Bone marrow, a spongy tissue located within the hollow portions of bones, produces immature blood cells that develop into mature red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. With myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), this process is disrupted. People with MDS may experience infection, anemia, spontaneous bleeding or easy bruising. About 30 percent of people diagnosed with […]
Each year at least 45,000 Americans experience bone marrow failure from a variety of disorders known as myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS. They lose the ability to manufacture healthy blood cells that are needed to prevent infection or even carry out simple clotting. Something goes awry in the bone marrow, where blood cells are produced, but […]
A biochemist pointed to a structure of a protein, one suspected of a link to pancreatic cancer, caught in the act of DNA replication. The molecular images produced at the Vanderbilt Mass Spectrometry Research Center allow scientists to see proteins at precise moments and in complex associations with each other. Some of those proteins have never […]
After Ira Baxter was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the fall of 2014, he tried just about everything to treat it. He had his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels tested and retested. He sought a second opinion, then a third—consulting physicians in Nashville, Los Angeles and Houston. For a time, he ate an all-organic diet, trying […]
Vandana G. Abramson, M.D., gauges her smile as carefully as she prescribes doses of medicine. One patient may need beaming reassurance, while another might require a muted moment of understanding. On this Tuesday, she will meet with 26 patients. They come from across the United States to the Vanderbilt Breast Center, where Abramson, a medical […]
Judy Tilghman, 66, is a high-energy multitasker who knows how to get things done. Her busy life has included raising two daughters, doing mission work, holding offices in her church, and operating Home Grown Bargains, a consignment store in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Despite those time demands, this dynamo from Guthrie, Kentucky, was always diligent about getting […]
In January 2011, Harriet Wilson of Hartsville, Tennessee, began to experience pain in her left side, under her rib cage. Her primary care physician ran some tests, ruling out heart problems and shingles. However, blood work revealed something ominous: elevated liver enzymes. A CT scan helped diagnose the source of her pain: two advanced pancreatic […]
Researchers across the nation devoted to basic science—the people who mine the unknown and map out the pathways to new cancer drugs—have had their quest curtailed. Federal funding for their work plunged and then flatlined over the past decade. The cutbacks came after Congress had doubled the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) […]
Only a few treatment centers merit the National Cancer Institute’s highest designation: Comprehensive. Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) has had its designation renewed. One of 45 Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the United States, VICC will receive almost $30 million over five years to support its mission of delivering promising new therapies to patients, discovering new approaches […]
Routine Screenings: Vanderbilt recommends yearly breast exams and mammograms for women 40 years and older. The center offers advanced imaging technology and tomosynthesis mammography, which creates a three-dimensional image of breast tissue. The center also offers bone density screenings. High-Risk Screening: Patients considered at high risk for breast cancer, due to factors such as […]
