Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Carlos Arteaga, M.D., associate director for Clinical Research and director of the Breast Cancer Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), has been named to the Scientific Advisory Board of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Komen is the one of the largest nonprofit organizations dedicated to funding breast cancer research [...]

Mohamed Hassanein, Ph.D., research instructor in Pulmonary Medicine, has received a Career Development Award from the LUNGevity Foundation to work on the development of noninvasive tests to help diagnose lung cancer. He will receive $300,000 over three years in support of his research efforts. Hassanein, who specializes in molecular biology and genetics, works in the [...]

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center has initiated tumor mutation testing for a limited number of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. This pilot project for colorectal cancer is part of VICC’s Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative (PCMI), a program to identify genetic mutations in a patient’s tumor that may be useful in matching the appropriate therapy with each patient. [...]

Stress can promote breast cancer cell colonization of bone, Vanderbilt Center for Bone Biology investigators have discovered. The studies, reported July 17 in PLoS Biology, demonstrate in mice that activation of the sympathetic nervous system – the “fight-or-flight” response to stress – primes the bone environment for breast cancer cell metastasis. The researchers were able [...]

An uncommon mutation of the BRAF gene in melanoma patients has been found to respond to MEK inhibitor drugs, providing a rationale for routine screening and therapy in melanoma patients who harbor the BRAF L597 mutation. The new study by co-first-authors Kimberly Brown Dahlman, Ph.D., Junfeng Xia, Ph.D., and Katherine Hutchinson, B.S., Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center [...]

An experimental drug that activates T-cells and promotes an immune response to fight tumors has shown promising early results in patients with kidney cancer, melanoma and non-small cell lung cancer. Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators Leora Horn, M.D., Jeffrey Sosman, M.D., and researchers from several other cancer centers tested the new compound. The results of the [...]

Chin Chiang, Ph.D., professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and member of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center faculty, has been awarded a $200,000 grant to study an aggressive form of childhood cancer. The two-year Innovation Award from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) will help fund Chiang’s research on rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), the most common soft tissue malignancy [...]

Vanderbilt’s Marta Hernanz-Schulman, M.D., has been named to the Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiology (ACR) as chair of the Pediatric Commission. Hernanz-Schulman, professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and professor of Pediatrics, currently serves as medical director of Diagnostic Imaging at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The American [...]

A breast cancer patient who has enrolled in two clinical research trials at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center was the only presenter to receive a standing ovation during a recent Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) news briefing at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in Chicago. Jeanette Daniel, 51, a metastatic breast cancer patient, [...]

A study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center investigators has identified a gene expression pattern that may explain why chemotherapy prior to surgery isn’t effective against some tumors and suggests new therapy options for patients with specific subtypes of breast cancer. The study by lead author Justin Balko, Pharm.D., Ph.D., was published online June 10, 2012 [...]