For the first time, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators have used a cancer patient’s own re-engineered immune cells to treat a form of blood cancer by stimulating the immune system.

Christine Lovly, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, has been awarded a V Scholar Grant from the V Foundation for Cancer Research.

Edward (Ned) Wikle recently celebrated the Christmas holidays with his wife and three young children, a celebration the Jackson, Mississippi-based endodontist, U.S. Navy veteran and cancer patient wasn’t sure he would have.

Justin Balko, Pharm.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine and Cancer Biology, has been named a member of the 2016 class of Pink Tie Guys by the Greater Nashville Affiliate of Susan G. Komen, a nonprofit organization dedicated to breast cancer research and patient support.

W. Kimryn Rathmell, M.D., Ph.D., Alexander Professor for Translational Science and associate director for Training and Education at Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has been named director of Vanderbilt’s Division of Hematology and Oncology.

Carrie Kitko, M.D., has joined Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt as associate professor of Pediatrics and director of the Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program in the Division of Hematology/Oncology.

A new mouse model demonstrates that the Hhex gene – which is linked to blood cancers – is critical for normal blood cell production.