Department of Medicine Archives
Cancer immunotherapy drugs linked with more serious heart effects
Mar. 12, 2018—Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have identified a growing number of serious and sometimes fatal cases of heart problems among cancer patients treated with some forms of immunotherapy.
Lovly earns scholarship grant for lung cancer research
Mar. 8, 2018—Christine Lovly, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt, has received a $200,000 grant to support promising new research on lung cancer.
Discovery by Vanderbilt-led group could lead to improved diabetes treatment
Mar. 6, 2018—Vanderbilt investigators and colleagues around the country have made a major discovery that could lead to better ways to treat type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Saline use on decline at Vanderbilt following landmark studies
Feb. 27, 2018—Vanderbilt University Medical Center is encouraging its medical providers to stop using saline as intravenous fluid therapy for most patients, a change provoked by two companion landmark studies released Feb. 27 that are anticipated to improve survival and decrease kidney complications.
Schlendorf named adult heart transplant medical director
Feb. 15, 2018—Kelly Schlendorf, MD, MHS, assistant professor of Medicine, has been named medical director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s (VUMC) Adult Heart Transplant Program.
Protecting transplanted lungs
Feb. 12, 2018—Acetaminophen may offer a simple treatment to prevent tissue injury following lung transplant, Vanderbilt researchers have discovered.
Study seeks to boost breast tumor immune response
Feb. 8, 2018—Immunotherapy, which harnesses the power of the immune system, is one of the most promising forms of cancer therapy and has been shown to work well against some types of cancer.
AIDS-defining events increase mortality risk: study
Feb. 8, 2018—When they occur among people living with HIV, certain cancers and opportunistic infections are considered by health authorities as AIDS-defining events, or ADEs.
Study tracks therapy to slow idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Feb. 1, 2018—Investigators in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care have launched a pilot study to see if patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) can tolerate the addition of a commonly used antiviral drug to standard IPF treatments. The research team believes the drug may ultimately help slow progression of the chronic and progressive disease or reverse its course.
Personalized drug prescribing program expands, upgrades
Jan. 25, 2018—Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has expanded and relaunched genetic testing to predict patient responses to drugs.
Rising obesity rates in South leading to rapid increase in diabetes
Jan. 18, 2018—Rising obesity rates in several Southern states are leading to a rapid increase in new cases of diabetes among both black and white adults. A new study helmed by investigators at the University of Texas Health Science Center and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) found the risk of diabetes is double for black patients.
Study finds higher death rates in poor neighborhoods
Jan. 18, 2018—Living in an economically disadvantaged neighborhood is likely to lead to death at an earlier age, especially among African-Americans, new research shows. The death rate is even more pronounced among disadvantaged individuals with unhealthy lifestyle habits.