has to go through trials. So that's importance of clinical trials. That is valuable for our patients and it's also valuable for science in general.
[06:57]
A
Perfect. So you know our, our podcast audience, they might come from an oncology background, but they're also, you know, just hospital and Health system leaders across the country who are, you know, tasked with making those strategic decisions for the operations of their systems. I'd love to know from your perspective what mindset you feel, you know, health system leaders should take when it comes to supporting cancer research or even beginning to operationalize or expand cancer research programs within their own organizations. Do you have any advice for them?
[07:36]
B
Yeah, I think, you know, this is. I can share my personal kind of insight. I think there are a few principles we have to pay attention to. One is we got to have a mission. I think this mission must be patient centered or patient centric. Why is it important? Because let's say if we have our beloved one diagnosed with cancer, from that moment, the diagnosis of cancer is devastating. At a time when our patient, our beloved one, is diagnosed with cancer, every day matters and every hour matters. From that perspective, we want to introduce really effective treatment for our patients. This can be through a very good care, using standard care treatment, but also innovative clinical trials makes much sense in the setting. We also want to translate really those discovery to innovative treatments for our patients to benefit them as soon as possible. This is what we call translational imperative. We want to really move all the discovery to the clinical side as quickly as possible. So I think with this patient centric mind, the mission, then we know the direction of doing research. At the same time, if we are really focused on patients, not only we bring new treatments, we are also going to conduct research that pay attention to the quality of life, their needs, and then provide basically evidence based science to support those kind of decisions. I'm glad to hear that. At osf we don't just call us employee, but we rather call us mission partner. I think osf, well, this is one of the reasons that I came to osf, is that it has its own mission, really trying to prevent or reduce any unnecessary sufferings to save every single patient. So we do have the mission. And I think, you know, this mission, especially patient centric, will really help us to shape our research direction. So I think this is number one. Number two is I think for the research, we have to be innovative. As I said, best care using standard treatment is important, but at the same time, we are dealing with a very challenging disease. This is cancer. Everybody's cancer is different. And kind of another challenging things is any treatment we give to cancer cells, they will adapt, they have elasticity, they will find a way to escape. And because of that, we have to keep chasing innovative treatments. So that innovative treatments is supposed to be based on innovative research. And sometimes we have to have the gut to take high risk, high rewarding research program. And I think the third is, I think quite important is we have to be open minded and when we are taking care of patients, we're conducting good research. I think we should put less ego in ourselves. We want collaborate with different mindsets. We want to collaborate, for example as osf, we can collaborate with academic centers surrounding us. We have uic, UA camp, we have uiuc, those academic centers. We may also want to collaborate with other hospitals, we may want to collaborate with industry where we can develop or co develop innovative clinical trials. At the same time we have to be really open minded to all sorts of new knowledge, new technology such as artificial intelligence, for example, how to integrate this into for example clinical trials. So I think keep open minded, this will help us to keep learning. I think those are called three pillars to ensure that we have a successful research program. Number one is always patient centric mission. Number two is to be innovative and number three is to be open minded and collaborative.
[11:42]
A
Amazing. Yeah, I think that's a perfect encapsulation, I think of your strategy and then also what other leaders can kind of emulate and maybe repurpose for their own organizations when it comes to supporting cancer research. So I appreciate you laying it out so perfectly for us. Whenever I speak with an oncologist, I always like to ask them, you know, what excites you most about the future of the oncology field. I feel like my conversations with leaders in oncology are also are all ways extremely motivating and hopeful. So I'd love to know from your perspective, what are you most excited about in the future?
[12:21]
B
Yeah, exactly. I can tell you a lot. I think I'm kind of excited a few things. I think number one is we're going to see more novel treatments approved in a much faster pace. This is based on explosion of knowledge and technology, etc. I can give you some sort of example. In old days, I came to United States in the year of 2000, 25 years ago for any medicine, just say for lung cancer space. For any chemotherapy drug to be approved, we have to wait for 15 to 20 years. For example, one of the most famous chemotherapy drugs, cisplatin took about 15 years to get approved. The second famous one, peptaxel, took about 20 years to approve. Then we start having targeted therapy based on better understanding of cancer cells. And the first target therapy in lung cancer field, I think gefetinib took about 15 years. It's about same time as chemotherapy, but then the next generation which is Osamatnib. With our more in depth understanding of molecular biology, only took about three years to get approved. You can see that we're going to see more new drugs, more efficacious drugs get approved in much faster pace. In old days it took on average about 12 to 15 years, but now it's about six, seven years. So much faster pace. And of course there is also improvement. For example the regulation, FDA regulation in old days is kind of sequential, just one stand approach. But now you have different track, you can have accelerated approval, you can have priority review, different approaches. We get medicine in a much faster way to benefit our patients. So from that perspective I cannot say that we can completely get rid of cancer, that disease entity. But for sure we're going to see more patients, we're going to really prolong patients life and we're going to improve their quality of life. I'm very confident and in fact it's actually happening. We're able to convert cancer really to a chronic disease such as hypertension, diabetes. People get it, we cannot cure them. But we are not scared about that I think in one day and in fact it's actually happening now that we are converting cancer to chronic disease. This is something that really exciting to me. Second, all those new treatment is based on new knowledges. Now we see explosion of knowledge. Not only we are having more in depth understanding about cancer biology just based on cancer, but we also harness the power of our immune system, for example, based on that we have immunotherapy. And I tell you that immunotherapy, sometimes I'm able to cure, I'm talking about not just treat, sometimes I can cure a patient with metastatic lung cancer by immunotherapy. So it's really amazing. And then we have new technology, for example artificial intelligence, which can help us to design drug in a much faster way, smarter way. Artificial intelligence can also simulate clinical trial trials so that we can test a hypothesis in a much faster approach. And artificial intelligence can interpret all those knowledge base, the database, for example, the genome data, the radiomics data, all sorts of things together and kind of give us a better picture about an individual's biology. And based on that we can develop Taylor therapy. And I think lastly even more exciting is that when in the process, when we are looking new treatments for cancer, we got to understand better about the cancer biology. But then it's not only just cancer, basically we also have to understand the biology of normal cells, for example the normal immune cells, etc. Through that process we actually gain lots of knowledge not only just to conquer cancer but also to apply those knowledge to other branches of medicine or other parts of life science. And because of those knowledge then we are get more how to say we're getting more benefits and in fact I would say we are able to have a better life and hopefully happier life. So this is the most exciting part.
[17:01]
A
Perfect. Thank you so much. I always feel so great when I hear cancer leaders speak about the future so I appreciate hearing from you. I would just like to thank you again for joining me on the podcast today. It's been such an amazing and informative discussion and again I'm so appreciative of you for sharing your time and your insights. I invite our listeners to tune into more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast page@beckershospitalreview.com thank you again Dr. Zhang and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day.
[17:36]
B
Thank you for having me here today. Thank you.