Varun Monga, MBBS
Associate Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

Dr. Monga has contributed to numerous research articles published in peer-reviewed journals, focusing on evidence-based sarcoma management, early and late phase clinical trials using novel treatment approaches including targeted and immunotherapies.

• Gaps in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Education in Oncology Fellowship Training.
  Journal of adolescent and young adult oncology 2023 Moerdler S, DuVall AS, Hayes-Lattin B, Grimes A, Prasad PK, Molina JC, Monga V, Freyer DR, Roth ME
• The Midwest Sarcoma Trials Partnership: Bridging Academic and Community Networks in a Collaborative Approach to Sarcoma.
  Journal of clinical medicine 2023 Heater NK, Okuno S, Robinson S, Attia S, Seetharam M, Siontis BL, Yoon J, Chawla S, Milhem MM, Monga V, Skubitz K, Charlson J, Hirbe AC, Weiss MC, Van Tine B, Agulnik M
• Olutasidenib (FT-2102) in patients with relapsed or refractory IDH1-mutant glioma: A multicenter, open-label, phase Ib/II trial.
  Neuro-oncology 2023 de la Fuente MI, Colman H, Rosenthal M, Van Tine BA, Levacic D, Walbert T, Gan HK, Vieito M, Milhem MM, Lipford K, Forsyth S, Guichard SM, Mikhailov Y, Sedkov A, Brevard J, Kelly PF, Mohamed H, Monga …
• Avasopasem manganese (GC4419) protects against cisplatin-induced chronic kidney disease: An exploratory analysis of renal metrics from a randomized phase 2b clinical trial in head and neck cancer patients.
  Redox biology 2023 Mapuskar KA, Vasquez Martinez G, Pulliam CF, Petronek MS, Steinbach EJ, Monga V, Furqan M, Jetton JG, Saunders DP, Pearce A, Davidson S, Pitre L, Dunlap NE, Fairbanks R, Lee CM, Mott SL, Bodeker KL, …
• Augmenting chemotherapy with low-dose decitabine through an immune-independent mechanism.
  JCI insight 2022 Gutierrez WR, Scherer A, Rytlewski JD, Laverty EA, Sheehan AP, McGivney GR, Brockman QR, Knepper-Adrian V, Roughton GA, Quelle DE, Gordon DJ, Monga V, Dodd RD
• Alliance A071401: Phase II Trial of Focal Adhesion Kinase Inhibition in Meningiomas With Somatic NF2 Mutations.
  Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology 2022 Brastianos PK, Twohy EL, Gerstner ER, Kaufmann TJ, Iafrate AJ, Lennerz J, Jeyapalan S, Piccioni DE, Monga V, Fadul CE, Schiff D, Taylor JW, Chowdhary SA, Bettegowda C, Ansstas G, De La Fuente M, …
• The Impact of TSC-1 and -2 Mutations on Response to Therapy in Malignant PEComa: A Multicenter Retrospective Analysis.
  Genes 2022 Liu L, Dehner C, Grandhi N, Lyu Y, Borcherding DC, Chrisinger JSA, Zhang X, Luo J, Tao Y, Parkes A, Bui NQ, Davis EJ, Milhem MM, Monga V, Weiss M, Tine BV, Hirbe AC
• Patient reported quality of life in young adults with sarcoma receiving care at a sarcoma center.
  Frontiers in psychology 2022 Day JR, Miller B, Loeffler BT, Mott SL, Tanas M, Curry M, Davick J, Milhem M, Monga V
• Pharmacological ascorbate as a novel therapeutic strategy to enhance cancer immunotherapy.
  Frontiers in immunology 2022 Zaher A, Stephens LM, Miller AM, Hartwig SM, Stolwijk JM, Petronek MS, Zacharias ZR, Wadas TJ, Monga V, Cullen JJ, Furqan M, Houtman JCD, Varga SM, Spitz DR, Allen BG
• Detection of Ferritin Expression in Soft Tissue Sarcomas With MRI: Potential Implications for Iron Metabolic Therapy.
  The Iowa orthopaedic journal 2022 Petronek MS, Tomanek-Chalkley AM, Monga V, Milhem MM, Miller BJ, Magnotta VA, Allen BG
• Pharmacological ascorbate improves the response to platinum-based chemotherapy in advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer.
  Redox biology 2022 Furqan M, Abu-Hejleh T, Stephens LM, Hartwig SM, Mott SL, Pulliam CF, Petronek M, Henrich JB, Fath MA, Houtman JC, Varga SM, Bodeker KL, Bossler AD, Bellizzi AM, Zhang J, Monga V, Mani H, Ivanovic M, …
• Sexual Dysfunction Among Adolescent and Young Adult Men Diagnosed with Cancer.
