Medicine & Health

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.

New research at the School of Medicine helps explain why brain tumors occur more often in males and frequently are more harmful than similar tumors in females. Pictured is the study’s senior author, Joshua Rubin, MD, PhD.

School of Medicine researchers have discovered why breast cancer patients with dense breasts are more likely than others to develop aggressive tumors that spread. The finding opens the door to drug treatments that prevent metastasis. Shown are collagen fibers at the boundary of a tumor. Fibers that tend to be perpendicular to the tumor’s surface indicate a poor prognosis.

A new study by Gerald Andriole, MD, chief of urologic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, suggests the PSA test is more reliable in men taking dutasteride (Avodart®), a drug widely prescribed to shrink an enlarged prostate gland. Even a slight rise in PSA levels among men taking the drug was a stronger indicator of cancer than rising PSA levels in men taking a dummy pill.