A new study of cancer drugs denied by Medicare Part D insurance plans found that more than one-fifth of denials were overturned upon review by a contracted reviewer. This suggests there are a considerable number of inappropriate denials.

The study, led by Youngmin Kwon, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt Health, implemented natural language processing to analyze the text of second-level appeals of cancer drugs denied under Medicare Part D, the supplemental plans that cover prescription drugs. The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

“Cancer drugs are expensive, and their use is closely monitored and controlled by insurance plans. They also belong to a protected drug class in the Part D program, meaning that plans must cover all or nearly all of these drugs. While plans cannot broadly exclude coverage, they can deny coverage of drugs that are not deemed medically necessary,” Kwon said.

The most common reason for initial denials was “non-medically acceptable” indications, or drugs prescribed “off-label,” which generally means using a drug outside its formally approved indication by the Food and Drug Administration.

When treating cancer, prescription drugs are often combined or used for cancer types or populations that aren’t always specifically included in the FDA-approved labeled indication. To govern coverage of off-label use, Medicare relies on clinical compendia that summarize supporting clinical evidence or other peer-reviewed studies of medications prescribed off-label.

“Off-label prescribing is exceptionally common in oncology, especially for treating rare or treatment-resistant cancers. Because it does not follow the ‘standard’ treatment protocol, insurers may have a greater justification for heavily scrutinizing off-label use and refuse coverage,” Kwon said.

However, the study found that 88% of successful appeals for off-label use were for medically acceptable indications already supported by a Medicare-approved clinical compendium or peer-reviewed scientific literature, suggesting that many requests for acceptable off-label use may have been denied.

Further, appeals for off-label use were often denied due to clerical issues (72%), such as failure to include adequate documentation and supporting citations. This suggests that many coverage decisions may have been made purely on administrative grounds, rather than through a formal clinical review, Kwon said.

Among drugs prescribed on-label but that were initially denied for failing to follow the preapproval process, 60% were ultimately approved by reviewers, a higher rate of favorable review.

Kwon said these findings echo concerns that utilization management tools used by insurers, such as prior authorization, are imposing barriers to necessary and evidence-based care.

“Patients and their providers may face considerable administrative burden in the appeals process for coverage of drugs that could be lifesaving. A simple mishap, such as forgetting to attach a lab result or a supporting citation, could mean weeks of delay. This creates stress for patients and their care team and could even lead to worse health outcomes if care is substantially delayed.”

Kwon said the new findings can be helpful in ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries undergoing cancer treatment receive timely, high-quality medical care they need.

“Given the rapid adoption of AI into medical review processes, it will be important for Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and insurers offering Part D plans to continue to improve the coverage and appeals process for Medicare beneficiaries. For instance, reducing documentation burden for on-label therapies, while establishing clearer guidelines for determining effective off-label use by insurers, may go a long way in improving patients’ access to prescribed cancer drugs.”

The research was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the American Cancer Society, Emory University, the University of Pittsburgh and University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and Wake Forest University.

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On Saturday, Aug. 29, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center is convening clinicians from across the Middle Tennessee area for a day of collaboration and connection at the Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy Symposium, held at the Loews Nashville Hotel at Vanderbilt Plaza from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The event theme is “Emerging Applications of Novel Therapies in Hematologic Disorders and Solid Tumors.”

Adetola Kassim, MBBS, MS, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Oncology, is the symposium chair and moderator. 

Kassim said, “Advances in treatment for hematologic disorders and solid tumors continue to reshape what’s possible for patients. This symposium offers providers a forum to learn from experts, share perspectives, and apply the latest evidence to improve outcomes for their patients.”

Sessions will focus on current advances in stem cell transplantation and cancer cell therapy, and emerging applications of these novel therapies in hematologic disorders and solid tumors.

The event will begin with a welcome from Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, Director of Vanderbilt-Ingram and Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology, and Karen Proctor, MSN, RN, NE-BC, Administrative Director of Nursing.

A limited number of tickets are available for Vanderbilt Health employees at a discounted rate. Use these codes at checkout:

1. Physicians: VUMCMD
2. Advanced practice providers, fellows and nurses: VUMCAPPFEL

To register and view the agenda in advance, click here. Email questions to sct_symposium@vumc.org.

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For two weeks this summer, 30 high school students were glued to their screens.

