Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Angiosarcoma, a rare, aggressive tumor that arises from cells that line blood vessels, has a mortality rate of around 80 percent. Because of their constant contact with the blood stream, these tumors can spread quickly and freely throughout the body. The INK4a/ARF locus on chromosome 9 – a region that encodes tumor suppressor proteins – [...]

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s gastrointestinal Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) has been awarded its third round of funding by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). “We decided to roll the dice and propose high-risk, high-reward projects,” said Robert Coffey Jr., M.D., Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, professor of Medicine and Cell and Developmental Biology, and director [...]

Overcoming therapeutic resistance that inevitably develops is one of the major challenges in treating lung cancer. Non-small cell lung cancers that harbor mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) are initially responsive to targeted therapies known as EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, most patients eventually develop resistance to these therapies. One such targeted [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

High consumption of vitamin E either from diet or vitamin supplements may lower the risk of liver cancer, according to a study published July 17 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study was conducted by investigators from the Shanghai Cancer Institute, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute. Vitamin E is [...]