Research Magazine Clinical Trials
In all medical research, but particularly in cancer research, clinical trials save lives. They test the great new discoveries that can combat cancer, and the only way we're going to get better at preventing, diagnosing, and treating cancer is to put our best drugs and techniques forward and test them.
Research Diversity Magazine Clinical Trials COE
In the realm of cancer research, clinical trials can lead to more effective drugs, better treatments, and ways to prevent and detect cancer. They are a key step in the journey from scientific discoveries to helping current and future patients. Clinical trials are a major factor behind a 33% drop in the U.S. cancer death rate and an estimated 3.8 million cancer deaths avoided over the last four decades.
As spring days get longer and summer approaches, people begin to spend more time outdoors — especially in Colorado, with its 300 days of sunshine per year.
Research Philanthropy Magazine
Gary and Kathy Kortz, partners in marriage for nearly three decades, have also been partners in giving generously of their time and philanthropy for many years to support the University of Colorado Cancer Center and cancer research in general.
A childhood in Cameroon and medical school in Germany helped form the worldly approach to cancer care and research taken by University of Colorado Cancer Center member Emily Baiyee Toegel, MD.
There are many remedies for cancer-related fatigue — including exercise, massage, and acupuncture — but patients in Colorado have easy access to one of the most effective: natural sunlight.
Cancer Magazine Multidisciplinary Clinic Medical Oncology
A cancer diagnosis is a serious matter – which is why a patient who gets one should seriously consider getting a second opinion.
Research Gynecologic Cancer Magazine Ovarian Cancer
Ovarian cancer is a growing area of research at the University of Colorado Cancer Center. A newly formed Ovarian Cancer Innovations Group, envisioned by Saketh Guntupalli, MD, and led by Kian Behbakht, MD, MBA, is taking a multipronged approach to studying the disease.
With an eye on outcomes that range from better patient care and improved early detection to equity in research and increased use of new technologies like big data, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) recently rolled out a National Cancer Plan.
Research Community Breast Cancer Magazine
Why are some women skeptical when given their personalized risk for developing breast cancer? The inquiring mind of Laura Scherer, PhD, wants to know.
Research Patient Care Community Lung Cancer Magazine Clinical Trials
A clinical trial for lung cancer at the University of Colorado Cancer Center saved Betty Moren’s life. Now Betty and her husband, Bill, are giving back, sharing their cancer journey and clinical trial experiences as patient advocates at the cancer center’s Thoracic Oncology Research Initiative (TORI), which brings together investigators from multiple departments and centers across the CU Anschutz Medical Campus to advance lung cancer research.
Research Philanthropy Breast Cancer Magazine Surgical Oncology
At age 47, Wendy Johnson finally started jumping horses.
Though she had long been interested in the activity — watching her daughters take part in it on the competition field and at the family’s home in Conifer, Colorado — the thought of actually being the one on the back of the graceful beast, guiding it through midair and over a series of obstacles, had always scared her.
A struggle with breast cancer, however, changed her perspective completely.
Patient Care Magazine Ovarian Cancer
Amy Bibbey has two distinct lives. There’s the life she led before ovarian cancer, and there’s everything after diagnosis.
Research Community Cancer Magazine Mental Health
Cancer, the author Susan Sontag wrote, is “the disease that doesn’t knock before it enters.”
It’s the scary C-word that a large and continually growing body of research demonstrates has effects far beyond its physical symptoms. A cancer diagnosis, especially one made in the later stages of the disease, often impacts a person’s mental and emotional health in ways that can be unexpected and broad-reaching.
Research Community Philanthropy Magazine
Philanthropy is critical to the mission of the University of Colorado Cancer Center. Donors who are able to make gifts of any amount help CU Cancer Center members contribute to breakthrough research and improved patient outcomes.
Community Cancer Magazine Equity Diversity and Inclusion ColoradoSPH at CU Anschutz Leadership
Two important numbers to keep in mind are that 50.5% of the U.S. population is female, and that cancer will account for more than 606,000 deaths in the United States this year, making it the second-leading cause of death.
Prostate Cancer Magazine Urology
It was all his grandma’s doing, says University of Colorado Cancer Center member Paul Maroni, MD.
Research Community Magazine Clinical Trials
Molly the golden retriever was a fan of cookies. Whenever there was a plate of them nearby, she kept her eye on it, waiting for her chance to sneak one or five. She was a fan of water, too, even after she had surgery to remove her left front leg following an osteosarcoma, or bone cancer, diagnosis in April 2017.
