Douglas Johnson

Eleven current Vanderbilt University faculty members, 10 of whom are investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, are included in the 2024 list of “Highly Cited Researchers” around the world whose papers have been cited most frequently by other scientists. Read More

Twelve current investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University are on this year’s list of scientists whose papers have been cited the most frequently by other researchers. Read More

Researchers from from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have identified the mechanism for the deadly heart inflammation myocarditis. Read More

Researchers are chronicling rare but serious toxicities that may occur with immune checkpoint inhibitors, the most widely prescribed class of immunotherapies. Read More

In the first large-scale analysis of cardiovascular complications linked to immune checkpoint inhibitors, Vanderbilt researchers have identified several of the conditions that arise and have determined that they usually appear early in treatment. Read More

Researchers led by melanoma researcher Douglas Johnson have answered questions about the incidence and timing of rare but sometimes fatal reactions to the most widely prescribed class of immunotherapies. Read More

Henry Paul and Dave Robbins, members of country music group BlackHawk, as well as southern rock band The Outlaws, recently donated $40,000 to Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) in support of melanoma research. Since 2006, the band members have generated more than $100,000 for VICC. Read More

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. Read More

Justin Balko, Pharm.D., Ph.D., seated, Javid Moslehi, M.D., left, and Douglas Johnson, M.D., MSCI, review data on rare cardiac side effects linked to cancer immunotherapy combination therapy. (photo by Susan Urmy) Combination therapy using two approved immunotherapy drugs for cancer treatment may cause rare and sometimes fatal cardiac side… Read More

The ability to test patients’ cancers for individual differences, mainly at the genetic level, and to make treatment decisions based on those differences is the hallmark of precision medicine, and Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) is among the leaders of this new approach to diagnosis and treatment. Read More

Melanoma-specific expression of a certain protein identifies tumors that are more responsive to an immune therapy. Read More

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. Read More

Melanoma patients whose tumors test positive for mutations in the NRAS gene were more likely to benefit from new immunotherapy drugs, according to a new study led by Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators. Read More