A study led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators found that rates of benign lung disease diagnosis varied widely by state following surgery for lung cancer. The results could have an impact on clinical guidelines and health policy for lung cancer screening.

The study was presented by Stephen A. Deppen, M.A., M.S., a doctoral candidate in epidemiology and database analyst, during the recent American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual conference in Washington, D.C. Deppen received the Aflac-AACR Scholar-in-Training Award for this poster presentation during the conference.

Stephen A. Deppen, M.A., M.S.

Cancer screening for patients at high risk for lung cancer is being adopted in some medical practices following results from the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) which found that low-dose computed tomography (CT) screening led to a 20 percent reduction in lung cancer mortality compared with chest X-ray. However, the NLST also revealed that most of the positive screening results were false positives and 24 percent of subsequent lung surgeries were negative for lung cancer.

The improved mortality from CT screening arose from early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer in the NLST.

Deppen and his colleagues wanted to determine if there were regional differences in the rates of benign disease.

“It is not known whether the prevalence of benign disease diagnosis after lung surgery for lung cancer is uniform across the United States,” explained Deppen. “If prevalence differs by state or region of the country, then a national lung cancer screening program may have varying results.”

The investigators examined the 2009 Medicare data on 25,362 patients to see if there were large variations between states in the prevalence of benign disease after a lung operation for known or suspected lung cancer. The benign prevalence varied widely, from 1.2 percent in Vermont to 25 percent benign disease in Hawaii.

The investigators said the causes of the differences by state are unknown at this time and may arise from practice variations, local infectious lung diseases that cause granulomas and other benign tumors or something that is still unknown.

Deppen said in states with a higher rate of benign lung disease more false positives will be found and more individuals will undergo operations for possible lung cancer. These operations can involve substantial risks.

“Lung surgery or thoracotomy is major surgery and has a much higher risk for death and complications from the surgery compared to other diagnostic operations,” said Deppen. “The mortality rate from thoracotomy is one to three percent and complication rates are 10 to 20 percent. In comparison, breast and prostate biopsy have mortality rates near zero from the procedure.”

Deppen said more surgeries for benign lung disease may result in more deaths and harm from the diagnostic process which also reduces the benefit observed in the original NLST.

The investigators are trying to determine the cause of regional variations in rates of benign lung disease.

Other investigators who contributed to the study include Sharon Phillips, M.S.P.H., Melissa McPheeters, Ph.D., M.P.H., Melinda C. Aldrich, Ph.D., M.P.H., Jeffery Blume, Ph.D., David F. Penson, M.D., M.P.H., Yu Shyr, Ph.D., Eric L. Grogan, M.D., M.P.H.

This work was supported by VA Career Development Award (10-024 – Grogan), Vanderbilt Clinical and Translational Scholars K12 Award, AHRQ (1 R03HS021554-01).

Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D.

He has been named the founding director of the Center for Cancer Targeted Therapies (CCTT)

and director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Research Network (VICCRN).

The CCTT is an extension of the Cancer Center’s expertise in personalized medicine. Through the VICC Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative, translational and clinical investigators focus on genomic signatures in a patient’s tumor and use that information to match the patient to a targeted therapy.

The CCTT will leverage the strengths of the Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative, along with the VICC Phase 1 Program, led by director Jordan Berlin, M.D., Ingram Professor of Cancer Research. The new CCTT will also harness the capabilities of the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Sciences and the Division of Interventional Oncology in the Department of Radiology.

“Our programs in Personalized Medicine are strategic institutional assets and are internationally recognized among the world’s most progressive and successful,” said Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “With Dr. Arteaga’s leadership for these newly created programs complementing our Personalized Cancer Medicine Initiative, we expect amazing results that will bring significant advancements in patient care and scientific discovery.”

The overall goal of the new initiative is to integrate the “first-in-man” drug development efforts at VICC with state-of-the-art molecular profiling of tumors and novel imaging approaches that predict drug action and efficacy. The net outcome of this integration will be an expansion of VICC clinical trials that should contribute to faster approval of new targeted drugs and combination therapies for cancer patients.

“This is very exciting to me because it represents an opportunity to incorporate the mechanistic sciences with imaging and with drug development, using predictive molecular biomarkers,” said Arteaga, who holds the Donna S. Hall Chair in Breast Cancer. “All of these are local strengths at Vanderbilt. Thus, I think it’s time that we make a concerted effort to integrate all of these strengths into something that can accelerate the clinical development of drugs and combination therapies. The creation of this center represents a very clear message that reaffirms the commitment of our center to drug development in cancer for the benefit of patients.”

