Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

It’s been two years since Joan Meredith’s stem cell transplant for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Although she is now “100 percent donor” and her new immune system appears to be functioning well, she remains vigilant against the health complications related to her transplant – like infections, for example. “I hated wearing the mask because I [...]

Barbara Forbes, MSN, keeps a big jar of tar on her desk. The dark, goopy mess is a visual representation of the amount of tar that a smoker will ingest by smoking one pack of cigarettes per day for a year. Forbes is the director of the Smoking Cessation Institute at the Vanderbilt Dayani Center [...]

Kort Nygard opted to wait until his prostate cancer needed treatment. Then he decided to have open surgery. Jim Davidson chose radiation therapy, the external beam type. Sam Dick selected robotic surgery. Three different patients with prostate cancer, three different treatment choices. The decision that faces a man diagnosed with localized prostate cancer is daunting. [...]

Susan Hahn is moving again – into a new home and into a new stage of life after cancer. The Chicago native had moved to Nashville in January 2009. She was engaged by that July and quickly began planning a big wedding. She and her fiancé had also just begun plans to tear down and [...]

The long-term forecast for the fight against cancer is indeed gloomy if a predicted shortage of oncologists comes to pass. The impending shortage, predicted recently by a study commissioned by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), could result in a shortage of as many as 4,000 oncologists by 2020, causing cancer patients to travel [...]

When the United States declared a “War on Cancer” 40 years ago, the endeavor was envisioned as a strategic battle, with doctors and researchers employing overwhelming force and lethal technology in a straightforward march to victory against a disease that claimed millions of lives. Scientists have made progress in the ensuing years, yet the enemy [...]

As a clinical trials nurse Wendy Cooper, B.S.N., R.N., has a ringside seat to the bench-to-bedside progress of cancer research. “We have brilliant minds who work on one pathway or one piece of the puzzle for their entire career,” said Cooper, the assistant director of clinical research operations for the Clinical Trials Shared Resource (CTSR) [...]

It had always been my intent to retire as a young woman so that I could enjoy a life of leisure for many years. Well, it didn’t turn out quite like I’d expected. In the spring of 2001, at age 53, I retired from teaching at The Tennessee School for the Deaf in Knoxville, Tennessee. [...]

Jimmy Caldwell was looking for something to take his mind off the stress of owning a small business. He had always been handy – with 12 years of industrial maintenance work and one renovated old house under his belt – so when he read a magazine article about woodworking, he immediately purchased a lathe, set [...]

Neuss Named Chief Medical Officer Michael Neuss, M.D., has been appointed chief medical officer for Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s clinical enterprise. He assumes the newly created position July 1. A Duke-trained oncologist in practice since 1986, Neuss was, until December, the vice president of the largest oncology practice in the Cincinnati area. Neuss will report to [...]