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Cancer Research

‘Cancer in all forms is our enemy’
Robert H. Vonderheide, the Abramson Cancer Center director

‘Cancer in all forms is our enemy’

Robert H. Vonderheide, the Abramson Cancer Center director, talks innovation, discoveries, FDA approvals, and how to deliver top-of-the-line cancer care.

Lauren Hertzler

Immune cells involved in triple-negative breast cancer could offer future therapeutic target
Chakrabarti teaser image

Immune cells involved in triple-negative breast cancer could offer future therapeutic target

New research led by Rumela Chakrabarti reveals how immune cells called myeloid-derived immunosuppressor cells contribute to the progression of triple-negative breast cancer, a particularly aggressive cancer. Pairing chemotherapy with a drug that blocks these cells may one day help stem its growth.

Katherine Unger Baillie

How scientists are treating breast cancer using the immune system

How scientists are treating breast cancer using the immune system

The Abramson Cancer Center’s Robert Vonderheide described challenges in treating breast cancer. Most cases, he said, “fit into a category we call ‘cold’ immunological tumors, meaning the tumor has the ability to either exclude the immune system or hide from it altogether. That kind of cancer isn’t easily treated with current immunotherapies.”

Discovering a single cell that leads to relapse
leukemic_cell

Discovering a single cell that leads to relapse

Research from the Abramson Cancer Center identified a single leukemic cell, engineered for CAR T therapy, that caused a deadly recurrence of pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Penn Today Staff

Life-saving 'urine-stick' test for early ovarian cancer could boost survival rates to 90 percent

Life-saving 'urine-stick' test for early ovarian cancer could boost survival rates to 90 percent

The Perelman School of Medicine’s Ronny Drapkin attributed delays in ovarian-cancer diagnoses to both misinterpreted symptoms and the organ’s location within the pelvis. “One of the things I tell women is that nobody knows your body as well as you do. If you feel something isn’t right, something’s probably not right,” Drapkin said.

For new cancer treatments, less is more

For new cancer treatments, less is more

Justin Bekelman, a radiation oncologist at the Perelman School of Medicine, discussed a new approach to cancer treatment that explores more nuanced, less severe steps that favor de-escalating toxic and costly approaches for less aggressive, more prolonged and monitored treatments.