The CCTT will place renewed emphasis on the Phase I clinical trials program and will create more research and training opportunities for basic, translational and clinical investigators.

The new VICCRN will create a regional cancer research consortium by providing clinical research opportunities between VICC investigators and affiliate partners in Tennessee and surrounding states. As director, Arteaga will work closely with leaders of the health care systems that provide care to thousands of cancer patients in the region.

“The VICCRN provides an opportunity to expand our mission as the only National Cancer Institute-designated center focusing on adult cancer in Tennessee,” said Arteaga. “I think this will allow us to really expand our accrual to clinical trials and to uphold our responsibility to make clinical research accessible to patients in the region.”

“This is an opportunity for Carlos to provide his expertise and leadership over a much larger region in the Southeast and we anticipate his leadership will be transformational,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., director of VICC.

Arteaga currently serves as associate director for Clinical Research, director of the Breast Cancer Program and leader of the Breast Cancer Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) in the cancer center.

He is also an influential and respected investigator whose work has been recognized at the national and international levels. He was recently named president-elect of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) for 2013-2014.

Arteaga is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the AACR-Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award, the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor Award, the Gianni Bonadonna Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation and the Clinical Investigator Award from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Arteaga received his medical degree in 1980 from the Facultad de Ciencias Médicas at the Universidad de Guayaquil in Ecuador. Following an internal medicine residency at Emory University in Atlanta, Arteaga completed a fellowship in medical oncology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1989.

Chair of Cancer Biology, and director emeritus of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), has received the 10th Annual American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research. He received the award April 7 during the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Harold L. Moses, M.D
(Photo by Anne Rayner)

“This is a wonderful honor and I am very grateful to receive this recognition for my career as a cancer researcher,” said Moses, who holds the Hortense B. Ingram Chair in Cancer Research. “It is especially meaningful to receive this award from an organization which I was honored to lead as president.”

Moses served as AACR president from 1991 to 1992.

Moses was the founding director of what is now Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, one of the nation’s leading cancer centers. VICC is one of only two National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in Tennessee. Its nearly 300 faculty members generate more than $140 million in annual federal research funding, ranking it among the top 10 centers in the country in competitive grant support, and its clinical program sees approximately 6,000 new cancer patients each year.

For 20 years, Moses has also served as director of the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at VICC, founded with support from the T.J. Martell Foundation.

Within these laboratories Moses has led teams of cancer researchers who have focused on the molecular activity inside cells which can lead to the development of cancer. In the early 1980s, his laboratory isolated and purified transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) and discovered that it could inhibit cellular proliferation. His group’s discovery of TGF-β as an inhibitor of normal cell growth opened the doors to the study of negative growth regulation, which represented a new model in cancer cell research. His work has had a major impact on scientists’ understanding of the disruption in the balance between positive and negative growth regulators as an underlying cause of cancer.

One of the major discoveries from his research team is the finding that the loss of TGF-β signaling in some stromal cells results in the generation of cancer in the adjacent tissue.

Much of his research has been related to cellular activity and growth in breast cancer, and the crucial discoveries from his research team have served as building blocks for other cancer scientists.

Moses has also served as a mentor for scores of students and postdoctoral fellows who are now prominent scientists and thought-leaders in cancer research.

“Hal is a world-renowned scholar. Those of us who have worked alongside him in his laboratory or who have been fortunate enough to receive his scientific advice and counsel are very appreciative of his exceptional mentorship,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., director of VICC.

Moses is a highly-acclaimed international lecturer and has served in numerous leadership roles in the cancer research community.

He has served as president of the Association of American Cancer Institutes (AACI), co-chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Progress Review Group and chair of the NCI Cancer Centers review panel. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and was founding chair of the IOM’s National Cancer Policy Forum.

Moses has been honored with the Earl Sutherland Prize for Achievement in Research at Vanderbilt and the T.J. Martell Foundation Lifetime Achievement Medical Research Award.

He graduated from Berea College in Kentucky and received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where he also completed his residency. He did his postdoctoral research training at the National Institutes of Health. He spent five years as a Vanderbilt faculty member and then joined the Department of Cell Biology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., before returning to Vanderbilt in 1985 as chair of the Department of Cell Biology.

Carlos L. Arteaga, M.D.