But instead of scrolling social media or streaming videos, they were learning about the world of cancer research and medicine through the Summer Healthcare Experience in Oncology (SHE) program at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

More than a summer virtual learning program, SHE gives students an opportunity to explore meaningful careers in STEM, cancer research and cancer care, and envision their place in the future of medicine. Through hands-on experiences, mentorship and exposure to leading researchers and clinicians, they gain valuable insight into the discoveries and innovations shaping the future of cancer care.

Program Director Kimberly Dahlman, PhD, said, “SHE bridges the gap between curiosity and real-world opportunity through a two-week virtual curriculum, an immersive campus visit day, and year-round professional development.

“Participants build core scientific knowledge through interactive instruction and team-based research simulations. They also explore a range of careers in cancer research and clinical care, gaining insight into pathways in medicine, public health and biomedical science,” she said.

Nearly 160 students from 58 high schools applied this year across the entire region served by Vanderbilt-Ingram, which spans Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky. Twenty-five girls and five boys were accepted.

Throughout the school year, program engagement continues and includes virtual workshops in partnership with peer programs and opportunities to connect with mentors.

The program is financially supported by the American Cancer Society and Vanderbilt-Ingram.

Growth and Milestones in Year 5

Since its inception in 2022, SHE has scaled its impact dramatically. The 2022 cohort welcomed 20 students from Davidson County, Tennessee-based high schools, selected from over 70 applicants.

In 2023, the program received institutional support, which allowed the cancer center to expand recruitment across the full region served by Vanderbilt-Ingram and increase capacity from 20 to 30 students.

For the 2026 program year, Vanderbilt-Ingram received 158 applications from 31 counties.

Additional funding from Vanderbilt-Ingram helps cover expenses such as travel stipends and meals so that students outside Nashville, particularly those who live in rural areas, can experience the Vanderbilt Health Main Campus firsthand.

Students gave the program high ratings and provided positive feedback:

• 100% of respondents said the program provided them with a clear understanding of key cancer research principles.
• 94% of alumni that are currently enrolled in college stated that their current major or concentration was in a biomedical field.
• 9.1 was the average score on a scale of 1-10 for program impact.

One attendee shared, “(SHE) gave me the chance to explore science. Overall, it was an unforgettable experience that made me even more excited about science and health care.”

Another participant said, “I feel much more informed about my options for a future career in cancer research or medicine. I will never forget this experience.”

To help grow or support the program, make gifts online at https://bit.ly/viccshe. When making a gift, please select “Other” under “What would you like your donation to support?” Then in the comment field below, please write in “Summer Healthcare Experience in Oncology.”

Applications for the 2027 program open Monday, Sept. 28.

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A team examined explanations generated by a large language model (LLM) for its performance of a clinical prediction task. They had found that, after fine-tuning, the LLM, GPT-4o from San Francisco-based OpenAI, performed comparably to four more traditional types of machine learning (ML) for predicting which patients would discontinue their home cancer medications before planned treatment completion.

From the Department of Biomedical Informatics, research fellow Congning Ni, PhD, Associate Professor Zhijun Yin, PhD, and colleagues reported their findings in the e-book series “Studies in Health Technology and Informatics.” The team used electronic health records and pharmacy surveys from 2,364 cancer patients.

The LLM achieved an F1 score of 87%, while the closest ML model scored 83%. For interpreting the latter model, the team used SHAP, or Shapley additive explanations, a widely used method for exploring (among other things) the internal structure of ML models, revealing how features are weighed. For interpreting the much larger GPT-4o, they asked the LLM to explain its reasoning for individual predictions; to derive feature-importance scores from this output, they used a new method they call mimic-SHAP.

The two models were found to agree on top features — body mass index and age. For secondary features, the LLM was found to lean more on patients’ prior conditions, the ML model on drug exposures and health care procedures.

Many cancer patients discontinue medications taken at home early, for reasons ranging from side effects and lack of response to nonmedical issues such as costs. Predicting early discontinuation could aid efforts to improve treatment adherence.

Others on the study from Vanderbilt include Qingyuan Song, Qingxia Chen, PhD, Lijun Song, PhD, S. Trent Rosenbloom, MD, MPH, Autumn Zuckerman, PharmD, Bridget Lynch, PharmD, MS, and Bradley Malin, PhD. They were joined by Jeremy Warner, MD, MS, of Brown University. The study was supported by National Institutes of Health award R37CA237452.

