National Cancer Institute

Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC, Hugh Jackson Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will be appointed director of the National Cancer Institute. Through this upcoming appointment, Rathmell will become the NCI’s 17th director and only the second woman to hold this position leading the nation’s fight against cancer. She was chosen to serve in this role by President Biden. Read More

Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD, MMHC, the Hugh Jackson Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will be appointed Director of the National Cancer Institute. Read More

Vanderbilt's Andreana Holowatyj, PhD, MSCI, has received the National Cancer Institute’s Method to Extend Research in Time Award to support her ongoing investigation into how early-onset colorectal cancer and its treatments impact reproductive health. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are studying precancerous lesions and early cancers in the colon, with the goal of developing new ways to prevent colorectal cancer, the nation’s second leading cancer killer. Read More

John Wilson, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Vanderbilt University, has received a $3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to develop technology that seeks to boost a person’s immune system to better fight cancer. Wilson is the Principal Investigator of the five-year grant. He specializes in the study of cancer immunotherapy... Read More

A biomedical engineering professor has received a $1.9 million NIH grant to investigate the effects of mechanical stimuli such as shear stress on the behavior of cancer cells in blood flow. J. Lawrence Wilson Professor Mike King and his research group will develop the devices for the study as well as new cell lines to... Read More

A biomedical engineering professor has received a $1.9 million NIH grant to investigate the effects of mechanical stimuli such as shear stress on the behavior of cancer cells in blood flow. J. Lawrence Wilson Professor Mike King and his research group will develop the devices for the study as well as new cell lines to... Read More

People with a high polygenic risk score for colorectal cancer could benefit more at preventing the disease by leading healthy lifestyles than those at lower genetic risk, according to a study by Vanderbilt researchers published in the April issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have received a National Cancer Institute grant to develop a novel, integrative approach to detect early signs of lung cancer. The four-year project builds on a related, recent study that established the value of using three separate measures—structural imaging, a protein marker and information available from electronic health records—to predict lung cancer in... Read More

While 60 percent of people with metastatic melanoma, an aggressive type of skin cancer, have multiple treatment options available to them, roughly 40 percent either do not respond to treatment, or relapse. Read More

Zhijun Yin, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, has received the National Cancer Institute’s Method to Extend Research in Time Award (or MERIT Award) for Early Stage Investigators. Read More

A multidisciplinary team of investigators at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a program project grant from the National Cancer Institute to explore extracellular RNA in colorectal cancer. Read More

Researchers from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) discovered a role for MYCN in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), a particularly aggressive form of the disease, and identified a potential intervention for further clinical investigation. Read More

Colorectal cancer researchers from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) have been awarded a Specialized Program of Research Excellence grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Read More

Breast cancer researchers at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center have secured a fourth round of continuous Specialized Program of Research Excellence funding. Read More

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. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Robert Coffey Jr., M.D., has received an Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) — more than $6.6 million over seven years — to support studies aimed at advancing the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), a leading cancer killer. Read More

Douglas Lowy, M.D., acting director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), warned that worldwide death rates from cervical cancer are expected to increase in low- and middle-income countries during the next 15 years unless steps are taken to prevent the cancer from occurring. Almost all cases of cervical cancer are linked to a viral infection. Read More

Scientists in the Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center (VEC) and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) have been awarded a grant to plan and develop a Regional Center of Research Excellence in non-communicable diseases in Vietnam. 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