Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Family history is the best predictor of risk for prostate cancer, suggesting that the disease has a strong hereditary component. Recently, a heritable mutation in the HOXB13 gene was found to predispose men of European descent to prostate cancer. Jeffrey Smith, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, and colleagues initiated a study [...]

A study led by investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), Nashville, Tenn., finds that black men with prostate cancer receive lower quality surgical care than white men. The racial differences persist even when controlling for factors such as the year of surgery, age, comorbidities and insurance status. Daniel Barocas, M.D., MPH, assistant professor of Urologic [...]

A new tool to observe cell behavior has revealed surprising clues about how cancer cells respond to therapy – and may offer a way to further refine personalized cancer treatments. The approach, developed by investigators at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, shows that erlotinib – a targeted therapy that acts on a growth factor receptor mutated in [...]

Glioma is the most common and lethal type of brain tumor, and now investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and three other cancer centers have identified a link between a rare genetic variant and the risk of developing glioma. The variant also appears to improve the odds of survival among glioma patients. Reid Thompson, M.D., William [...]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in cellular development, differentiation and cancer growth by regulating gene expression. They may be clinically useful as biomarkers and as targets for new drugs to treat such cancers as glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and lethal primary brain tumor in humans. But first scientists must understand better how the actions [...]

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers have identified how one of the genes most commonly mutated in lung cancer may promote such tumors. The investigators found that the protein encoded by this gene, called EPHA3, normally inhibits tumor formation, and that loss or mutation of the gene — as often happens in lung cancer — diminishes this [...]

Maryville, Tenn., tucked in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, has a population of just 27,000, but it seemed like every one of its residents rallied around 20-year-old Brently Mancini when he was diagnosed with a rare soft tissue cancer. Mancini was a football standout and 2008 graduate of Greenback High School who loved [...]

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) has opened a new cancer outpatient clinic on the NorthCrest Medical Center campus in Springfield, Tenn., to bring high quality care to patients in Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky. Vanderbilt physicians, who are specialists in Medical Oncology and Hematology, will see patients in the new facility. The board-certified cancer specialists, led [...]

Smoking tobacco reduces lung function. African Americans have lower lung function compared to European Americans, but it is unclear if African ancestry modifies smoking’s impact on lung function. Melinda Aldrich, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor of Thoracic Surgery, and colleagues evaluated lung function, tobacco smoking exposure and genetic ancestry in a large population of African Americans who [...]

Two proteins that act in opposing directions – one that promotes cancer and one that suppresses cancer — regulate the same set of genes in prostate cancer, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers have found. The findings, reported recently in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, point toward potential drug targets and prognostic markers for prostate cancer. “We [...]