Arteaga, who holds the Donna S. Hall Chair in Breast Cancer, also serves as associate director for clinical research and director of the Breast Cancer Research Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Nashville, Tenn.

Chosen for his new role by the organization’s members, Arteaga will work collaboratively with the AACR Board of Directors and the 34,000-plus membership to further the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure cancer through research, education, communication and collaboration. He will officially become president-elect Tuesday, April 9, at the annual AACR Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., and will assume the presidency in April 2014.

“I am very grateful to the AACR and its members for this honor and opportunity,” said Arteaga. “I look forward to working with the association and meaningfully contributing to its leadership role and progress in the fight against cancer in these difficult but also exciting times.”

“This incredible honor is testament to the impact of Dr. Arteaga’s research and leadership on the cancer research community world-wide,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., director of Vanderbilt-Ingram. “Through his work at Vanderbilt-Ingram, his contributions to numerous national committees and his leadership, Carlos stimulates impactful research and collaboration that is changing the face of oncology.”

“Dr. Arteaga’s contributions to breast cancer research have had a major impact on the lives of breast cancer patients,” said Margaret Foti, Ph.D., M.D. (h.c.), chief executive officer of the AACR. “Dr. Arteaga shares in the AACR’s mission to prevent and cure cancer, and we know that he will lead the association with much vigor and commitment to ensure that we continue to accelerate progress against this insidious disease.”

Arteaga’s involvement in the AACR spans more than a decade. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors; chair of the AACR Special Conferences Committee, member of the Annual Meeting Program Committee; co-chairperson of several special research conferences; and an editorial board member of the AACR journal, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.

Arteaga was also an editorial board member of Clinical Cancer Research from 2001 to 2004 and is currently deputy editor. Since 2008, he has served on behalf of the AACR as co-chair of the annual CTRC–AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and is a principal investigator on the Stand Up To Cancer Dream Team, “Targeting the PI3K Pathways in Women’s Cancers.”

His research interests include oncogene signaling and molecular therapeutics in breast cancer with an emphasis on targeted therapies, mechanisms of drug resistance, translational research and investigator-initiated clinical trials. Early in his career, Arteaga was the first to report the role of IGF-I receptors and TGF beta on breast cancer progression and their potential as therapeutic targets.

More recent work has focused on the role of pre-surgical and neoadjuvant trials to discover molecular biomarkers that inform patient selection in clinical trials and mechanisms of drug resistance in breast cancer. He showed the role of aberrant activation of the PI3K pathway in promoting escape from anti-estrogens and the ability of inhibitors of HER2 and PI3K to reverse resistance to anti-estrogen therapy in human breast cancer.

Arteaga has received many honors and awards, including the AACR-Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award, the American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor Award, the Gianni Bonadonna Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Brinker Award for Scientific Distinction from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation and, early in his career, the Clinical Investigator Award from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. He is an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Arteaga received his medical degree in 1980 from the Facultad de Ciencias Médicas at the Universidad de Guayaquil in Ecuador. Following internal medicine residency at Emory University in Atlanta. Arteaga completed a fellowship in medical oncology at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. He joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University in 1989.

L-R, Michael Cookson, M.D., and Sam Chang, M.D.
(photo by Daniel Dubois)

Two urologic surgeons at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center are among a leading group of cancer physicians using an innovative new imaging agent and blue light system to “light up” cancerous cells inside the bladder.

The combined system is used to confirm non-invasive papillary cancer inside the bladder and help surgeons detect and remove more of the cancerous tumors.

Sam S. Chang, M.D. and Michael S. Cookson, M.D., both professors of Urologic Surgery, participated in the pivotal clinical research trials for Cysview – an imaging agent which attaches to tumor cells and fluoresces a bright pink color when used with a special camera and lighting system. The new technology has been shown to enhance detection and treatment of bladder cancer.

In 2013, approximately 55,000 men and 18,000 women will be diagnosed with bladder cancer, making it one of the most common forms of cancer in the United States. Early symptoms may include painful or more frequent urination or blood in the urine.

To diagnose bladder cancer, urologists insert a long, thin tube known as a cystoscope through the urethra to look inside the bladder.

“Most bladder cancers are papillary tumors that are small and noninvasive,” said Cookson, Vice Chair and Patricia and Rodes Hart Chair in Urologic Surgery. “Probably 70 percent are what we call “Ta”-low grade papillary tumors. But about five to 10 percent are high-grade, flat lesions called carcinoma in situ (CIS). They can be elusive to traditional cystoscopic evaluation.”

