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Targeting specific molecules in breast tumors, called methylating agents, can turn up the immune response, potentially making tumors responsive to immunotherapy, suggests a new study published in Nature Communications.

A new study by Lola Chambless, MD, and colleagues shows that tumor volume is the most striking single predictor of tumor grade in atypical meningioma — aggressive tumors that form from the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. The finding may help guide surgical planning and patient counseling.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) have demonstrated for the first time that it is possible to starve a tumor and stop its growth with a newly discovered small compound that blocks uptake of the vital nutrient glutamine.

Ian Macara, PhD, Louise B. McGavock Professor and Chair of Cell and Developmental Biology and co-leader of the Signal Transduction and Chemical Biology Research Program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), has been named one of the Pink Tie Guys for the Susan G. Komen Central Tennessee organization.

James Goldenring, MD, PhD and colleagues have made a fundamental advance in understanding how microtubules are assembled. Their finding, published as an Editor’s Pick last month in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, may lead to new ways to control cancer.

A prospective study by Wei Zheng, Ph.D., M.D., and colleagues delivers the first direct epidemiological evidence that increased production of a chemical compound called prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), as measured by metabolites in urine (PGE-M), is associated with increased pancreatic cancer risk.

Radiation-induced pulmonary fibrosis — tissue scarring that can permanently impair lung function — limits the delivery of therapeutic radiation doses to non-small cell lung cancer. To develop strategies for preventing or reducing fibrosis, Michael Freeman, Ph.D., and colleagues are exploring the cell types and factors that contribute to the radiation-induced fibrotic response.

Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN) Assistant Professor Bethany Rhoten, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., has been awarded a $30,000 grant through a Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center-administered American Cancer Society pilot program to investigate the need for a self-report tool to assess sexuality in head and neck cancer patients.

The targeted anti-cancer therapies cetuximab and panitumumab are mainstays of treatment for advanced colorectal cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. However, many patients have tumors with genetic mutations that make them resistant to these anti-epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) monoclonal antibodies, or the cancers develop resistance during treatment.

A recent study by Dai Chung, M.D., and colleagues suggests new therapeutic options for Ewing sarcoma, a type of rare, aggressive childhood cancer.