Research Community Support Magazine Multiple Myeloma
Michael Joseph Roark – Mike to his friends – met Mary Jo Dougherty in a ski fitness class taught by Anne Kashiwa at the former International Athletic Club in downtown Denver.
Research Faculty Magazine Oncology
University of Colorado (CU) Cancer Center leader Wells Messersmith, MD, has been named chief medical officer of oncology services at UCHealth. In this new role, Messersmith will oversee cancer care at all UCHealth locations with a focus on expanding advanced treatments and the clinical trials UCHealth offers in partnership with the CU Cancer Center.
Research Community Magazine Child & Adolescent
Sandra Luna-Fineman, MD, treats children and adolescents with cancer from around the U.S. in her role as a pediatric oncologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado, but she knows that children in low- and middle-income countries around the world need her help the most.
Patient Care Community Lung Cancer Magazine CU Medicine Today
At her lowest point, after hearing there wasn’t much more that medicine or science could do for her, Connie Walters asked her best friend and ex-husband, Abel, to stay with her overnight. She wasn’t sure she would wake up and she didn’t want to die alone.
Research Patient Care Magazine
“When you lose hope, you lose everything,” says Ron Randolph. “It’s like you’re in the bottom of a hole and you see this light at the top of the hole. It’s a very small light, but there’s no way to escape.”
Janice Woodward was already a member of the club nobody wants to join — the cancer club, membership involuntary — when she got an irregular mammogram result in May 2019.
Research Community Lung Cancer Magazine
There are two things most people believe about lung cancer, says Jamie Studts, PhD, co-leader of the Cancer Prevention & Control Program at the CU Cancer Center: Those who suffer from it most likely caused it by using tobacco, and the prognosis for surviving the disease is poor.
Research Community Breast Cancer Magazine Surgical Oncology
When a woman receives a breast cancer diagnosis, she may have many questions about her immediate future – the stage of the disease, what treatment she’ll receive, where it will happen.
When you ask a classroom full of middle schoolers what they want to be when they grow up, you’re likely to get a range of answers, from “pro athletes” and “astronauts” to “musicians” and “movie stars.”
As director of the Animal Imaging Shared Resource at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, Natalie Serkova, PhD, has played an integral part in many groundbreaking projects on the Anschutz Medical Campus.
All cells use the process of metabolism to turn nutrients into energy — including cancer cells. Metabolism is a fundamental function whose role in cancer is being explored by researchers across the CU Cancer Center.
Research Honors Head and Neck Cancer Magazine Funding
Research and treatment of head and neck cancers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center reached a new level this month with a highly competitive Specialized Programs of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The SPORE was approved by NCI Scientific Program leadership for FY2021 funding; the projected starting date is July 1.
Research Pediatric Cancer Magazine
Three members of the University of Colorado Cancer Center and a longstanding supporter of the campus are part of a group of more than 200 researchers nationwide who were recognized in April with the Team Science Award from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
In a move that has the potential to save thousands of lives, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) this week lowered the recommended screening age for colorectal cancer from 50 to 45 for asymptomatic patients with no family history of colorectal cancer. Considered the leading source of medical guidance in the U.S., the USPSTF is an independent, volunteer organization made up of national experts in internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, nursing, behavioral health, and more.
Patient Care Blood Cancer Leukemia Magazine Clinical Trials
Siri Lindley couldn’t swim. She had never learned how and the idea of competing in a triathlon seemed completely out of the question.
Bringing more than two decades of experience in the fields of population health and cancer prevention and control, Linda Cook, PhD, will join the University of Colorado Cancer Center in July as associate director of population sciences.
Patient Care Pediatric Cancer Magazine
Thirty days of radiation treatments — five days a week, with Saturdays and Sundays off — are difficult for even the toughest of adults. But for a child, they’re even harder to bear. They involve fasting, waking up early, and lying in a dark room alone, without even your parents there for support.
Patient Care Colorectal Cancer Magazine
Pablo Garcia started to worry when he began experiencing unusual stomach symptoms. He worried even more when his doctor at the Salud Family Health Center in Longmont, Colorado, ordered a colonoscopy to check for signs of colon cancer. Pablo was unfamiliar with the procedure, the preparation, and the hospital where the test was to take place.
Research Pediatric Cancer Blood Cancer Leukemia Magazine
M. Eric Kohler’s commitment to both cancer research — particularly CAR T-cell therapy — and clinical care make him a double threat when it comes to battling pediatric blood cancer.
