Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center is committed to conducting innovative, high-impact, basic, translational and clinical research with the greatest potential for making a difference for cancer patients, today and in the future. Here’s a sampling of work published in peer-reviewed journals by Cancer Center investigators in 2014-2015: Study in East Asians identifies genes tied to colon […]
Program focuses on heart health of cancer patients The Vanderbilt Cardio-Oncology program has fostered a special collaborative relationship combining the expertise of cardiologists and oncologists to understand the effects of cancer therapy on the heart. This type of collaboration is now helping to define the cardiovascular health of more than 14 million cancer survivors in […]
A cancer cell is an evolutionary marvel, built for survival—and speed. Born of genes gone bad, it hijacks normal parts of its environment to survive and divide until it is not one, but many cells, a mushroom cloud of danger called a tumor. Sporting camouflage when it travels, a cancer cell can hide from the […]
T cells, so-called because they mature in the thymus, are a type of white blood cell that circulates throughout the body searching for damaged cells that need to be destroyed. Killer T cells have receptors on their surface that recognize antigens—the molecular red flags that signal damage—on cancer cells or virus-infected cells. The receptors and […]
In the Spring of 2013, Ronald Duncan went to the doctor seeking help for what he thought was an abdominal hernia. Not long afterward he received the devastating news that he had Stage IV appendiceal cancer. Told it was terminal, he was given a 30 percent chance of survival. Fast forward to today—Duncan is celebrating […]
Colon cancer, when it came, tiptoed into Jeanetta Fargo’s life. “I felt great. I was working out all the time…I never felt better in my life.” There had been abdominal spasms a year earlier—discounted when an ultrasound revealed nothing. Even an abnormal screening test during her annual physical exam, and a recommendation from her doctor […]
T cells. Killer T cells. They’re on the prowl inside you right now, these “hit men” of the immune system. Their surfaces are armed with receptors that have the dossiers of their “marks”—virus-infected cells, cancer cells or other damaged cells. When they recognize a target, they have the power to kill. But they aren’t always effective. […]
A bricklayer by trade and a passionate golfer—including seven holes in one and a membership in the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame—Gerald Schreiber has spent his life in the sun. But all that time outside may have caused melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer. Schreiber was first diagnosed in 2003 after he noticed […]
Several genes have been linked to the development of colorectal cancer, and in some cases, the risk is inherited. When two or more members of a family develop colorectal cancer, the possibility of a genetic syndrome is more likely and patients may need to be vigilant about cancer screening. Patients who also develop multiple polyps […]
The idea of using immune cells to treat cancer isn’t new; however, recently basic scientists and clinical investigators have garnered enough mechanistic insight and clinical data to realize the promise of cancer immunotherapy. New immunotherapy drugs were approved late last year, and in trials we saw that more patients were responding to the drugs and […]