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Following the introduction of a surgical protocol that leveraged intraoperative imaging with a combination PET-CT scanner to assess the success of head and neck cancer resection, surgeons have used the technology for breast cancer.

Investigators led by Michael Topf, MD, Associate Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, performed the nation’s first surgery using intraoperative PET-CT scanning in September 2025. Now, a surgical team led by Denise Garcia, MD, Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery, has applied the technology to successfully resect a breast cancer mass.

“This application of intraoperative PET-CT is proof that countless patients can benefit from the expansion of this novel imaging methodology,” said Garcia. “Our team is proud to apply it to a type of tumor that has not yet been imaged for the purposes of assessing margin status. As our institution expands treatment methodologies to more types of cancer, we can cure more patients and give them peace of mind that their surgery has been completed with precision. This technological advancement underscores the success we’ve had across multiple disciplines in working toward that goal.”

Rapid expansion of intraoperative PET-CT scanning boosts efficiency, offers peace of mind to surgeons and patients alike

With each new application, surgeons are demonstrating that an intraoperative PET-CT imaging protocol can help reduce wait time for results from several days to a matter of minutes and allow surgical teams to know immediately whether they need to continue operating.

During surgery, the patient receives a dose of a radioactive agent that illuminates the cancer tissue in the scanner. Once the tumor is excised, it is placed in a specialized mobile PET-CT scanner called an Aura 10 device, developed and supplied by Belgium-based surgical technology company Xeos. The scanner negates the need to send the specimen to the pathology lab, providing surgical teams with a real-time view and allowing them to quickly determine if the entire cancerous mass was removed.

If any mass remains, the operation continues. If the cancer has been successfully resected, the surgery concludes, and the patient is sent home with peace of mind, knowing they won’t need to return for a follow-up surgery, and with confidence that their surgeons have a precise, immediate look at the results of the surgery. Because patients receive the radioactive agent on the day of surgery rather than in advance, they also receive a lower dose of radiation.

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The fifth annual Swim Across America-Nashville (SAA-Nashville), an annual team relay pool swim and charity event held at Ensworth Natatorium, celebrated a record-setting year: They raised more than $130,000 for cancer research and clinical trials at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, the Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology and Director of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, kicked things off with his signature cannonball splash. Nearly 200 swimmers — including Olympians Missy Franklin Johnson, Paige Zemina Northcutt and Claire Donahue White — volunteers, supporters and sponsors participated this year, making it the largest and most successful Nashville swim to date.

The funds will be awarded to cancer researchers studying new approaches for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. With this year’s proceeds, SAA-Nashville has now raised more than $500,000 to fund cancer research initiatives at Vanderbilt-Ingram since 2022.

Past grant recipients have used funds to investigate advancements in malignant pleural effusion (often caused by cancers such as breast cancer spreading to the lungs), early-stage lung cancer, surgical oncology and more.

Trying to find another fun way to support cancer research and exercise? Clip In 4 the Cure’s early bird registration closes on June 30.

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Medical artificial intelligence (AI) faces a fundamental challenge: uncertainty quantification. Artificial neural networks are largely unaware of the limits of their training data and can become overconfident when confronted with unfamiliar inputs. Suppose you train a neural network to distinguish among African mammals. If you then present it with an image of a South American jaguar — an animal it has never encountered — the model cannot say “unknown.” Instead, it may confidently declare the jaguar to be a leopard.

Reported June 23 in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers at Vanderbilt Health and centers in Hong Kong have created a versatile uncertainty-aware AI framework broadly adaptable as a wrapper for digital pathology AI systems. (An AI wrapper acts as an interface layer that customizes, formats and automates how users interact with the underlying intelligence.) They demonstrate their wrapper, called TRUECAM, primarily with reference to non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) subtyping using whole-slide images.

TRUECAM is designed not only for identification of out-of-scope inputs, but also to filter out noninformative regions — normal or poorly stained tissue, for example — that could distort slide-level inference. According to the paper, these complementary capacities allow TRUECAM to provide customizable accuracy guarantees for cancer subtype classifications.

