KaCrole Higgins was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2020. “In May 2020, I found a lump in my breast. I cried. By June, it was diagnosed as breast cancer, triple positive, stage 1A. While getting this cancer diagnosis was devastating, it also became an opportunity. Suddenly, the cancer gave me clarity. It gave me clarity about what was important, what was good in my life, what was toxic in my life, and what I needed to do.” Click below to read more of KaCrole’s story
If Landon Ryan had been diagnosed with bilateral retinoblastoma 10, 20 or 30 years ago, she might not be here today with nearly perfect vision.Thanks to recent improvements in the treatment for this rare form of cancer that almost exclusively affects children under the age of 5, the diagnosis had the power to change Landon’s life when she was 11 months old, but not to take it — or her eyesight. Click below to learn more about Landon and her story.
Vanderbilt's Neil Osheroff, PhD, is part of an international research collaboration resulting in what is on track to be the first new antibiotic treatment for uncomplicated urinary tract infections in more than 20 years.
New research shows the nutritive needs of B cells are more flexible than previously thought, which could enable researchers to steer antibody production in the lymph nodes and spleen to better combat autoimmunity. Patients with high-risk diseases of the immune system, particularly systemic lupus erythematosus, could stand to benefit from the research findings. The study led by Mark Boothby, MD, and published in the Journal of Immunology, provides details regarding how murine B cells use different sugars as they mature into antibody-producing cells
An international collaboration led by biochemist David Cortez reached revelatory conclusions in exploration of how cells tolerate DNA damage and genome instability. Est. reading time: 2 mins.
The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a standardized lymphedema and fibrosis self-management program (LEF-SMP) to improve LEF self-management and reduce LEF-associated symptom burden, functional deficits, and improve quality of life in head and neck cancer (HNC) survivors.
This is a Phase 1, open-label, first-in-human, dose-escalation and expansion study of CHS-114, a monoclonal antibody that targets CCR8, as a monotherapy in patients with solid tumors.
This phase II ADC MATCH screening and multi-sub-study treatment trial is evaluating whether biomarker-directed treatment with one of three antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) (sacituzumab govitecan, enfortumab vedotin, and trastuzumab deruxtecan) works in treating patients with solid tumor cancers that have high expression of the Trop-2, nectin-4, or HER2 proteins and that may have spread from where they first started (primary site) to nearby tissue, lymph nodes, or distant parts of the body (advanced) or to other places in the body (metastatic). Precision medicine is a form of medicine that uses information about a person's genes, proteins, and environment to prevent, diagnose, or treat disease in a way that is tailored to the patient. ADCs such as sacituzumab govitecan, enfortumab vedotin, and trastuzumab deruxtecan are monoclonal antibodies attached to biologically active drugs and are a form of targeted therapy. Sacituzumab govitecan is a monoclonal antibody, called sacituzumab, linked to a drug called govitecan. Sacituzumab attaches to a protein called Trop-2 on the surface of tumor cells and delivers govitecan to kill them. Enfortumab vedotin is a monoclonal antibody, enfortumab, linked to an anticancer drug called vedotin. It works by helping the immune system to slow or stop the growth of tumor cells. Enfortumab attaches to a protein called nectin-4 on tumor cells in a targeted way and delivers vedotin to kill them. Trastuzumab deruxtecan is composed of a monoclonal antibody, called trastuzumab, linked to a chemotherapy drug, called deruxtecan. Trastuzumab attaches to HER2 positive tumor cells in a targeted way and delivers deruxtecan to kill them. Personalized treatment with sacituzumab govitecan, enfortumab vedotin, or trastuzumab deruxtecan may be an effective treatment option for patients with advanced or metastatic solid tumors that screen positive for high expression of Trop-2, nectin-4, or HER2, respectively.
This is a study to establish a safe and feasible dose for prophylactic use of a combination of gabapentin and ketamine in head and neck cancer patients undergoing chemoradiation.
This is a phase 3 open-label, randomized, controlled, multicenter study to compare petosemtamab vs investigator's choice monotherapy in HNSCC patients for the second- and third-line treatment of incurable metastatic/recurrent disease.
This phase III trial compares the effect of adding cemiplimab to standard therapy (surgery with or without radiation) versus standard therapy alone in treating patients with stage III/IV squamous cell skin cancer that is able to be removed by surgery (resectable) and that may have come back after a period of improvement (recurrent). The usual treatment for patients with resectable squamous cell skin cancer is the removal of the cancerous tissue (surgery) with or without radiation, which uses high energy x-rays, particles, or radioactive seeds to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies, such as cemiplimab, may help the body's immune system attack the cancer, and may interfere with the ability of tumor cells to grow and spread. Cemiplimab has been approved for the treatment of skin cancer that has spread or that cannot be removed by surgery, but it has not been approved for the treatment of skin cancer than can be removed by surgery. Adding cemiplimab to the usual treatment of surgery with or without radiation may be more effective in treating patients with stage III/IV resectable squamous cell skin cancer than the usual treatment alone.
The purpose of this study is to determine if panitumumab-IRDye800 is effective in identifying cancer, compared to surrounding normal tissue, and the further characterize the safety profile of this drug.