News: Departments

A health care system model that offered tobacco cessation treatment to smokers being discharged from a hospital produced a higher rate of tobacco abstinence during the three-month program than referral to a state-based telephone quitline, but the advantage disappeared at six months when both treatments produced comparable quit rates, researchers have found. In a study […]

Charlotte Ladd’s work history has been a series of serendipitous opportunities ranging from investment banking to oncology nursing to teaching immigrant nurses in Florida. But it’s her work as a volunteer at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center that has brought her the greatest joy. Ladd volunteers on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the waiting room of the Henry-Joyce […]

For 51 years, life had been pretty easy. I’ve lived a very average, comfortable and ordinary life. Not boring, just ordinary. Not perfect, but happy and content. I grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, a nice, safe small town with good Midwestern values, with my parents and older brother. Whether it was life challenges thrown […]

I’m excited as the new director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center to share with you some thoughts and updates. I have already experienced warm welcomes from so many of you in this new role, and it has reminded me how truly special our cancer center is. Thanks to all of you for making my transition […]

Vanderbilt University Medical center and the University of Zambia (UNZA) are partnering on a program to develop a cadre of researchers and educators to lead cancer epidemiology research and training in Zambia and to encourage U.S.-based researchers to engage in cancer research in low- and middle-income countries. In partnership with UNZA and the Zambia Cancer Diseases Hospital, the Vanderbilt […]

A philanthropic gift of a patient care coordinator designated to assist female bladder cancer patients in education, clinical decision-making, surveillance, support and even screening is the first of its kind at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Brianne “Bree” Duncan, research nurse specialist III, is the first recipient of the Gail Kraemer Care Coordinator for Female Bladder […]

Matching therapies to subtypes of EGFR-mutated lung cancer New research from Vanderbilt investigators suggests that clinicians should take a deeper dive into distinguishing EGFR mutations when prescribing targeted therapies for non-small cell lung cancers. EGFR exon 19 deletion mutations are the most common EGFR mutations in patients with lung cancer. However, the term “exon 19 […]

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) physicians are leading two landmark clinical trials that have the potential to greatly expand care options for people with colorectal cancer.  One offers a new option for metastatic colorectal cancer that has not responded to existing treatments. The other could bring about a paradigm shift in how rectal cancer is treated […]

Damaris Olagundoye, MD, grew up knowing that her maternal grandmother was a breast cancer survivor. She would listen as her mother talked with cousins who had also been diagnosed with the disease, but her family didn’t learn until decades later that they carried a mutation in the BRCA2 gene. Her mother’s heritage was Afro Panamanian, […]

Twenty years ago, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) established the nation’s first Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) to focus exclusively on colorectal cancer, the second leading cancer killer after lung cancer. Directed by Robert J. Coffey, MD, and continuously funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) since 2002, the gastrointestinal (GI) SPORE has fostered a […]