The team tested TRUECAM as a wrapper for a widely used AI architecture for NSCLC subtyping and four newer, more generalized digital pathology AI foundation models. Testing involved NSCLC whole-slide images from two geographically diverse cancer research consortia, a constructed set of clinically meaningful out-of-scope images, and a sequence of real-world images from Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong. Testing also extended to cancer tissue spanning multiple organs, such as breast, brain and kidney.

Compared to other solutions for trustworthy digital pathology AI, the authors say that TRUECAM performs not only with greater accuracy, but also relatively rapidly and efficiently, without adding substantial costs.

“Achieving trustworthy AI in the medical domain is requisite for realizing the potential of this transformative technology,” said one of the paper’s three corresponding authors, Bradley Malin, PhD, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics and Computer Science, and holder of the Accenture Chair. “It’s not only that a patient’s clinical profile can fall out of scope of your model’s training data, but other sources of variation, such as your institution’s method of collecting and staining specimens, or artifacts and irregularities that tend to arise in tissue preparation, can also prompt your model to arrive confidently at a mistaken conclusion. TRUECAM provides a thoroughgoing, versatile and efficient solution to these potentially unsafe shortcomings.”

The team reports that TRUECAM proved more accurate and efficient than existing approaches to digital pathology AI uncertainty quantification, reliably detected out-of-scope inputs, abstained from classifying challenging inputs (allowing deferral to pathologists), delivered error rates that reliably met prespecified accuracy targets, improved fairness across sex and race, and proved generalizable to datasets beyond lung cancer.

Chao Yan, PhD, MS, Research Instructor in Biomedical Informatics, is among the paper’s three lead authors.

“Perhaps our most striking finding,” Yan said, “was that, with ambiguous patches and normal regions often found to dominate a pathology slide, TRUECAM’s targeted elimination of this noise, and its resulting focus on sometimes comparatively small patches in an image, allows it to proceed efficiently to accurate and fairer cancer subtype classification, with the model focusing on the same regions pathologists identify as diagnostically relevant. This goes beyond current approaches, and the practical implications appear to have broad import.”

Chief authors from Hong Kong include, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, lead author and corresponding author Xiaoge Zhang, PhD, who earned his doctorate from Vanderbilt University in 2019, and lead author Tao Wang, a PhD student, and, from the University of Hong Kong, corresponding author Maximus C.F. Yeung, MBBS, MSc. Also on the paper from Vanderbilt Health is Fedaa Najdawi, MBBS, Assistant Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. The study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health under award K99LM014428.

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On Tuesday, June 23, Susan G. Komen, the internationally known nonprofit breast cancer organization, announced $15.4 million in grants to 35 leading breast cancer researchers across the United States. Three of the 35 grantees are Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center members:

• Tuya Pal, MD, Associate Director of Clinical Genomics and Ingram Professor of Cancer Research
• Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, Director of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center and Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology
• Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, Chief Scientific and Strategy Officer at Vanderbilt Health, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research, and former director of Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center

“On behalf of Vanderbilt Health, we are deeply grateful to Susan G. Komen for its long-standing partnership and extraordinary commitment to advancing breast cancer research. Komen’s sustained investment in science and in researchers enables institutions like ours to pursue bold, collaborative work that ultimately improves outcomes for patients everywhere,” said Pietenpol, who holds the Brock Family Directorship in Career Development.

“I’m honored to receive a grant from Susan G. Komen alongside my Vanderbilt Health colleagues and fellow grantees advancing breast cancer discoveries,” she said.

According to Komen, the funded projects span some of the most promising areas of research and include support for long-term, well-established researchers who have made a profound impact in the field.

Pietenpol and her team’s Komen-funded research focuses on understanding the molecular drivers of triple-negative breast cancers, with the goal of identifying new vulnerabilities that can be targeted therapeutically. Her work integrates genomic and functional approaches to uncover mechanisms that influence tumor behavior and treatment response, helping to inform more precise and effective strategies for patients with high-risk disease.

Park’s work centers around how to expose new therapeutic “vulnerabilities” in breast cancers that have gene mutations that lead to alterations in RNA, or “missplicing.”

In simpler terms, Park is developing new therapies based on a specific type of gene mutation that “rewires” cancer cells. This rewiring is what gives the cells the ability to become cancerous. His work has uncovered an Achilles’ heel: These rewired circuits are found only in cancer cells, not in normal cells.

