Cancer

February 16, 2023

Breast cancer genetics: new insights

Largest genetic study of breast cancer to date identifies 222 genetic risk loci, 137 genes and multiple signaling pathways associated with risk, providing important new insights.

By Leigh MacMillan
February 16, 2023

Patient undergoes novel therapy to treat pancreatic cancer

Maudean Armour of Clarksville, Tennessee, is the first patient in Tennessee to undergo intraoperative radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer — a new technology that targets any remaining cancer cells with electrons during surgery.

By Tom Wilemon
February 16, 2023

Tindle authors NCI guidance on treatment of cancer patients who smoke

Vanderbilt’s Hilary Tindle, MD, MPH, was one of the key contributors to the new Tobacco Control Monograph from the National Cancer Institute.

By Tom Wilemon
Krista Kuhnert-Gainer, ACNP, shows off the sign her colleagues made to celebrate her reaching 20,000 bone marrow biopsies performed.
February 9, 2023

‘Biopsy Queen’ reaches milestone number of procedures

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center’s Krista Kuhnert-Gainer, ACNP has performed more than 20,000 bone marrow biopsies since 1996.

By Tom Wilemon
The Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center (Neil Brake/Vanderbilt)
February 9, 2023

Vanderbilt-Ingram joins CancerLinQ quality initiative

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center is now participating in CancerLinQ, a technology initiative focused on improving patient care that tracks quality metrics in real time.

By Tom Wilemon
The research team included, from left, Hannah Poisner, Sydney Olson, J. Brett Heimlich, MD, PhD, Ningning Hu, MS, Alyssa Parker, Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, Joseph Van Amburg and Tara Mack.
February 2, 2023

Researchers clarify role of blood cell mutations in disease

Vanderbilt researchers have developed a new method to analyze mutations in blood stem cells that can trigger explosive, clonal expansions of abnormal cells.

By Bill Snyder
January 19, 2023

Pediatric surgeon’s medical career began with a lucky catch

While he was in medical school, pediatric surgeon Joseph Fusco, MD, learned in an unusual way that he had thyroid cancer.
By Jessica Pasley
January 19, 2023

Surgeons target pancreatic cancer with electrons using new technology

Vanderbilt surgeons recently treated a pancreatic cancer patient using IntraOp Mobetron IORT with electrons — the first surgery performed in Tennessee with this new technology utilizing intraoperative radiotherapy in the operating room.
By Tom Wilemon
January 12, 2023

Expandable prosthesis gives young patient more mobility

To treat the osteosarcoma in his left leg, Dominic Gamez, 7, and his family chose to have a magnetic expandable prosthesis implanted that can be manipulated to grow incrementally as the child grows.
By Nancy Humphrey
January 12, 2023

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative grant supports single-cell study of rare inherited disease

A multidisciplinary team led by Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigator Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, has been awarded a $2 million, four-year grant to study inflammation at the single-cell level in the rare disease RUNX1-FPD.
By Leigh MacMillan
January 9, 2023

Novel lung cancer biomarker

Autoantibodies against the p53 tumor suppressor protein may be a novel biomarker for identifying people, especially African Americans, at high risk for lung cancer.
By Leigh MacMillan
January 5, 2023

New approach outperforms existing cancer susceptibility models

A new approach for conducting gene-based analyses for cancer susceptibility created at Vanderbilt outperforms existing models.
By Tom Wilemon
November 17, 2022

Surgery for hereditary breast cancer

Similar rates of bilateral mastectomy in women with inherited mutations in high- and moderate-penetrance genes raises concerns about possible overtreatment of some patients, Vanderbilt researchers report.
By Leigh MacMillan