Charlotte-area resident Vickie Johnson, 72, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2018 after seeking care twice for abdominal pain.

Connor McMahon was treated at a children’s hospital in Atlanta for leukemia, first at three years old, then eight years later when he was 12. When he relapsed again at 15, he traveled to Duke for a clinical trial of a first-of-its kind treatment.

Ann Marie Pendergast, PhD, has received a two-year $150,000 Lung Cancer Research Foundation grant to continue her laboratory work “uncovering novel vulnerabilities to treat small cell lung cancer therapy resistance.”

Brent Hanks, MD, PhD, is working to develop new pharmacologic and genetic strategies to overcome immunotherapy resistance and investigating the mechanisms that contribute to some immunotherapy-associated toxicities.

Included in this issue: Donald McDonnell, PhD, associate director for Translational Research at Duke Cancer Institute, directed the research team that led to the development of elacestrant/Orserdu. (Read on p. 14)

Eleanor Scott Bell, 79, was born and raised in Lumberton, the capital of Robeson County in North Carolina. One of her earliest memories is of picking tobacco to supplement the family income. They were a family of nine with a large extended family.

Omidubicel, a novel cellular therapy, expands the availability of donor stem cell transplants to more patients.

On Thursday, April 14, 2022, DCI clinical providers, patients, researchers, staff, and leadership came together to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center (now called Duke Cancer Institute).

Research that originated in a DCI laboratory contributed to recent FDA approval of the first new endocrine therapy for breast cancer since 2002, Elacestrant.

Daniel Nussbaum, MD, is one of 12 young surgeons nationwide to be selected for the 2023 Early-Stage Surgeon Scientist Program. His research focuses on pancreatic cancer.

Data at Their Digital Fingertips: Precision Cancer Medicine & Tissue-Based Research Comes of Age

From the 1970s through the 2020s, here are the milestones achieved at the Duke Division of Gynecologic Oncology over the past 50 years.

In 1972, William T. Creasman, MD, established the Division of Gynecologic Oncology in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Duke, becoming the division’s first chief. The rest is history.

In a lot of ways, Susan Blackwell (Crawford), MHS, PA-C’89, and the physician assistant profession have grown up together.

In a global phase 1/2 clinical trial, sotorasib as a monotherapy “demonstrated meaningful anticancer activity in patients with heavily pre-treated KRAS G12C–mutated advanced pancreatic cancer,” says John Strickler, MD, site principal investigator.

For the first time since 2019, the DCI Scientific Retreat was held in person with a full program followed by a poster session and mingling — attracted around 90 faculty, staff, and trainees.

(Clinical Practice Today is a publication targeted at Duke Health Referring Physicians)

Includes: "Data at their Digital Fingertips:Tissue-Based Research & Precision Cancer Medicine Come of Age;""A Seismic Shift:Expanding the Reach of Precision Cancer Medicine;" "Partners to the Core;""Duke Expands Footprint in Next Gen Cancer Medicine"

Learn how Duke/DCI is expanding its footprint in next generation cancer sequencing tech via the Clinical Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory.