Medicine & Health

Researchers at the School of Medicine have received a $5 million grant from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to support research aimed at developing new immunotherapies for different types of blood-based cancers.

Sana D. Karam, MD, PhD, a renowned radiation oncologist widely known for cutting-edge cancer research that combines radiation therapy and immunotherapy to treat head and neck, and pancreatic tumors, has been named the James S. McDonnell Professor of Radiation Oncology and head of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the School of Medicine.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have discovered that an FDA-approved epilepsy drug can prevent or slow the growth of NF1-linked optic gliomas in mice, laying the groundwork for a clinical trial.

In a recent study, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Whiterabbit.ai showed that artificial intelligence assistance potentially could improve breast-cancer screening by reducing the number of false positives without missing true positives.

A clinical trial led by School of Medicine researchers has shown that a T cell immunotherapy — in which the patients’ own T cells are genetically modified to attack and kill cancer cells — is effective in treating some patients with rare cancers of the body’s soft tissues. The study focused on the rare cancers synovial sarcoma and myxoid round cell liposarcoma.

John F. DiPersio, MD, PhD, the Virginia E. and Sam J. Golman Professor of Medicine at the School of Medicine, delivered the E. Donnall Thomas Lecture in San Antonio at the Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of the American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research.

A new study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis could help physicians strike the right balance when treating lung cancer patients. Scientists used an artificial intelligence (AI) method to study lung biopsy images and predict whether the cancer will spread to the brain.

Julie K. Schwarz, MD, PhD, a highly regarded radiation oncologist known for her innovative mindset in treating patients and leading research to develop new treatments for deadly gynecologic cancers and heart conditions, has been named a William H. Danforth Washington University Physician Scholar.

Yin Cao, ScD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, is leading an international team seeking to understand what is driving the increase in early-onset colorectal cancer globally. To do so, her team has received funding from Cancer Grand Challenges, co-founded by Cancer Research UK and the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is one of seven U.S. institutions joining a new national clinical trials network launched by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to investigate emerging technologies for cancer screening, with the goal of reducing cancer-related illnesses and deaths.