cancer immunotherapy

March 5, 2024

GE HealthCare & Vanderbilt publish data on AI models predicting patient response to immunotherapy

The results from a research partnership between GE HealthCare and Vanderbilt University Medical Center utilizing artificial intelligence to enable safer and more precise cancer immunotherapies show that the models they developed predict patient responses with 70% to 80% accuracy.

By Tom Wilemon
January 16, 2024

Data haul improves immunotherapy response prediction

Vanderbilt biostatisticians have developed an immunotherapy response model that outperforms existing predictive models.

By Paul Govern
Authors on the study included, from left, Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, Melinda Sanders, MD, Brian Lehmann, PhD, Vandana Abramson, MD, and Yu Shyr, PhD. (photo by Donn Jones)
December 15, 2023

Clinical trial shows efficacy for atezolizumab combined with carboplatin

By Tom Wilemon
Mary Philip, MD, PhD, left, and Michael Rudloff, PhD, found that T cells become “exhausted” within hours of encountering a tumor, challenging existing ideas about how T cells become dysfunctional. (photo by Anthony Czelusniak)
August 3, 2023

Study finds hallmarks of T cell exhaustion within hours of tumor exposure

Vanderbilt researchers found that T cells become “exhausted” within hours of encountering a tumor, challenging existing ideas about how T cells become dysfunctional.

By Leigh MacMillan
August 16, 2022

Nanoparticles boost anti-cancer immunity

An ingenious targeted nanoparticle approach developed by Vanderbilt researchers reduced tumor burden in a model of ovarian cancer.

By Bill Snyder
Luke and Susan Simons recently made a gift to establish the Susan and Luke Simons Directorship at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
August 11, 2022

Couple’s gift helps support immunotherapy research

Luke and Susan Simons have endowed a new directorship that will support research so that more people can benefit from immunotherapies.

By Tom Wilemon
April 1, 2021

Breast cancer cells ‘steal’ nutrients from immune cells: study

Triple-negative breast cancer cells engage in a “glutamine steal” — outcompeting T cells for the nutrient glutamine and impairing their ability to kill tumor cells, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.
By Leigh MacMillan
August 20, 2020

A “torque” for tumor blood vessels

Vanderbilt scientists have discovered a new target for normalizing tumor blood vessels to improve cancer immunotherapies.
By Bill Snyder
June 4, 2020

Potential new cancer target

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered the involvement of a certain type of adenosine receptor in mediating signaling that supports tumor growth and metastasis.
By Bill Snyder
February 27, 2020

Patient’s cancer treatment includes new immunotherapy

Dona Potter, 87, rode Harleys and drove 18-wheelers back when men dominated the open highways, and she is still defying expectations.
By Tom Wilemon
August 22, 2019

New prostate cancer treatment concept

Combining immunotherapy and radiation therapy may be a powerful treatment approach for castration-resistant prostate cancer.
By Leigh MacMillan
July 22, 2019

Encephalitis identified as rare toxicity of immunotherapy treatment

Researchers are chronicling rare but serious toxicities that may occur with immune checkpoint inhibitors, the most widely prescribed class of immunotherapies.
By Tom Wilemon
February 21, 2019

Discovery points to new cancer immunotherapy option

An international team involving Vanderbilt researchers has discovered that a new “checkpoint” protein on immune system cells is active in tumors, and that blocking it — in combination with other treatments — is a successful therapeutic approach in mouse models of cancer.
By Leigh MacMillan