I had been studying breast cancer for more than 20 years when I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. My professional life was filled with hours of watching tumor cells grow and spread on plastic dishes, marveling as they branched and blebbed in three-dimensional matrices, monitoring the size of lumps from spontaneous or transplanted breast […]
Prostate cancer patients in Nashville and Los Angeles are benefiting from a computer-based decision aid that implements the latest study results to tailor treatment options to an individual’s quality-of-life priorities. The CEASAR (Comparative Effectiveness Analysis of Surgery and Radiation for Localized Prostate Cancer) study, coordinated by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is an ongoing multisite research […]
When a new coronavirus began infecting people in China, then spread rapidly across Europe and became a global pandemic, Vanderbilt researchers provided international leadership for assessing its impact on cancer patients. Jeremy Warner, MD, MS, and Leora Horn, MD, MSc, worried about the potential and unique threats that COVID-19, the mysterious disease caused by the […]
As a new decade begins, researchers are passing on the baton to others who will lead some of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s most important initiatives. After serving 16 years as associate director for Research Education, Ann Richmond, PhD, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, is stepping down from the leadership post. Richmond, who is internationally known for […]
Brenda Bisson was 37 in 2004 when she found out she had acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a type of blood cancer. Her three children were 14, 8 and 16 months at the time. Her marriage was strained. Her prognosis was dire. Months after her diagnosis, she had an allogeneic stem cell transplant at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer […]
John Joseph Heirigs either built or preserved some of the most iconic landmarks in Memphis. His construction company erected the Egyptian-themed entrance to the zoo and renovated the historic buildings along Beale Street. An avid outdoorsman, he set the state record in 1962 for bagging a white tail deer, and he spent weekends with his […]
Dona Potter rode Harleys and drove 18-wheelers back when men dominated the open highways, and she is still defying expectations. The 87-year-old from Tullahoma, Tennessee, has proven that age is not a barrier to tolerating and benefiting from chimeric antigen receptor cell therapy (CAR-T), a new immunotherapy that entails re-engineering a patient’s T cells to […]
If you came across Brooke Thomas with her family and friends “eating their way through Nashville,” as she describes it, you’d never know she was really there for cancer treatment at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. Thomas has metastatic triple-negative breast cancer, and admits that in the beginning she was often asking herself, “Why me?” But she […]
GI SPORE Colorectal stem cells as a therapeutic target Robert Coffey, MD Ken Lau, PhD Overcoming resistance to EGFR-targeted therapies Jordan Berlin, MD Charles Manning, PhD MYC inhibitor drug development Daniel Beauchamp, MD Stephen Fesik, PhD William Tansey, PhD Breast SPORE Overcoming resistance to endocrine therapies Brent Rexer, MD, PhD Carlos Arteaga, MD Improving outcomes for […]
Living at the epicenter of the region with the nation’s highest lung cancer mortality rates, Sallie Sawyer of Gladeville, Tennessee, smoked for 50 years and has evaded death twice. She participated in a clinical trial for the early detection of lung cancer, which led to her first tumor being discovered when it was just a […]
