Past research has proven that palliative care — specialized medical care focused on pain and symptom management as well as psychosocial interventions to improve quality of life — benefits patients with malignant diseases such as aggressive cancers. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) health care providers are now studying whether palliative care can also benefit those with advanced liver disease, a diagnosis that precedes either a life-saving liver transplant or death.

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered that oxidative damage may play an important role in the development of a rare cholesterol synthesis disease and in the behavioral changes of autism spectrum disorders.

Kathryn Dahir, M.D., associate professor of Medicine in the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, recently received the Maher Family Grant from Soft Bones Inc., an organization dedicated to providing information, education and support to those affected by hypophosphatasia (HPP).

Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) will sponsor an educational conference for kidney cancer patients, survivors and family members Saturday, Sept. 9, 8 a.m. – 2 p.m., in the Preston Research Building, Suite 898.

New findings could explain the link between chronic stress and reduced survival in women diagnosed with breast cancer, and could lead to new strategies to improve treatment outcomes.

Vanderbilt investigators have conducted a first-of-its-kind genome-wide association study of lung cancer survival in African-Americans.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have found a way to calm the “genomic storm” that triggers the often-lethal consequences of sepsis.