Park explained, “This creates a strong rationale for developing cancer-specific drugs, and in our study, we focus on antibodies that selectively kill cells with ‘rewired’ components.”

Pal’s research is focused on the intersection of tumor and germline genomics, including studies of inherited breast cancers. Pal said, “Our overall goals are to better understand the development and trajectory of breast cancers due to inherited genes across populations.”

Her work examines breast cancer tumor genomics among broad populations of women with hereditary breast cancer due to BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM and CHEK2 mutations. These efforts encompass the evaluation of aggressive breast cancers among young Black women, who face higher risks of being diagnosed with and dying from breast cancer, yet are also less likely to receive genetic testing.

Komen is the largest nonprofit funder of breast cancer research outside of the U.S. government, having invested more than $1.1 billion in research since its founding.

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In a new study published in JAMA, the diagnostic yield of transbronchial lung biopsy was significantly higher when using a cryoprobe versus forceps in a group of patients with pulmonary nodules or masses, recent lung transplant, and diffuse parenchymal lung disease.

A transbronchial lung biopsy is a minimally invasive procedure in which a bronchoscope — a thin, lighted tube — is guided through the nose or mouth into the lungs. Tools are then passed through the scope to collect tissue for laboratory analysis to diagnose lung conditions. A cryoprobe is a medical instrument that uses localized freezing to extract tissue. Forceps are used to pinch off tissue for removal, which can be faster but also crushes a portion of the tissue sample.

The FROSTBITE-2 randomized trial showed diagnostic yield during transbronchial biopsy was nearly 10 percentage points higher when performed using a 1.1-millimeter cryoprobe rather than with 2.0-millimeter forceps (88.6% vs 78.8%). The difference was particularly great among patients with pulmonary nodules or masses (83.2% vs 70.1%). In a secondary safety analysis, there were four pneumothoraces (collapsed lungs) requiring chest tube placement in the forceps group (1.6%) compared to none in the cryoprobe group. No patients experienced significant bleeding or respiratory failure events.

“A structurally intact, sufficiently large tissue sample from a targeted area in the lung increases the likelihood of an accurate diagnosis, which is what we strive for every time we perform a transbronchial lung biopsy,” said interventional pulmonologist Fabien Maldonado, MD, MSc, Professor of Medicine and Thoracic Surgery, and Director of Interventional Pulmonology at the Vanderbilt Lung Institute.

“We’re continually investigating ways we can improve these procedures, as accurate diagnoses up-front save time, which may help get patients the treatment they need faster. Evaluating the tools we use, particularly as innovations in this area occur, is an important avenue of investigation.

“Individuals who have known or suspected lung issues deserve to have the best possible diagnostic procedures, so they and their clinical teams have clear evidence of what is occurring in their lungs so informed treatment decisions can be made.”

Previous studies using a 1.9-millimeter cryoprobe have yielded larger lung tissue specimens at higher quality without crushing the sample, but there were also more bleeding and pneumothorax events. The FROSTBITE-2 trial used the 1.1-millimeter cryoprobe which, unlike the larger probes, is small enough to remove the biopsy specimen through the working channel without having to remove the scope, which increases safety.

Certain lots of the cryoprobe went under a Food and Drug Administration Class I recall in March due to reports of rupturing or bursting during activation; none of these events were reported in this trial.

The study was conducted under the auspices of the Interventional Pulmonary Outcomes Group, an international collaborative of clinical experts dedicated to improving patient care in interventional pulmonology through multicenter clinical trials and research. Maldonado, who holds the Pierre Massion Directorship in Lung Cancer Research at Vanderbilt Health, is vice chair of this group.

The trial was completed at nine U.S. medical centers including Vanderbilt Health that perform at least 100 transbronchial biopsies annually and have affiliated institutional centers for lung cancer, lung transplant and interstitial lung disease. Patients enrolled were 18 or older and scheduled to undergo transbronchial biopsy for lung nodules or masses, lung transplant, or diffuse parenchymal lung disease. Five hundred individuals were randomly assigned to either the 1.1-millimeter cryoprobe or the 2.0-millimeter forceps for the biopsy.

