Cancer Research

Blocking tumor signals can hinder cancer’s spread

A cross-campus team led by Serge Fuchs of the School of Veterinary Medicine used an inhibitor of an enzyme called p38α kinase to suppress the spread of melanoma to the lungs in a mouse model.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Blood test may help doctors catch pancreatic cancer early

A blood test may be able to detect the most common form of pancreatic cancer while it is still in its early stages while also helping doctors accurately stage a patient’s disease and guide them to the appropriate treatment.

John Infanti



In the News


Associated Press

A new strategy to attack aggressive brain cancer shrank tumors in two early tests

A clinical trial led by Stephen Bagley of the Perelman School of Medicine suggests that targeting two associated proteins with CAR T cell therapy could be a viable strategy for shrinking brain tumors.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn’s BRCA cancer vaccine trial aims to prevent the disease in healthy people

A trial led by Susan Domchek of the Perelman School of Medicine could use a preventive vaccine to protect people with a BRCA gene mutation from cancer.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

UPenn scientists among those developing vaccines that arm the immune system to fight cancer

Penn Medicine researchers like Nobel laureate Drew Weissman are leading efforts to develop a vaccine that prevents cancer, with remarks from Susan Domchek of the Basser Center for BRCA and Robert H. Vonderheide of the Abramson Cancer Center.

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Psychology Today

AI detects cancers and immunotherapy biomarker

Daiwei Zhang and Mingyao Li of the Perelman School of Medicine and colleagues have developed an AI tool called iStar that can automatically spot tumors and types of cancer that are difficult for clinicians to see or identify and can predict candidates for immunotherapy.

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Philadelphia Inquirer

Penn started giving cancer patients free rides to appointments. It helped reduce no-shows and increase clinical trial enrollment

The Abramson Cancer Center is attempting to address one of the most common challenges cancer patients face: lack of transportation to critically important appointments. Robert Vonderheide and Carmen Guerra of the Perelman School of Medicine are quoted on the Ride Health initiative.

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Forbes

Gut health could play a role in how blood cancer patients respond to therapy

Marco Ruella of the Perelman School of Medicine says that researchers need to tackle the problems with CAR T cell therapy to increase survival rates and improve the quality of life for cancer survivors.

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