American Association for Cancer Research

Lovly elected to American Association for Cancer Research board

Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, has been elected to the American Association for Cancer Research board of directors.

VUMC’s Pietenpol, Shyr named AACR Fellows

Vanderbilt’s Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, and Yu Shyr, PhD, have been inducted as fellows of the American Association for Cancer Research Academy.

Study identifies biomarker for breast cancer response to immunotherapy

A biomarker that has proven to be a predictor for response to immunotherapies in melanoma patients also has clinical relevance for breast cancer patients, according to a new study published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

By Tom Wilemon

From left, Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, Bradley Reinfeld, Matthew Madden and Jeffrey Rathmell, PhD, have discovered that immune cells — not cancer cells — are the major glucose consumers in the tumor microenvironment, upending a century-old observation.

April 7, 2021

Study revises understanding of cancer metabolism

Tumors consume glucose at high rates, but a team of Vanderbilt researchers has discovered that cancer cells themselves are not the culprit, upending models of cancer metabolism that have been developed and refined over the last 100 years.

By Leigh MacMillan

A childhood role model helped inspire Portia Thomas to pursue a career in medicine and research.

October 1, 2020

Diversity role model inspires career path

Portia Thomas grew up in Doerun, Georgia, a small, rural city named by pioneer hunters as a place with “a perfect doe run,” where the population has hovered around 800 people for the past 30 years. A childhood impression lifted her aspirations beyond her hometown and inspired her to pursue a career as a physician-scientist.

By Tom Wilemon

March 12, 2020

Early-career investigators

Henry Henderson, PhD, was one of 16 researchers selected to participate in the American Association for Cancer Research’s Early-Career Investigator Hill Day on Feb. 27 in Washington, D.C. While there, he met with U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and discussed funding for the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute with a member of the senator’s health policy staff.