Sabrina L. Spencer, PhD, is a CU Boulder researcher and a CU Cancer Center member. Spencer recently won two awards: the Damon Runyon-Rachleff Innovation Award (from the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation) and the Emerging Leader Award (from The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research). The preliminary research she used to apply for the grants, "Melanoma subpopulations that rapidly escape MAPK pathway inhibition incur DNA damage and rely on stress signalling," was published in Nature Communications on March 19, 2021.
We spoke to Spencer about the awards and how she plans to use them to further her research.
Patient Care Philanthropy Prostate Cancer Magazine
Ashton Villars has always been a problem solver. As a competitive athlete in basketball, waterskiing, and tennis and an actual rocket scientist, Villars has tackled every challenge in life head on — including his prostate cancer diagnosis. Now, he’s bringing that same problem-solving spirit to supporting cancer research.
For more than a year, a working group at the University of Colorado Cancer Center has been studying the many ways the aging process impacts cancer — including incidence, progression, and prognosis of the disease, therapeutic options and outcomes, and the psychosocial aspects of living with cancer.
Community Skin Cancer Magazine Melanoma
CU Cancer Center member Neil Box, PhD, is on a quest to decrease the deadly effects of melanoma.
Actor Dustin Diamond, best known for playing the nerdy character Screech on teen sitcom “Saved By the Bell,” died Monday at age 44. Diamond died just weeks after being diagnosed with stage 4 small cell carcinoma, a type of cancer that commonly occurs in the lungs but can also originate in the prostate or gastrointestinal tract.
COVID-19 is the most-talked-about health concern in 2020, but for many, it is not the deadliest disease. University of Colorado (CU) Cancer Center leadership is bringing attention to the fact that more people will die from cancer than COVID this year.
Like most people, Arnette Schouten has been touched personally by cancer. One of her cousins is in hospice following a battle with melanoma; her sister-in-law had a long fight with breast cancer; and Arnette herself had early symptoms of ovarian cancer that were caught in time for effective treatment.
The past year has illuminated the need for change. In addition to the toll it has taken on lives, health and livelihood, COVID-19 has shed light on health disparities and inequities facing our communities of color.
Research Blood Cancer Leukemia Magazine
Craig Jordan, PhD, has spent more than 20 years developing better treatments for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood and bone marrow that can spread to other parts of the body, including the lymph nodes, liver, spleen and central nervous system.
The CU Cancer Center has launched five studies that are focused on addressing disparities in care and outcomes for Black and Hispanic communities in Colorado.
Awareness Pancreatic Cancer Magazine Surgical Oncology
Longtime “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek announced it to the world on March 6, 2019: Like 50,000 other Americans each year, he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
Research Blood Cancer Leukemia Magazine
Thanks in large part to early work by investigators at the CU Cancer Center, patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have a new treatment option that has fewer side effects and has been shown to increase longevity.
Patient Care Skin Cancer Magazine Melanoma
“For Christmas, we took a family photo with all the grandkids,” says Sam’s wife, Janet. She went on to explain, “The kids wanted to take this photo because they thought Sam would not be here next Christmas.”
The Conversation
May 13, 2024
Despite being the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, Nina Thomas, MD, shares that lung cancer has a significantly lower screening rate compared to other common cancers. Various barriers, including lack of awareness, misconceptions, geographic and socioeconomic disparities, and stigma surrounding smoking, contribute to this low rate. Lung cancer screening, recommended for high-risk individuals, involves a low-dose CT scan that is quick, non-invasive, and effective in detecting early-stage cancer. Efforts to improve screening rates focus on public education, reducing disparities, and destigmatizing lung cancer and smoking.
OncLive
May 10, 2024
Bradley R. Corr, MD, explores the rationale and results of a phase 2 trial comparing rucaparib to placebo as maintenance therapy for metastatic and recurrent endometrial cancer. Discover the significant progression-free survival improvements and implications for patients in this insightful discussion.
The Colorado Sun
April 26, 2024
Siri Lindley, a former world champion triathlete, faced her toughest challenge when diagnosed with a rare, aggressive leukemia. Visualizing her favorite mountain trail helped her endure the grueling treatment. She approached cancer like a triathlon, with determination and hope, eventually lobbying for improved access to medical trials. Thanks to a groundbreaking trial at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, she's now cancer-free, living a new life filled with gratitude and a renewed love for sports.
Medical Xpress
April 22, 2024
CU Cancer Center Member Joanna Arch developed EASE therapy for late-stage cancer patients, based on written exposure therapy, to address their unique fears and anxieties. Participants write about their greatest cancer-related fears and explore coping strategies. Results show significant improvements in mental health and well-being.
Cancer Center
