Cancer Survivor Makes Positive Impact as Cancer Researcher

Fighting and overcoming testicular cancer was a defining moment in 20-year-old Andras Ponti’s life. In the 12 years since, he’s committed his professional career to helping find cures for cancer at the same hospital that treated him.

A Cleveland, Ohio, native, Andras first joined Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute as a research technologist in 2016. Since then, he has resumed his education and is currently in his third year pursuing a doctorate in molecular medicine from Case Western Reserve University. He conducts research in two Lerner Research Institute laboratories, under Christopher Hine, PhD, and Justin Lathia, PhD.

Andras points to his own personal experience with cancer as the catalyst for his career in medical research.

“After receiving exceptional care at Cleveland Clinic following my own cancer diagnosis, I knew I wanted to do something for patients experiencing similar challenges,” says Andras, who has undergraduate and graduate degrees in biology from John Carroll University. “For me, that means researching biological processes influencing cancer occurrence and progression.”

In Dr. Hine’s lab, Andras is studying the effects aging has on levels of hydrogen sulfide gas in the development of glioblastoma, a form of brain cancer; and in Dr. Lathia’s lab, he’s investigating how the suppression of hydrogen sulfide during the aging process may accelerate tumor growth.

This year, to further his research efforts, Andras has received a $25,000 grant from VeloSano, a fundraising initiative that supports transformative, lifesaving cancer research happening at Cleveland Clinic. Funds directly support over 240 cancer research projects.

The grant takes on special meaning for Andras, as both a Cleveland Clinic patient who had cancer and cancer researcher.

“To be one of the individuals who receives the funding gives me the opportunity to pursue a novel idea that hasn’t previously been funded. I hope to generate preliminary data that could take this research in so many directions,” states Andras.

At 20 years old, when Andras was a junior in college, on Thanksgiving Day, he mentioned to his mother that he had been experiencing pain in his abdomen and groin. They went that day to a local hospital, where imaging tests revealed cancerous growths in one of his testicles, as well as in his liver and lungs.

“I was pretty stunned at the time,” Andras recalls. “I always considered myself to be extremely healthy. I ate really healthy, and I was involved in athletics. I had no significant family history of cancer, so it sort of came out of left field and took me by surprise.”

He was referred to Cleveland Clinic, where he underwent three, month-long chemotherapy treatments, followed by an orchiectomy, which is an operation to remove the testicle, and a retroperitoneal resection. In the twelve years since his initial cancer treatment, Andras has not required further surgery or chemotherapy and shows no evidence of cancer. He continues follow-up care with hematologist and medical oncologist Timothy Gilligan, MD.

Soon after his initial rounds of treatment, Andras took a college course in medical microbiology, which focused on pathogenic microorganisms, and that further triggered his interest in biomedical research as a career.

In early September 2024, Andras – whose wife, Samreen Jatana, is also a researcher at the Lerner Research Institute – participated in the annual VeloSano Bike to Cure fundraising event, joining colleagues from the labs of Drs. Hine and Lathia on the 25-mile ride. He sees it as another journey in his lifelong pursuit to aid patients with cancer and related research, just as he has been helped.

“I love that I have the opportunity to work at Cleveland Clinic, the same place I was treated, and to continue my training and education with VeloSano support. It all has a big meaning to me and signifies hope for future therapies,” he states.