Medicine & Health

Mistakes in DNA are known to drive cancer growth. But a new study, from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, heavily implicates a genetic phenomenon commonly known as “jumping genes” in the growth of tumors.

Researchers at the School of Medicine may have found a path toward improving the effectiveness of chemotherapy in people with breast or ovarian cancer caused by defects in one of the BRCA genes. The researchers identified a pair of genes that operate in parallel to BRCA and may increase susceptibility to chemotherapy drugs.

Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis plan to use a new imaging technique to get a better look at breast tumors and reduce unnecessary biopsies.

The School of Medicine has received a $9 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the life histories of breast and pancreatic cancers. The grant is part of the NIH’s Human Tumor Atlas Network, a large-scale effort to better understand tumors.

A $20 million gift from Paula C. and Rodger O. Riney will help researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis develop new treatments for multiple myeloma.

Ovarian cancer claims the lives of more than 14,000 women in the U.S. each year, ranking fifth among cancer deaths in women. A multidisciplinary team at Washington University has found an innovative way to use sound and light to diagnose ovarian tumors, which may lead to a promising new diagnostic imaging technique to improve current standard of care.

Hong Chen, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science and assistant professor of radiation oncology at the School of Medicine, reached across disciplines to work toward a more focused drug delivery system that could target tumors lodged in the brainstem, the body’s most precious system.

With a PhD in business, you might not expect Chris Boerner, AB ’93,  to be fighting cancer. Yet as head of international markets at Bristol-Myers Squibb, he works to bring life-saving immuno-oncology cancer drugs to international markets. In his free time, Boerner participates in two bike rides that raise more than $1 million annually for cancer research.

A new School of Medicine study in mice has shown that immunotherapy against pancreatic cancer can be effective when given in conjunction with drugs that break up the fibrous tissue in these tumors.

Finding kidney cancer early has been among the disease’s greatest challenges. Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a noninvasive method to screen for kidney cancer that involves measuring the presence of proteins in the urine.