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

DCI E-NEWS February 17, 2023: Drug Discoveries :: Irish Brogue :: Breast Map :: New OBGyn Mag :: Cancer History Project

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.”

Li Lan, MD, PhD, researches how cancer cells respond to DNA damage through DNA repair mechanisms. The major focus of her lab — previously situated at The Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research, Mass General Cancer Center — is drug development.

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.

Six of the thirty Duke University researchers named to the 2023 Clarivate list of highly cited researchers are Duke Cancer Institute members. To make the cut, a published paper has to be ranked in the top 1% for its field for the last decade.

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)

The Cooperative Human Tissue Network (of which DCI is a member) was created by the NCI in 1987 to support a coordinated national effort to collect and distribute high-quality, pathologist-validated human tissues for cancer research.

Umbilical cord blood-based cellular therapy could be lifesaver for patients without donor match .