News: Melanoma

Rob Schieber and Jordan Lawhead each moved to Nashville to pursue a career in music. Songwriter and publisher Kris Bergsnes introduced them knowing they were both cancer survivors. But a chance meeting in a patient waiting room at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) united the two men in their cancer journey as well as in friendship […]

Leading cancer investigators from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center will unveil the latest in cancer research during an upcoming community event. “Precision Medicine in Cancer: At the Crossroads of Research and Treatment for Patients” will be held Tuesday, May 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Vanderbilt Student Life Center, 310 25th Ave. S. The public is […]

Anti-PD-1 therapy – a treatment that stimulates the immune system to attack tumors – produces responses in up to 40 percent of melanoma patients. Predictive markers of response are needed to optimize patient selection, improve treatment decision-making and minimize costs. Justin Balko, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Douglas Johnson, M.D., and colleagues hypothesized that tumor expression of MHC-I […]

Chemotherapy and targeted anti-cancer drugs can induce tumor cell senescence. Although cell proliferation is shut down in senescent cells, there is enhanced expression of secreted factors that may promote or suppress tumor growth. Anna Vilgelm, Ph.D., and colleagues explored how therapy-induced senescence impacts the therapeutic response of melanoma. Using mouse models, the researchers assessed gene […]

Nearly half of all patients with malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer, have a mutation in the BRAF gene found in their tumors. Mutations in the BRAF gene turn on a cancer growth switch known as the MAP kinase pathway. In recent years, new drugs have been approved that target the BRAF/MAPK […]

Anti-cancer drugs are typically tested on one type of cancer at a time. But an international consortium of cancer investigators, including Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) researchers, simultaneously tested an existing therapy in patients with several different forms of cancer that all exhibit the same tumor gene mutation. The new clinical trial showed promising results in […]

Soldiers who served in the glaring desert sunlight of Iraq and Afghanistan returned home with an increased risk of skin cancer, due not only to the desert climate, but also a lack of sun protection, Vanderbilt dermatologist Jennifer Powers, M.D., reports in a study published recently in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. “The past decade […]

The idea of a “Best Hospital for Cancer” does not reflect the fact that cancer comprises many different diseases. Jeffery Goldstein, M.D., Ph.D., a resident in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt, and Vinay Prasad, M.D., MPH, aimed to rank the 50 highest ranked cancer hospitals – from the 2013 U.S. News […]

Douglas Johnson, M.D., assistant professor of Medicine, has been named a recipient of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network  (NCCN) Foundation Young Investigator Awards. The two-year grant will provide $150,000 in funding for his research on survivorship among cancer patients who receive drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors. The formal announcement of the grant awardees was made […]

Country music group BlackHawk recently presented a check for $20,000 to Harold (Hal) Moses, M.D., Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and director emeritus of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC), in support of cancer research. Since 2006, the group has raised and donated $100,000 to VICC in remembrance of one of the original members of the multi-platinum […]