immunotherapy

January 16, 2020

Journey Home Project supports first CAR-T infusion at VA hospital

The Tennessee Valley Healthcare System performed its first CAR-T infusion recently at the Veterans Administration hospital in Nashville.

By Tom Wilemon
Charles Manning, PhD, and colleagues are working to improve the effectiveness of immunotherapies earlier in treatment.
November 7, 2019

Project seeks new way to assess immunotherapy effectiveness

GE Healthcare has awarded researchers in the Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science $2.5 million in funding to develop PET tracer that will determine the effectiveness of immunotherapy in patients early in their treatment course.

By Krystyna Barnard
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
June 6, 2019

Immunotherapy helping 87-year-old man stay on the job

Nine years after being diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer, Roszell Mack Jr., 87, still goes into the office every day thanks to a durable response to the immunotherapy pembrolizumab.

By Tom Wilemon
Young Kim, MD, PhD, left, Michael Korrer, PhD, and colleagues are studying a potential new cancer immunotherapy option.
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
December 13, 2018

Breast cancer-killing RIG

A compound that activates a virus-sensing receptor has potent therapeutic effects in a mouse model of breast cancer.

By Leigh MacMillan
November 15, 2018

Immunotherapies linked to specific heart complications

In the first large-scale analysis of cardiovascular complications linked to immune checkpoint inhibitors, Vanderbilt researchers have shown that heart and vessel complications include myocarditis, pericarditis, vasculitis and arrhythmias, and that they occur early in the course of treatment.
By Tom Wilemon
November 1, 2018

Team’s findings show glutamine metabolism affects T cell signaling

The cellular nutrient glutamine launches a metabolic signaling pathway that promotes the function of some immune system T cells and suppresses others, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.
By Leigh MacMillan
October 25, 2018

Mary Kay Foundation grant to bolster immunotherapy research

An immunotherapy research initiative at Vanderbilt University Medical Center is among those being supported by the Mary Kay Foundation, which has announced $1.2 million in funding that will be equally shared among 12 cancer research institutions.
By Tom Wilemon
September 13, 2018

Study tracks incidence, timing of immunotherapy-related deaths

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center researchers have answered questions about the incidence and timing of rare but sometimes fatal reactions to the most widely prescribed class of immunotherapies.
By Tom Wilemon
March 1, 2018

Cancer immunotherapies expert Allison set for Discovery Lecture

James Allison, PhD, whose work led to the development of cancer immunotherapies known as “checkpoint inhibitors,” will deliver the next Flexner Discovery Lecture on Thursday, March 8.
By Leigh MacMillan
June 19, 2017

STINGing combination for cancer

A novel immunotherapy combination induced remarkable regression of tumors in a mouse model of head and neck cancer.
By VUMC News and Communications
May 11, 2017

Richmond to speak at national VA research conference on cancer immunotherapy

Vanderbilt University cancer researcher Ann Richmond, Ph.D., 2016 recipient of one of the highest honors for scientific achievement bestowed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, will be a keynote speaker during a national VA research conference next week at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
By Bill Snyder