  Journal of adolescent and young adult oncology 2022 Rainer QC, Dubin JM, Balaji NC, Troesch V, Terry W, Monga V, Clifford L, Shoag J, Greer A, Nackeeran S, Rodriguez AA, Patel P, Paz L, Kava BR, Alperstein W, Pearlman AM, Ramasamy R
• Shared barriers and facilitators to enrollment of adolescents and young adults on cancer clinical trials.
  Scientific reports 2022 Mittal N, Saha A, Avutu V, Monga V, Freyer DR, Roth M
• Epigenetic modulation in sensitizing metastatic sarcomas to therapies and overcoming resistance.
  Cancer drug resistance (Alhambra, Calif.) 2022 Rytlewski J, Brockman QR, Dodd RD, Milhem M, Monga V
• Catalase Overexpression Drives an Aggressive Phenotype in Glioblastoma.
  Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) 2021 Flor S, Oliva CR, Ali MY, Coleman KL, Greenlee JD, Jones KA, Monga V, Griguer CE
• Use of Communication Technology to Improve Clinical Trial Participation in Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer: Consensus Statement From the Children's Oncology Group Adolescent and Young Adult Responsible Investigator Network.
  JCO oncology practice 2021 Avutu V, Monga V, Mittal N, Saha A, Andolina JR, Bell DE, Fair DB, Flerlage JE, Frediani JN, Heath JL, Kahn JM, Reichek JL, Super L, Terao MA, Freyer DR, Roth ME
• An open-label single-arm phase II study of regorafenib for the treatment of angiosarcoma.
  European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990) 2021 Agulnik M, Schulte B, Robinson S, Hirbe AC, Kozak K, Chawla SP, Attia S, Rademaker A, Zhang H, Abbinanti S, Cehic R, Monga V, Milhem M, Okuno S, Van Tine BA
• Intratumoral talimogene laherparepvec injection with concurrent preoperative radiation in patients with locally advanced soft-tissue sarcoma of the trunk and extremities: phase IB/II trial.
  Journal for immunotherapy of cancer 2021 Monga V, Miller BJ, Tanas M, Boukhar S, Allen B, Anderson C, Stephens L, Hartwig S, Varga S, Houtman J, Wang L, Zhang W, Jaber O, Thomason J, Kuehn D, Rajput M, Metz C, Zamba KD, Mott S, Abanonu C, …
• Turning 'Cold' tumors 'Hot': immunotherapies in sarcoma.
  Annals of translational medicine 2021 Rytlewski J, Milhem MM, Monga V
• Phase II study of pazopanib with oral topotecan in patients with metastatic and non-resectable soft tissue and bone sarcomas.
  British journal of cancer 2021 Schulte B, Mohindra N, Milhem M, Attia S, Robinson S, Monga V, Hirbe AC, Oppelt P, Charlson J, Helenowski I, Abbinanti S, Cehic R, Okuno S, Van Tine BA, Agulnik M
• Radiomic Based Machine Learning Performance for a Three Class Problem in Neuro-Oncology: Time to Test the Waters?
  Cancers 2021 Priya S, Liu Y, Ward C, Le NH, Soni N, Pillenahalli Maheshwarappa R, Monga V, Zhang H, Sonka M, Bathla G
• Machine learning based differentiation of glioblastoma from brain metastasis using MRI derived radiomics.
  Scientific reports 2021 Priya S, Liu Y, Ward C, Le NH, Soni N, Pillenahalli Maheshwarappa R, Monga V, Zhang H, Sonka M, Bathla G
• Radiomics-based differentiation between glioblastoma and primary central nervous system lymphoma: a comparison of diagnostic performance across different MRI sequences and machine learning techniques.
  European radiology 2021 Bathla G, Priya S, Liu Y, Ward C, Le NH, Soni N, Maheshwarappa RP, Monga V, Zhang H, Sonka M
• Glioblastoma and primary central nervous system lymphoma: differentiation using MRI derived first-order texture analysis - a machine learning study.
  The neuroradiology journal 2021 Priya S, Ward C, Locke T, Soni N, Maheshwarappa RP, Monga V, Agarwal A, Bathla G
• Photodynamic Therapy Using Hippo Pathway Inhibitor Verteporfin: A Potential Dual Mechanistic Approach in Treatment of Soft Tissue Sarcomas.
  Cancers 2021 Rytlewski JD, Scalora N, Garcia K, Tanas M, Toor F, Miller B, Allen B, Milhem M, Monga V
• Survival prediction in glioblastoma on post-contrast magnetic resonance imaging using filtration based first-order texture analysis: Comparison of multiple machine learning models.
  The neuroradiology journal 2021 Priya S, Agarwal A, Ward C, Locke T, Monga V, Bathla G
• Testosterone deficiency in men receiving immunotherapy for malignant melanoma.
