Skip to Content Skip to Content

Cancer Research

Cancer most frequently spreads to the liver. Here’s why.
Stock image of medical professional with 3-D model of liver

Cancer most frequently spreads to the liver. Here’s why.

Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center shows hepatocytes, the chief functional cells of the liver, orchestrate the “seed and soil” process for cancer to spread to the liver.

Penn Today Staff

Even cancer can’t get some patients to quit smoking. What could help them kick their habit?

Even cancer can’t get some patients to quit smoking. What could help them kick their habit?

Robert Schnoll of the Perelman School of Medicine discussed his study on smoking cessation in cancer patients. “I’ve been working in nicotine dependence research for 20 years,” he said. “The brain chemistry is affected by decades of exposure to nicotine. Some patients view [smoking] as critical to managing the stress in their lives.”

25 years of integration, innovation, and ideals
Aerial view of Penn Medicine Complex

25 years of integration, innovation, and ideals

2018 marked 25 years since the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) was first established—a milestone that would undoubtedly make the institution’s founder, Benjamin Franklin, proud.

Penn Today Staff

Energizing the immune system to eat cancer
microscopic macrophages

Energizing the immune system to eat cancer

An Abramson Cancer Center study identifies a method of priming macrophages to boost an anti-tumor response wherein macrophages attack and eat cancer cells.

Penn Today Staff

Hindering melanoma metastasis with an FDA-approved drug
Two square panels, the left labeled "vehicle" and the right labeled "resperine." The vehicle panel has both blue and green dots and markings throughout, while the resperine panel has only blue markings.

In a mouse model, the FDA-approved drug reserpine seemed to hamper the ability of tumors to reshape distant tissues in ways that would encourage metastasis, for example, reducing the accumulation of fibronectin, a protein associated with certain types of cancer.

Hindering melanoma metastasis with an FDA-approved drug

A drug approved by the FDA 65 years ago for blood pressure control may aid in preventing cancer from spreading to distant organs. New research led by Serge Fuchs revealed that this drug disrupted formation of a fertile environment for metastasis by protecting healthy cells from harmful vesicles released by tumors.

Katherine Unger Baillie

Resistance to cancer treatment is a chain reaction
raised surface of melanoma amidst microscopic skin cells

Skin tissue cancer cells

Resistance to cancer treatment is a chain reaction

A study identifies a chain reaction in cells that enables cancer to resist treatments that target BRAF mutations.

Penn Today Staff

Doctors can weigh in on brain tumors remotely
 Stock image of brain scan

Doctors can weigh in on brain tumors remotely

Brain tumor patients will now have access to Penn Medicine’s cancer expertise through the new telemedicine second opinion program for brain tumors.

Penn Today Staff

CAR T cell therapy leads to lasting remissions
3-d illustration of cancer cells

CAR T cell therapy leads to lasting remissions

In an update to a global clinical trial stretching from Philadelphia to four continents, the chimeric antigen receptor CAR T cell therapy Kymriah® led to long-lasting remissions in patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

Penn Today Staff