Tag Archives: Breast Cancer

Funding renewed for TSU, Meharry, Vanderbilt-Ingram partnership on cancer disparities

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – The Meharry Medical College/Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center/Tennessee State University Partnership (MVTCP) has received renewed funding for the next five years to continue long-standing collaborations to eliminate cancer health disparities. The news comes during the annual campaign to raise awareness about the impact of breast cancer.  

Dr. Margaret Whalen, professor of Chemistry at TSU

The National Cancer Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, awarded the grant through the U54 Comprehensive Partnerships to Advance Cancer Health Equity (CPACHE) program. The MVTCP is the longest-standing partnership in the United States through this program, entering into its 22nd consecutive year of funding in September of 2021. The partnership was formed in 1999 between Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) and Meharry Medical College, and a year later, successfully competed for one of only two funded CPACHE grants. Tennessee State University (TSU) joined the partnership in 2011.

The MVTCP’s goals include strengthening the infrastructure and capabilities of Meharry and TSU to engage in cancer research and expanding cancer health disparities research at VICC. Six principal investigators lead the MVTCP from the three partner institutions: Samuel Evans Adunyah, PhD, and Duane Smoot, MD, of Meharry, Tuya Pal, MD, and Ann Richmond, PhD, of VICC; and Margaret Whalen, PhD, and Venkataswarup Tiriveedhi, MD, PhD, of TSU.

“This partnership is also crucial in providing opportunities for our undergraduate and graduate students to participate in cancer research and in increasing the ability of our faculty to garner support for their cancer research projects,” said Whalen, professor of Chemistry at TSU.

“At Meharry, this new award will support one full project in prostate cancer, one pilot project on cancer immunology and several cores, including the PRACTICE CORE, which includes Oncology Clinical Trials to enhance recruitment of minorities to cancer clinical trials, Translational Pathology Core and Research Education Core.  Moreover, it will provide support for at least three PhD trainees and 15 first year medical students in Meharry,” said Adunyah, chair and professor of Biochemistry and Cancer Biology at Meharry.

VICC will continue to engage with Meharry and TSU researchers and students by sharing its state-of-the-art resources, focusing on probing the reasons for cancer health disparities and investigating interventions to address these inequities.

“While we are proud of what our partnership has accomplished over the past 20 years, we still have much to do. We will continue to build capacity for cancer disparities research while engaging the community that we are so honored to serve,” said Pal, associate director for Cancer Health Disparities at VICC, Ingram Professor of Cancer Research and professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt.

“This grant will further ongoing opportunities to continue to grow funding for cancer research at Meharry Medical College and Tennessee State University and to further cancer disparities research with the VICC. The impact and outcomes of the MVTCP cancer research education activities result in the building of a more diverse population of cancer researchers,” said Ann Richmond, PhD, Ingram Professor of Cancer Biology and director of the Graduate Program in Cancer Biology at Vanderbilt.

TSU offers experience and expertise in reaching minority populations in a culturally appropriate manner. It can extend the impact of the MVTCP’s shared goals and serve as a pipeline for future cancer researchers. The university enrolls over 8,000 students each year and offers both graduate and undergraduate health science degrees.

“Through the MVTCP, TSU will continue to engage in critically important community outreach efforts regarding cancer. The partnership has been and will continue to be vital to the development of cancer research and outreach capacity at TSU,” said Whalen.

While the grant will support overarching research goals, it will also fund three special projects to address cancers that disproportionately affect African Americans either by incidence or mortality.

· The BRAVE Strategy (Breast Cancer Risk Assessment, achieving Equity) project will conduct a clinical trial focused on developing and testing strategies to reduce racial disparities in breast cancer mortality. According to the latest statistics, African American women have a 31 percent breast cancer mortality rate – the highest of any U.S. racial or ethnic group. Lucy Spalluto, MD, of VICC, Maureen Sanderson, PhD, of Meharry, and Rebecca Selove, PhD, MPH, of TSU, lead the initiative.

· The “Role of Fetuin-A in Prostate Cancer Progression and Prevention” project will address the significant need to identify biomarkers that can differentiate between prostate cancers that stop responding to hormone therapy and prostate cancers that are more indolent and don’t require aggressive treatment. Josiah Ochieng, PhD, of Meharry, Zhenbang Chen, PhD, of Meharry and Robert Matusik, PhD, of VICC lead the initiative.

· The “Developing Immune Checkpoint Controlled-release Biomaterials for Cancer” project will test whether immunotherapy response can be improved in ovarian cancer patients by optimizing controlled and sustained local release of checkpoint ligands. Anil Shanker, PhD, of Meharry, Todd Giorgio, PhD, of VICC, and Richard Mu, PhD, of TSU, lead the initiative.

The MVTCP has achieved numerous goals throughout its history. During the five years of its prior funding cycle, the partnership increased its research productivity, invested in collaborative infrastructure, advanced cancer research education, recruited new investigators and engaged with community partners to better inform research.

Department of Media Relations

Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

About Tennessee State University

Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a  premier, historically black university and land-grant institution offering 39 bachelor’s degree programs, 24 master’s degree programs, and eight doctoral degrees.  TSU is a comprehensive research intensive institution with a R-2 Carnegie designation, and has a graduate school on its downtown Avon Williams Campus, along with the Otis Floyd Nursery Research Center in McMinnville, Tennessee.  With a commitment to excellence, Tennessee State University provides students  with a quality education in a nurturing and innovative environment that prepares them as alumni to be global leaders in every facet of society. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.