In fact, “Urologists looking inside the bladder with traditional white light can’t always see both kinds of tumors.”

Using the new system, physicians insert the liquid Cysview optical agent into the bladder for 50-60 minutes prior to the surgery.

“It coats the inside of the bladder and both normal bladder cells and the cancer cells are exposed to the liquid,” said Chang who serves as Chairman of the AUA’s Guidelines on Bladder Cancer. “The tumor or malignant cells preferentially absorb more of this agent and it fluoresces.”

When surgeons switch on a special blue light, the tumors light up pink. Cookson said the effect is like a “black light room inside the lumen of the bladder.”

The bright pink areas make it easier to confirm the presence of some tumors and physicians can switch back and forth between the white and blue lights during surgery to remove the cancerous cells.

“In white light you think you’ve removed all of the tumor but you turn on the blue light and you can still see outlines of pink so you go wider,” explained Chang.

Vanderbilt has been named one of ten Centers of Excellence in the Unites States for the use of the new technology and patients with hard to detect forms of bladder cancer are now being referred to VICC.

“In the types of patients that are referred to us, the ones that are difficult to diagnose, that recur very frequently, this is a very nice option to have because you feel very confident that you’ve not only seen the tumors but you’ve been able to treat them,” said Chang.

While bladder cancer is often caught early before it metastasizes to other parts of the body, the cancer returns in nearly half of all cases. The need for repeat testing and additional procedures to remove tumors leads to bladder cancer’s reputation as the most expensive form of cancer.

Cookson said clinical trials with the new system demonstrated its value.

“Tumor detection improved about 16 percent and then subsequent studies showed about the same reduction in recurrence rates. It’s more than just helping them find the tumors but it can also lead to reduced need for subsequent surgeries.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of the Cysview agent, licensed by Ipsen from Norwegian pharmaceutical company Photocure ASA, and the blue light imaging system known as the D-Light C Photodynamic Diagnostic System from KARL STORZ Endoscopy-America.

David Penson, M.D., M.P.H., Matthew Resnick, M.D.

A new study comparing outcomes among prostate cancer patients treated with surgery versus radiotherapy found differences in urinary, bowel and sexual function after short-term follow-up, but those differences were no longer significant 15 years after initial treatment.

The study, led by first author Matthew Resnick, M.D., instructor in Urologic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was published in the Jan. 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

From Oct. 1, 1994, through Oct. 31, 1995, investigators enrolled men who had been diagnosed with localized prostate cancer in the Prostate Cancer Outcomes Study (PCOS).

For the current study, investigators followed 1,655 men between the ages of 55 and 74 from the PCOS group, of whom 1,164 (70.3 percent) had undergone prostatectomy, while 491 (29.7 percent) had undergone radiotherapy. At the time of enrollment, the patients were asked to complete a survey about clinical and demographic issues and health-related quality of life. The men were contacted again at set times following treatment and were asked about clinical outcomes and disease-specific quality of life issues.

Men whose prostates had been surgically removed were significantly more likely than those who received radiation therapy to report urinary leakage at two years and five years. However, at 15 years, the investigators found no significant difference in the adjusted odds of urinary incontinence. Nonetheless, patients in the surgery group were more likely to wear incontinence pads throughout the 15-year follow-up period.

Men in the prostatectomy group were also significantly more likely than those in the radiotherapy group to report having problems with erectile dysfunction two years and five years after surgery.

“At the two- and five-year time points, men who underwent prostatectomy were more likely to suffer from urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction than men who received radiation therapy,” explained Resnick. “While treatment-related differences were significant in the early years following treatment, those differences became far less pronounced over time.”

Despite early and intermediate-term data revealing treatment-dependent differences in patterns of sexual dysfunction, after five years both groups had a gradual decline in sexual function. At 15 years, erectile dysfunction was nearly universal with 87 percent in the prostatectomy group and 93.9 percent in the radiotherapy group reporting sexual difficulties.

The authors noted that age may have played a role in the patients’ waning sexual function, as shown in unrelated studies.

Some patients also experienced problems with bowel function in the years following treatment. Those who were treated with radiotherapy had more problems in the short term. Men in the radiotherapy group reported significantly higher rates of bowel urgency than those in the prostatectomy group at two years and five years. However, at 15 years, despite absolute differences in the prevalence of bowel urgency between the two groups, the researchers found no significant difference in the odds of bowel urgency. Men who had been treated with radiotherapy were significantly more likely to report being bothered by bowel symptoms at both the two-year and 15-year points.

