Colon Cancer

Fluorescent nanoparticles clearly identified colonic adenomas — precursors to colorectal cancer — in mice, and the formulation should translate to clinical use in humans. Read More

Chemoresistant SW480 colon cancer cells stained for lipid rafts (green), death receptor 4 (red) and cell nuclei (blue). Image taken by Joshua Greenlee using a Zeiss LSM 880 from the Vanderbilt Cell Imaging Shared Resource Center. By Marissa Shapiro THE IDEA Vanderbilt faculty and researchers are looking for the “Achilles’ heel” of the cancer cells... Read More

Chemoresistant SW480 colon cancer cells stained for lipid rafts (green), death receptor 4 (red) and cell nuclei (blue). Image taken by Joshua Greenlee using a Zeiss LSM 880 from the Vanderbilt Cell Imaging Shared Resource Center. By Marissa Shapiro THE IDEA Vanderbilt faculty and researchers are looking for the “Achilles’ heel” of the cancer cells... Read More

Vitamin D protection against colon cancer varies according to parathyroid hormone response, particularly among women. Read More

Vanderbilt epidemiologists identified new markers for colorectal cancer risk and characterized a previously unidentified tumor suppressor that regulates overall tumor volume in vivo. Read More

Combining two drugs reduced colorectal cancer cell growth in vitro and in an animal model, suggesting the combination may be a promising treatment for patients. Read More

Red and processed meat intakes are strongly associated with increased risk of sessile serrated polyps, which are not as well studied as conventional adenomas. Read More

Investigators are exploring the molecular mechanisms behind the association of chronic inflammation and colon cancer. Read More

Chronic inflammation is a predisposing condition for colorectal cancer, the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Anna Means, Ph.D., and colleagues have now linked inflammation-driven carcinogenesis in the colon to loss of an important signaling protein called SMAD4. Read More

Calcium intake appears to protect against colorectal cancer in individuals with certain gene variants, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered. Read More

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered a novel non-genetic cause of resistance to the targeted anti-cancer therapy cetuximab. Their findings, reported this week in Nature Medicine, suggest a strategy for overcoming this resistance. Read More

Bile acids produced by a western diet alter the composition of the gut microbiota and promote intestinal carcinogenesis. Read More

Lifestyle factors like cigarette smoking and red meat consumption are known to be associated with an increased risk of colon polyps that can lead to colorectal cancer. Read More

For some people cancer, especially colon cancer, is a persistent and potentially deadly visitor affecting family members from one generation to the next. Individuals who have a parent, sibling or child diagnosed with colon cancer have double the risk of developing the disease. Read More

A cancer patient’s gratitude toward his Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) physician led to a star-studded concert to benefit the Cancer Center. Read More

Investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have published research regarding an important feature of colorectal cancer (CRC) that could eventually lead to the development of non-invasive means of monitoring cancer progression. After lung cancer, CRC is the second-most lethal cancer in the United States. Read More

A protein that suppresses a key cancer pathway in the colon may be a potential biomarker for colitis-associated tumors, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center reported last month in the journal Gut. Read More

An antioxidant protein may protect against colon cancer that develops in patients with inflammatory bowel disease, suggesting new strategies for reducing colon cancer risk in these patients. Read More

A specific gene expression profile represents a novel, biologically relevant “signature” for identifying colon cancers with high risk of metastatic recurrence, Vanderbilt researchers have found. Read More

A newly identified factor regulates blood vessel growth in colorectal tumors and could be a promising target for cancer therapies. Read More