  Oncotarget 2021 Peters M, Pearlman A, Terry W, Mott SL, Monga V
• Combination therapies for MPNSTs targeting RABL6A-RB1 signaling.
  Oncotarget 2021 Kohlmeyer JL, Gordon DJ, Tanas MR, Dodd RD, Monga V, Darbro BW, Quelle DE
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of pharmacological ascorbate-induced iron redox state as a biomarker in subjects undergoing radio-chemotherapy.
  Redox biology 2020 Cushing CM, Petronek MS, Bodeker KL, Vollstedt S, Brown HA, Opat E, Hollenbeck NJ, Shanks T, Berg DJ, Smith BJ, Smith MC, Monga V, Furqan M, Howard MA, Greenlee JD, Mapuskar KA, St-Aubin J, Flynn RT, …
• Radioresistance in Glioblastoma and the Development of Radiosensitizers.
  Cancers 2020 Ali MY, Oliva CR, Noman ASM, Allen BG, Goswami PC, Zakharia Y, Monga V, Spitz DR, Buatti JM, Griguer CE
• Neoadjuvant Radiotherapy-Related Wound Morbidity in Soft Tissue Sarcoma: Perspectives for Radioprotective Agents.
  Cancers 2020 Callaghan CM, Hasibuzzaman MM, Rodman SN, Goetz JE, Mapuskar KA, Petronek MS, Steinbach EJ, Miller BJ, Pulliam CF, Coleman MC, Monga VV, Milhem MM, Spitz DR, Allen BG
• The Effect of Concurrent Stereotactic Body Radiation and Anti-PD-1 Therapy for Recurrent Metastatic Sarcoma.
  Radiation research 2020 Callaghan CM, Seyedin SN, Mohiuddin IH, Hawkes KL, Petronek MS, Anderson CM, Buatti JM, Milhem MM, Monga V, Allen BG
• A phase II study of pazopanib as front-line therapy in patients with non-resectable or metastatic soft-tissue sarcomas who are not candidates for chemotherapy.
  European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990) 2020 Hirbe AC, Eulo V, Moon CI, Luo J, Myles S, Seetharam M, Toeniskoetter J, Kershner T, Haarberg S, Agulnik M, Monga V, Milhem M, Parkes A, Robinson S, Okuno S, Attia S, Van Tine BA
• Non-Conventional Treatments for Conventional Chondrosarcoma.
  Cancers 2020 Monga V, Mani H, Hirbe A, Milhem M
• A Retrospective Analysis of the Efficacy of Immunotherapy in Metastatic Soft-Tissue Sarcomas.
  Cancers 2020 Monga V, Skubitz KM, Maliske S, Mott SL, Dietz H, Hirbe AC, Van Tine BA, Oppelt P, Okuno S, Robinson S, O'Connor M, Seetharam M, Attia S, Charlson J, Agulnik M, Milhem M
• CDKs in Sarcoma: Mediators of Disease and Emerging Therapeutic Targets.
  International journal of molecular sciences 2020 Kohlmeyer JL, Gordon DJ, Tanas MR, Monga V, Dodd RD, Quelle DE
• A Retrospective Analysis of Clinical Trial Accrual of Patients Presented in a Multidisciplinary Tumor Board at a Tertiary Health Care Center and Associated Barriers.
  Oncology research and treatment 2020 Mobley EM, Swami U, Mott S, Ounda A, Milhem M, Monga V
• Survival after reoperation for recurrent glioblastoma.
  Journal of clinical neuroscience : official journal of the Neurosurgical Society of Australasia 2020 Woodroffe RW, Zanaty M, Soni N, Mott SL, Helland LC, Pasha A, Maley J, Dhungana N, Jones KA, Monga V, Greenlee JDW
• Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans - the use of neoadjuvant imatinib for treatment of an uncommon breast malignancy: a case report.
  Journal of medical case reports 2019 McGee MW, Boukhar SA, Monga V, Weigel R, Phadke SD
• Exceptional responses with sequential metronomic temozolomide after pembrolizumab failure in patients with metastatic melanoma.
  Melanoma research 2019 Swami U, Monga V, Freesmeier M, Zhang W, Bossler AD, Zakharia Y, Milhem M
• Factors Impacting Fertility Preservation in Adolescents and Young Adults with Cancer: A Retrospective Study.
  Journal of adolescent and young adult oncology 2019 Mobley EM, Ryan GL, Sparks AE, Monga V, Terry WW
• First-in-Human Phase I Clinical Trial of Pharmacologic Ascorbate Combined with Radiation and Temozolomide for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma.
  Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research 2019 Allen BG, Bodeker KL, Smith MC, Monga V, Sandhu S, Hohl R, Carlisle T, Brown H, Hollenbeck N, Vollstedt S, Greenlee JD, Howard MA, Mapuskar KA, Seyedin SN, Caster JM, Jones KA, Cullen JJ, Berg D, …
• Timing of surgery following neoadjuvant chemoradiation in rectal cancer: a retrospective analysis from an academic medical center.
