Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Patients with metastatic melanoma being treated with the new investigational cancer drug PLX4032 are showing strong responses, with an 80 percent anti-tumor response rate among patients whose tumors are positive for the B-RAF (V600E) gene mutation. However, in all too many cases, patients are developing resistance to the drug and their cancer is beginning to [...]

Proteins called HDACs are the targets of a new class of anti-cancer compounds (HDAC inhibitors). How these compounds kill tumor cells — and the potential side effects of such drugs — are still open questions. Scott Hiebert, Ph.D., and colleagues at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have now discovered that mice missing a particular HDAC (pronounced h-dack) [...]

Picture a railroad track, running across the countryside. DNA looks something like that track. Its “rails” are chains of chemicals called nucleotides, each pairing with a partner on the opposite chain to form the “ties.” To ensure timely train traffic – and prevent catastrophic derailments – the railroad track needs regular maintenance. So does DNA. [...]

An old pinworm medicine is a new lead in the search for compounds that block a signaling pathway implicated in colon cancer. The findings, reported by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers in the November issue of Nature Chemical Biology, suggest a fresh approach for developing therapeutics that target the pathway. More than 90 percent of [...]

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has joined the International Blood-Brain Barrier Consortium, a group that is combining research and comprehensive patient care to develop protocols and guidelines for opening the blood-brain barrier. The blood-brain barrier is a system of tight junctions in the circulatory system around the brain that protects the central nervous system from unsafe [...]

The National Cancer Institute has awarded two Early Detection Research Network (EDRN) grants to a group of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators to support early detection of lung and colon cancers. Pierre Massion, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, has been awarded $3 million over five years for the creation of the Vanderbilt Clinical [...]

Lung cancer and the brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme are aggressive and notoriously difficult tumors to treat. If the tumors cannot be surgically removed, patients with these tumors typically survive only about one year after diagnosis. Both tumor types are resistant to radiation and are highly angiogenic (have rapidly growing blood vessels). Therefore, anti-angiogenesis therapies may [...]

Tucked within its double-helix structure, DNA contains the chemical blueprint that guides all the processes that take place within the cell and are essential for life. Therefore, repairing damage and maintaining the integrity of its DNA is one of the cell’s highest priorities. Researchers at Vanderbilt University, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Pittsburgh [...]

A new drug used to treat advanced melanoma patients with a specific genetic mutation in their tumors demonstrated significant tumor shrinkage in the majority of patients during a clinical trials.

The Melanoma Research Alliance has awarded a three-year, $2 million grant to a multi-center team of cancer researchers investigating resistance to a new family of BRAF-targeted kinase inhibitor drugs. These targeted therapies are being tested in melanoma patients whose tumors carry a specific genetic mutation known as V600E BRAF. Jeff Sosman, M.D., professor of Medicine [...]