TSU part of Sista Strut to raise awareness about breast cancer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Tennessee State University will be part of the route of the Sista Strut 3K, which seeks to raise awareness about breast cancer.

The event on Saturday, April 21, will start at 8 a.m. at the Hadley Park Bandshell and Green Space near TSU.

Sara Whittemore, Nashville event coordinator for iHeartMedia, said organizers wanted to incorporate historical sites on the route and decided to include TSU.

“We really waned to work TSU into the route to be on campus to incorporate the Olympic Torch and other things to show the history” of the university, said Whittemore.

According to the Sista Strut website, its goal is to increase awareness about the issues of breast cancer, particularly in women of color, as well as provide information on community resources.

Studies show that African American women are more likely to get breast cancer at a younger age and have a death rate from the disease twice that of Caucasian women of the same age.

“Sista Strut recognizes the strength of survivors, their family and friends, heightens awareness, promotes early detection and the search for a cure,” according to the website.

TSU employee Lalita Hodge said she plans to attend the event and is glad Tennessee State is involved.

“I believe by coming on the university campus it will pull in the younger generation, and the younger women to make them more conscious of their bodies, and what they need to do to keep it healthy,” said Hodge.

For more information about the Sista Strut or to register, visit https://racesonline.com/events/sista-strut-nashville

Department of Media Relations

Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

About Tennessee State University

With more than 8,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 38 bachelor’s degree programs, 25 master’s degree programs and seven doctoral degrees. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.

Breast Cancer Vaccine Developed by Tennessee State University Researcher and Colleagues Shows Promise in Preliminary Trial

Dr. Venkataswarup Tiriveedhi, a cancer and immunology specialist and assistant professor of Biological Sciences, works on cancer mechanism in his lab in Harned Hall at Tenessee State University. Tiriveedhi and a group of researchers from Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis have come up with an experimental vaccine for breast cancer that appears to be safe in preliminary trials.
Dr. Venkataswarup Tiriveedhi, a cancer and immunology specialist and assistant professor of Biological Sciences, works on cancer mechanism in his lab in Harned Hall at Tennessee State University. Tiriveedhi and a group of researchers from Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis have come up with an experimental vaccine for breast cancer that appears to be safe in preliminary trials. (photo by Emmanuel Freeman, TSU Media Relations)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – A Tennessee State University scientist and a group of researchers from Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis have come up with an experimental vaccine for breast cancer that appears to be safe in a preliminary trial.

According to a study published in Clinical Cancer Research, Dr. Venkataswarup Tiriveedhi, assistant professor of Biological Sciences in the College of Agriculture, Human and Natural Sciences, and his colleagues found that the experimental vaccine, Mammaglobin-A, was “overexpressed” in 40 to 80 percent of primary breast cancers.

Also known as MAM-A, the vaccine prompted CD8 T-cells to track and eliminate the MAM-A protein, noted Tiriveedhi. To determine the efficacy and safety of the experimental drug, he said they conducted a phase I trial involving 14 patients diagnosed with advanced breast cancer.

“The side effects from the vaccine after one year were minimal, and included rashes, tenderness, and mild flu-like symptoms,” added Tiriveedhi, who specializes in cancer and immunology.

By the one-year mark, the study revealed, roughly 50 percent of the patients showed no sign of disease progression. By comparison, only 20 percent of a similar group of 12 patients showed no signs of disease progression one year out.

The researchers, however, stressed the need for a larger and longer study, to prove the current preliminary evidence prior to its use in all breast cancer patients. They theorized that “these promising results” from initial studies could be applied not only to prevent cancer progression but also to prevent the development of breast cancer in women.

“The current one (study) is a small Phase-I trial mainly aimed at testing the safety (does no harm). But we have also found this vaccine to be highly effective against the disease. The next step is to go for larger Phase II/III studies with a higher cohort of breast cancer patients and rigorously test for efficiency, dosing, clinical outcomes, cancer stage specificity, etc.,” noted Tiriveedhi, who holds MD and Ph.D. degrees.

He called the study a “promising move forward” that is not just restricted to breast cancer, but one that can be employed in “similar strategies” to treat other cancers such as lung and colon cancers.

“The MAM-A DNA vaccine is safe, capable of eliciting MAM-A–specific CD8 T-cell responses, and preliminary evidence suggests improved PF,” the researchers concluded.

Dr. Tiriveedhi, who came to Tennessee State University about a year and half ago, started the study, “Safety and Preliminary Evidence of Biologic Efficacy of a Mammaglobin-A DNA Vaccine in Patients with Stable Metastatic Breast Cancer,” with his colleagues at Washington University before leaving to join the faculty at TSU.

 

 

 

Department of Media Relations

Tennessee State University
3500 John Merritt Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37209
615.963.5331

About Tennessee State University

With more than 9,000 students, Tennessee State University is Nashville’s only public university, and is a comprehensive, urban, co-educational, land-grant university offering 42 undergraduate, 24 graduate and seven doctoral programs. TSU has earned a top 20 ranking for Historically Black Colleges and Universities according to U.S. News and World Report, and rated as one of the top universities in the country by Washington Monthly for social mobility, research and community service. Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University celebrated 100 years in Nashville during 2012. Visit the University online at tnstate.edu.