“This study of 15-year outcomes represents a mature portrait of quality of life issues following prostate cancer treatment,” said David Penson, M.D., MPH, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, professor of Urologic Surgery and Medicine, and director of the Vanderbilt Center for Surgical Quality and Outcomes Research, the senior study author.

“Regardless of the form of initial treatment, patients in this study had significant declines in sexual and urinary function over the duration of the study. The causes of these declines probably include advancing age and additional cancer therapies, in addition to the original therapy,” Penson said. “Patients need to be aware that all aggressive therapies for prostate cancer have significant side effects and perhaps these data make an argument for active surveillance (avoiding aggressive treatment and closely following the cancer) in certain cases.”

Since the median life expectancy after treatment for prostate cancer is 13.8 years, the authors suggested that these data may be used by physicians to counsel men who are considering treatment for localized disease.

Other authors for this study include Tatsuki Koyama, Ph.D., Kang-Hsien Fan, M.S., R. Lawrence Van Horn, Ph.D., Vanderbilt; Peter Albertsen, M.D., University of Connecticut, Farmington; Michael Goodman, M.D., MPH, Emory University, Atlanta; Ann Hamilton, Ph.D., University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Richard Hoffman, M.D., MPH, University of New Mexico and New Mexico VA Healthcare System, Albuquerque; Arnold Potosky, Ph.D., Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; Janet Stanford, Ph.D., Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle; and Antoinette Stroup, Ph.D., University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Funding for the research was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute – a division of the National Institutes of Health (R01-CA114524), and contracts from each of the participating institutions (N01-PC-67007, N01-PC-67009, N01-PC-67010, N01-PC-67006, N01-PC-67005, and N01-PC-67000). Resnick was supported by the Veterans Affairs National Quality Scholars Program (with use of facilities at Veterans Health Administration Tennessee Valley Healthcare System) and the T.J. Martell Foundation.

Dineo Khabele, M.D.

Cancer death rates for most forms of cancer have continued to decline in the United States among men and women and all major racial and ethnic groups, according to the latest Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, (1975-2009). The report, produced since 1988, shows a slow but steady decline in the death rate for all of the most common forms of cancer, including lung, colon and rectum, female breast and prostate.

However, the report also indicates that death rates have continued to increase during the latest time period (2000 through 2009) for melanoma of the skin (men only) and cancers of the liver, pancreas and uterus.

The decline in overall cancer death rates continues a trend that began in the early 1990s. From 2000 through 2009, cancer death rates decreased by 1.8 percent per year among men and by 1.4 percent per year among women. Death rates among children up to 14 years of age also continued to decrease by 1.8 percent per year.

The report is co-authored by researchers from the American Cancer Society (ACS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR).

This year’s report highlights forms of cancer associated with human papillomavirus (HPV), including cervical cancer and some types of head and neck cancer. The report indicates that from 2000 through 2009, incidence rates for HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer (tonsils and middle part of the throat) increased among white men and women, as did rates for anal cancer among white and black men and women.

Vaccinating against HPV can prevent some of these forms of cancer, but the vaccination rate in the U.S. is far lower than vaccination rates in Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Tennessee is among the states where only 25.5 to 32 percent of adolescent girls have received the recommended three doses of the HPV vaccine.

“The burden of HPV-associated cancers falls disproportionately on black and Hispanic women and patients in rural areas who are not getting routine access to health care,” said Dineo Khabele, M.D., assistant professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Khabele said too many patients arrive at the cancer center with advanced cancer, which indicates they were not receiving regular care.

“A combination of vaccination and routine health care, including screening, could eliminate cervical cancer,” said Khabele.

The latest Annual Report to the Nation appears online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and will be published in the print issue 3, volume 105.

Vanderbilt’s fellows are among 702 new fellows from around the country selected by their peers because of their “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.”

Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D.

Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., director of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and five other VICC faculty members are among the newly elected members.

The AAAS is an international non-profit organization dedicated to advancing science and the world by serving as an educator, leader, spokesperson and professional association. In addition to membership activities, the AAAS published Science, as well as many other publications that raise the bar of the understanding of science worldwide.

AAAS fellows help governments formulate science policy, promote advancement of science education, increase diversity in the scientific community, use science to advance human rights, and communicate the value of science to the general public.

