UVM Cancer Center member David J. Seward, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, received a prestigious two-year National Cancer Institute R21 grant to investigate why lung cancers with a certain set of mutations demonstrate immunotherapy resistance.

(MARCH 30, 2023) Researchers at the UVM Cancer Center released the findings of a study showing fewer women being screened for breast cancer, NBC5 reported. The study reports that Vermont had the second-largest drop in the entire country in screenings for women over the age of 40 between 2009 and 2018.

UVM Cancer Center researchers Sarah Nowak, Ph.D., and Brian Sprague, Ph.D., found that a 2009 U.S. Preventive Services Task Force change in guidelines led to an unintended consequence: a decline in mammography screening rates for all age groups, including the 50-74 group, which is most at risk of developing breast cancer and most in need of screenings. Their results were recently published in The American Journal of Preventative Medicine.

Alan Howe, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology, has been appointed to serve as associate director of cancer research, training and education coordination for the University of Vermont Cancer Center (UVMCC) .

(FEBRUARY 28, 2023) James Gerson, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and director of the CAR T-Cell Program, spoke to the Press-Republican about the promising cancer treatment called CAR T-cell therapy that is now available at the UVM Cancer Center.

The University of Vermont Cancer Center now offers a novel, highly effective form of cancer treatment called CAR T-cell therapy, and recently began treating patients. The Cancer Center is the only health care institution in Vermont and northern New York to provide the treatment.

Randall F. Holcombe, M.D., M.B.A., director of the UVM Cancer Center and chief of the Division of Hematology and Oncology in the Department of Medicine, has been appointed as associate dean for cancer programs at the UVM Larner College of Medicine.

An analysis by UVM medical student Benjamin Weaver and UVM Cancer Center member and Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology Nataniel Lester-Coll, M.D., illustrated both health disparities and parities across a cohort of 100,000+ patients with the most common form of liver cancer. Their results were published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology.

(JANUARY 12, 2023) Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, is described as a “humble superstar” in an article about cancer research at UVM in The Charlotte (Vermont) News.

Albert van der Vliet, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, participated in a six-week Invited Fellowship at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, engaging in research on environmental medicine and molecular toxicology. The fellowship coincided with a medley of scientific meetings and symposia that brought together leading scientists from around the world in the specific research fields of nitric oxide biology. Dr. van der Vliet, Yvonne Janssen-Heininger, Ph.D., and Brian Cunniff, Ph.D. participated as invited speakers. Additional Japanese federal funding supports the exchange of invited researchers, graduate students and post-doctoral scholars to collaborate on research.

A new online ranking of the top female scientists in the United States conducted by Research.com includes three members of the University of Vermont faculty. Mary Cushman, M.D., M.Sc., professor of medicine, was ranked 124th nationally and 193rd in the world. Jane Lian, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, was ranked 194th nationally and 305th in the world. Janet Stein, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry, was ranked 265th nationally and 430th in the world.