Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

Glioma is the most common and lethal type of brain tumor, and now investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and three other cancer centers have identified a link between a rare genetic variant and the risk of developing glioma. The variant also appears to improve the odds of survival among glioma patients. Reid Thompson, M.D., William [...]

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in cellular development, differentiation and cancer growth by regulating gene expression. They may be clinically useful as biomarkers and as targets for new drugs to treat such cancers as glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and lethal primary brain tumor in humans. But first scientists must understand better how the actions [...]

Maryville, Tenn., tucked in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, has a population of just 27,000, but it seemed like every one of its residents rallied around 20-year-old Brently Mancini when he was diagnosed with a rare soft tissue cancer. Mancini was a football standout and 2008 graduate of Greenback High School who loved [...]

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 [...]

Smoking tobacco reduces lung function. African Americans have lower lung function compared to European Americans, but it is unclear if African ancestry modifies smoking’s impact on lung function. Melinda Aldrich, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor of Thoracic Surgery, and colleagues evaluated lung function, tobacco smoking exposure and genetic ancestry in a large population of African Americans who [...]

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 [...]

Prostate cancer cells metastasize mainly to bone, yet bone metastases are resistant to common therapies and are often fatal. A key receptor for the growth factor TGF-β (TβRII) is lost in the connective tissue (stroma) of most prostate cancers, but the effects of this loss on metastasis and bone lesion development are undefined. Recently in [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]