Vanderbilt’s fellows are among 702 new fellows from around the country selected by their peers because of their “scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.”

“We are very proud of the great work of these outstanding faculty colleagues through their research, teaching and mentoring,” said Richard McCarty, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University provost, vice chancellor for Academic Affairs and professor of Psychology. “This special recognition by AAAS is fitting tribute to them and reflects well on the University.”

“The election of a record 17 faculty as new fellows offers further validation of the University’s significant advancements to medicine and science,” said Jeff Balser, M.D., Ph.D., vice chancellor for Health Affairs and dean of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “We celebrate the recognition of these individuals by the AAAS while recognizing the important contributions they bring to their respective fields.”

The new fellows who are also VICC faculty members and their achievements are:

• Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., Stanford Moore Chair in Biochemistry and director of the Mass Spectrometry Research Center.
  For distinguished research in the fields of chemistry and biochemistry, for seminal advances in mass spectrometry and innovation in imaging/profiling mass spectrometry (IMS).
• Robert Coffey Jr., M.D., Ingram Professor of Cancer Research.
  For distinguished contributions to the study of growth factor signaling in intestinal cell biology and neoplasia and in the pathogenesis and treatment of Ménétrier’s disease.
• Jennifer Pietenpol, Ph.D., Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Endowed Chair in Oncology and director, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
  For outstanding contributions to the field of cancer research, particularly the involvement of signaling networks in breast and other cancers.
• Dan Roden, M.D., assistant vice chancellor for Personalized Medicine, and William Stokes Chair in Experimental Therapeutics.
  For distinguished contributions to elucidating molecular and genetic mechanisms of drug-induced cardiac arrhythmias, and for pioneering efforts in pharmacogenomics that enable personalized medicine.
• William Tansey, Ph.D., Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and professor of Cell and Developmental Biology.
  For pioneering discoveries that revealed connections between the transcription and ubiquitin systems, including critical advances in understanding the functions of ubiquitin and proteasome in gene expression.
• Christopher V. Wright, D.Phil., professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, and Louis B. McGavock Chair.
  For distinguished contributions to the field of developmental biology and genetics, particularly for seminal discoveries in pancreas organogenesis and embryonic body patterning.

The new fellows will be recognized on Feb. 16 at the 2013 AAAS annual meeting in Boston.

For more information on AAAS Fellows, see www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/fellows/.

To address this funding disparity, the LUNGevity Foundation will host the second annual Breathe Deep 5-K race/walk event, Saturday, Nov. 17, in Nashville’s Centennial Park. Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center is one of the co-sponsors of the event.

Vanderbilt is forming a team to participate in this year’s Breathe Deep lung cancer fundraising race/walk. The 5K is a timed run, while the walk is untimed. Parents, children and even pets are welcome to take part in the annual lung cancer awareness activities.

That evening, VICC will host a free reception for lung cancer patients and their caregivers. The Breathe Hope reception will be held at the Frances Preston Research Building from 6 – 8 p.m. and is open to any lung cancer patient or survivor, no matter where they have received their treatment. The event will give lung cancer survivors and caregivers an opportunity to meet other individuals who understand their cancer journey.

The LUNGevity Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing awareness about lung cancer and providing funds for the most promising research, including research at VICC.

Pierre Massion, M.D., associate professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, said lung cancer patients deserve more attention and support.

“More than half of patients diagnosed with lung cancer are ex- or never smokers,” said Massion, who is also an Ingram Associate Professor of Cancer Research. “Our research laboratory is focused on finding the biomarkers that will tell us which individuals are likely to develop lung cancer and how and why the disease develops. These same biomarkers should help us find better treatments for this often-fatal disease.”

Massion also serves as chairman of the LUNGevity Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Board.

To register for the Breathe Hope reception at VICC, visit www.breathehopenashville.com or call 615-936-1789.

To join Vanderbilt’s team for the Breathe Deep race/walk, visit www.viccfallwalks.org or contact Jennifer.rice@vanderbilt.edu.

(photo by Ann Rayner)

Caroline Nebhan, right, a fourth-year student in the M.D./Ph.D. training program, explains a cancer research experiment to advocates from the National Lung Cancer Partnership who toured Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center during their recent meeting in Nashville. Nebhan, who works in the research laboratory of William Pao, M.D., Ph.D., is studying the effects of a specific cancer drug on lung cancer cells.