  Journal of gastrointestinal oncology 2019 Maliske S, Chau J, Ginader T, Byrn J, Bhatia S, Bellizzi A, Berg DJ, Monga V
• Durable Clinical Benefit in Patients with Advanced Cutaneous Melanoma after Discontinuation of Anti-PD-1 Therapies Due to Immune-Related Adverse Events.
  Journal of oncology 2019 Swami U, Monga V, Bossler AD, Zakharia Y, Milhem M
• Discrepancy between treatment goals documentation by oncologists and their understanding among cancer patients under active treatment with chemotherapy.
  European journal of cancer care 2018 Monga V, Maliske SM, Kaleem H, Mott SL, K D Zamba G, Milhem M
• Improved survival for extremity soft tissue sarcoma treated in high-volume facilities.
  Journal of surgical oncology 2018 Abarca T, Gao Y, Monga V, Tanas MR, Milhem MM, Miller BJ
• Financial impact of oral chemotherapy wastage on society and the patient.
  Journal of oncology pharmacy practice : official publication of the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners 2018 Monga V, Meyer C, Vakiner B, Clamon G
• Biallelic TP53 gain of function mutations in rapidly progressing solid tumors.
  Cancer genetics 2018 Sande CM, Chang B, Monga V, Bossler AD, Ma D
• A Phase I/II Study Targeting Angiogenesis Using Bevacizumab Combined with Chemotherapy and a Histone Deacetylase Inhibitor (Valproic Acid) in Advanced Sarcomas.
  Cancers 2018 Monga V, Swami U, Tanas M, Bossler A, Mott SL, Smith BJ, Milhem M
• Gastrointestinal stromal tumors-are we stuck and the way forward.
  Translational gastroenterology and hepatology 2017 Swami U, Monga V, Milhem M
• Redox active metals and H2O2 mediate the increased efficacy of pharmacological ascorbate in combination with gemcitabine or radiation in pre-clinical sarcoma models.
  Redox biology 2017 Schoenfeld JD, Sibenaller ZA, Mapuskar KA, Bradley MD, Wagner BA, Buettner GR, Monga V, Milhem M, Spitz DR, Allen BG
• Targeting epigenetics for treatment of BRAF mutated metastatic melanoma with decitabine in combination with vemurafenib: A phase lb study.
  Oncotarget 2017 Zakharia Y, Monga V, Swami U, Bossler AD, Freesmeier M, Frees M, Khan M, Frydenlund N, Srikantha R, Vanneste M, Henry M, Milhem M
• O2⋅- and H2O2-Mediated Disruption of Fe Metabolism Causes the Differential Susceptibility of NSCLC and GBM Cancer Cells to Pharmacological Ascorbate.
  Cancer cell 2017 Schoenfeld JD, Sibenaller ZA, Mapuskar KA, Wagner BA, Cramer-Morales KL, Furqan M, Sandhu S, Carlisle TL, Smith MC, Abu Hejleh T, Berg DJ, Zhang J, Keech J, Parekh KR, Bhatia S, Monga V, Bodeker KL, …
• Mitochondrial Superoxide Increases Age-Associated Susceptibility of Human Dermal Fibroblasts to Radiation and Chemotherapy.
  Cancer research 2017 Mapuskar KA, Flippo KH, Schoenfeld JD, Riley DP, Strack S, Hejleh TA, Furqan M, Monga V, Domann FE, Buatti JM, Goswami PC, Spitz DR, Allen BG
• Fatal pulmonary embolism following splenectomy in a patient with Evan's syndrome: case report and review of the literature.
  Thrombosis journal 2017 Monga V, Maliske SM, Perepu U
• O2⋅- and H2O2-Mediated Disruption of Fe Metabolism Causes the Differential Susceptibility of NSCLC and GBM Cancer Cells to Pharmacological Ascorbate.
  Cancer cell 2017 Schoenfeld JD, Sibenaller ZA, Mapuskar KA, Wagner BA, Cramer-Morales KL, Furqan M, Sandhu S, Carlisle TL, Smith MC, Abu Hejleh T, Berg DJ, Zhang J, Keech J, Parekh KR, Bhatia S, Monga V, Bodeker KL, …
• Ipilimumab: from preclinical development to future clinical perspectives in melanoma.
  Future oncology (London, England) 2016 Letendre P, Monga V, Milhem M, Zakharia Y
• Metastatic Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of the Breast.
  The breast journal 2015 Monga V, Leone JP
• Pulmonary extramedullary hematopoiesis involving the pulmonary artery.
  Hematology reports 2015 Monga V, Silverman M
• Multiple intra-abdominal masses.
  American journal of hematology 2010 Yasar DG, Monga V