“These promising results bring us one step closer to making these vital diagnostic procedures even more safe, accurate and effective,” said Vanderbilt Health interventional pulmonologist Robert Lentz, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Thoracic Surgery. “Our team is currently conducting FROSTBITE-3, a randomized controlled trial comparing the 1.1-millimeter cryoprobe with instruments for lymph node biopsies, to determine whether this novel tool may help with molecular testing in patients diagnosed with lung cancer.

The FROSTBITE-2 study is an investigator-initiated trial. It was funded by Erbe, an international business that develops, manufactures and markets surgical systems. The funder had no role in trial design, data collection, data analysis, manuscript preparation, or the decision to publish.

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Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center hosted its 27th Annual Scientific Symposium, themed “Cancer and Environment at Every Scale,” last month. More than 300 people attended, including faculty, trainees, staff, community advisory board members, and cancer survivors from across Vanderbilt, Meharry Medical College, Tennessee State University and the broader community.  

This year’s event highlighted research examining the many factors that influence cancer development, progression and patient outcomes — from molecular mechanisms to neighborhood-level data that reveal patterns across communities.   

For the second consecutive year, it was organized by a trainee-led steering committee and included four co-chairs: Yash Pershad, a student in the Medical Scientist Training Program; Michael Robinson, MD, MSCI, Instructor in Pediatrics; Molly Talman, MD, Pediatric Hematology Clinical Fellow; and Jared Rhodes, PhD candidate. The symposium is faculty-mentored by Christopher Williams, MD, PhD, Associate Director for Research Education at Vanderbilt-Ingram, and Kim Dahlman, PhD, Assistant Director for Research Education.  

“Our goal is to build an environment where not only do our trainees participate in cutting-edge, impactful scientific research, but they actually help shape it,” said Williams, who holds the MSTP Directorship. “Watching this committee take full ownership of the planning for a second consecutive year has been extremely rewarding.”  

Vanderbilt-Ingram Director Ben Ho Park, MD, PhD, the Benjamin F. Byrd Jr. Professor of Oncology, gave opening remarks and introduced the Mission Moment speaker, Roberta Casanova, a breast cancer patient and Research Advocate. Casanova shared her personal experience with breast cancer and highlighted both the challenges of treatment and the ongoing complexities of survivorship.  

Attendees heard from two nationally recognized keynote speakers:  

• Mikala Egeblad, PhD, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor and Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center Breast and Gynecologic Cancer Program, talked about how environmental stressors — such as microplastics — can trigger inflammation and influence cancer progression.  

• Scarlett Lin Gomez, PhD, MPH, Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Co-Leader of the Cancer Control Program at the University of California, San Francisco, discussed how neighborhood-level data can reveal differences in cancer incidence and outcomes, underscoring the role of nonmedical factors that impact health.  

Another highlight was the presentation of annual scholar awards for exceptional contributions to cancer research and care:  

• Yash Pershad received the Graduate Student of the Year award for his work on the mutation-specific risk of clonal hematopoiesis in the laboratory of Alex Bick, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Director of the Division of Genetic Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, and holder of the Edward Claiborne Stahlman Chair. Pershad’s research has significantly advanced understanding of the condition, its progression toward malignancy, and opportunities for cancer interception. He is the author of nearly a dozen first-author publications in journals including Blood, JAMA Oncology and the Journal of Clinical Investigation.   

• Youngmin Kwon, PhD, was named Postdoctoral Scholar of the Year. Recognized as an outstanding collaborator, mentor and educator, he authored 22 peer-reviewed publications in journals including Health Services Research and JAMA Health Forum. His research focuses on access to cancer care in Medicare, and he is mentored by Stacie Dusetzina, PhD, Professor of Health Policy and Ingram Professor of Cancer Research.  

A cornerstone of the symposium, the poster session featured 106 presentations. Biochemistry PhD candidate Gabriela Gonzalez-Vasquez received the overall exceptional poster award for her research on ATR signaling in DNA replication.   

Other poster honorees were:

Basic Science  

• Sydney Henriques   
• Brandon Goldstein   
• Alyssa Jarabek   

Population Science  

• Marin Arnoletti, MPH   
• Guochong Jia, PhD, MPH  
• Duc Huy Le, MD, MBA   

Clinical/Translational Science  

• Sarah Ginther   
• Julia Steele   
• Breelyn Karno   

Shared Resources  

• Kevin Schey, PhD   

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