Cancer Research Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

$50 million In State Surplus Awarded to WVU Cancer Institute

Alongside health officials from West Virginia University, Gov. Jim Justice announced Thursday that $50 million of the state’s surplus funding will support investment to attain National Cancer Institute designation for the WVU Cancer Institute.

“I am thrilled to deliver this $50 million check to the West Virginia University Cancer Institute in their pursuit of an official cancer center designation by the National Cancer Institute,”. Justice said. “I want to express my deep gratitude to the West Virginia Legislature for allocating these crucial funds, and to WVU Medicine for pursuing this incredible goal, because we all recognize the importance and significance of obtaining this recognition from the NCI, as it is only bestowed upon the nation’s top cancer centers. This funding will serve as a catalyst to jumpstart our progress towards that goal, and I couldn’t be more proud.”

The funding was included in House Bill 2024 as part of the Fiscal Year 2024 budget passed by the West Virginia Legislature.

According to a press release, the money will be used for comprehensive research programs, faculty and facilities that will directly lead to innovative approaches in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

“Our goal is to place the WVU Cancer Institute in the top 2 percent of cancer centers nationwide, which will improve the health and wellness of the people in our state, particularly in southern West Virginia, by reducing cancer occurrence rates and increasing cancer survival,” WVU President Gordon Gee said.

The National Cancer Institute leads cancer research across the country and recognizes cancer centers with an official NCI designation, the highest federal rating a cancer center can achieve.

Justice made the announcement at WVU Medicine Princeton Community Hospital with Gee, WVU Health System President and Chief Executive Officer Albert L. Wright, Jr., WVU Health Sciences Chancellor and Executive Dean Dr. Clay Marsh and WVU Cancer Institute Director Dr. Hannah Hazard-Jenkins.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting with support from Charleston Area Medical Center and Marshall Health.

WVU Awarded 11 Million Dollar NIH Grant to Study Tumor Growth

West Virginia University has been awarded 11.2 million dollars to establish a center that focuses on what might make a tumor more likely to grow.

The National Institutes of Medicine awarded WVU a five-year grant to study microenvironments surrounding tumors. The idea is that just as a plant is likely to grow in a sunny garden, a benign tumor may be more likely to grow or become cancerous if its surroundings are primed for growth.

Researches from the Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine and the Cancer Institute will work together to investigate how tumors interact with the bodies that house them and the treatments that attack them.

The team plans to develop new ways to diagnose tumors, identify better ways to prevent and treat cervical cancer, explore what makes some brain cancers so tenacious, and improve treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers.

The new center will give researchers access to tumor samples removed from patients and cutting-edge imaging equipment so researchers can better look at individual cancer cells.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Marshall Health, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

A Conversation About Cancer Rates in Appalachia

Rural Appalachia has some of the highest cancer mortality rates in the country — up to 36 percent higher than what is seen elsewhere. The culprit? That’s a multi-fold answer. Kara Lofton talked about cancer rates in Appalachia with freelance reporter Lyndsey Gilpin, who wrote a story addressing the discrepancy. Data journalism website FiveThirtyEight published the story earlier this month.

In one of the opening paragraphs of the article you write: “In rural Appalachian Kentucky, the cancer mortality rate is 36 percent higher than it is for urban, non-Appalachian people in the rest of the country; in rural Appalachian Virginia it is 15 percent higher; in those areas of West Virginia, 19 percent. Those are pretty stunning statistics. What is going on in rural Appalachia to make cancer rates so much higher here?

It’s really because of this perfect storm of unfortunate circumstances. You have a rural population with very high obesity rates, high rates of smoking, really high poverty rate, a high unemployment rate and then you have a lack of education. And then on top of that you have the health care side of things with lack of access to preventive care and lack of access to really good treatment.

You also write that “[p]eople in much of rural Appalachia are more likely to die within three to five years of their diagnoses than those in both urban Appalachian areas and urban areas across the U.S. Why is that?

That’s primarily because of this lack of access we’re talking about. And even when people can get care they have to drive farther and wait longer and perhaps not have access to advanced clinical trials or really great health care systems hospitals – things like that – that can provide them with the best kind of available resources for the best outcomes and survival rates.

Preventive screenings are one of the best tools we have to catch cancer early. What role does access to preventive services – or access to care at all – have on cancer rates in Appalachia?

Preventive care is perhaps the biggest piece of this puzzle. From everyone I talked to it seemed like that was the part they are trying to fix and it could be the most immediate fix. And so a lot of the cancers they focused on were preventable cancers. So breast cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer and cervical cancer. There are a lot of barriers to get to the point when they can access something as easy as a screening.

You mention in the article that economic, social and environmental factors also play a role in cancer incidence. What is going on in rural Appalachia that is different from the rest of the country?

Lifestyle is a big part of it, but lifestyle factors have a lot to do with the economics and the social and environmental factors. So obviously this isn’t new to anyone I talked to in Appalachia. Poverty and the decline of the coal mining industry have a very real effect on specific health care outcomes.

Appalachia is well known as a hub for commercial coal production. Is coal mining causing higher cancer rates?

It’s not as clear as that. We can’t draw the direct connection between coal pollution in cancer. Almost everyone I spoke to that was living in eastern Kentucky talked about the fact that they were leery about water contamination and its relationship with cancer or other chronic illnesses, but if you look at the research there’s not enough to prove that link. There is research that shows mortality and chronic illnesses are higher in coal producing counties.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Research Suggests More Effective Ways to Treat Fast Growing Cancers

A West Virginia-led team of researchers may have found a way to control the spread of rapidly growing cancers, including melanoma. The findings were published last month in the online journal Laboratory Investigation and suggest new combinations of therapies may be more effective in treating fast-growing cancers than current practices.

The researchers found that prevailing cancer treatments aren’t actually targeting rapidly growing cancer stem cells. Also, front-line therapies can be initially effective, but they often become ineffective and the cancer starts growing again.

So they decided to add an antibody to a protein called a nodal that is known to be active in early aggressive cell development. Antibodies are used by the immune system to fight undesirable bacteria and viruses.

“What we have discovered is if you can treat an aggressive cancer with a drug that kills most of the cells, and then come back and treat the remaining cells with something that destroys or inhibits the nodal in those cells, you’ll have a better effect on the aggressive cancer, and you have a stronger chance to live longer and survive the aggressive cancer,” said Richard Seftor, one of the WVU laboratory partners and coauthors of the study.

“These are new and novel findings that advance the field and hopefully give us new strategies for treating metastatic melanoma,” explained Shepherd University president Mary Hendrix, who led the team. Metastatic basically means a cancer that can spread beyond the tumor to other parts of the body. When cancer spreads – that’s when it can become deadly.

The method was tested in an animal subject and has not yet been brought to human trials. But it’s not that far away from getting there.

“Over the last few years, we have worked closely with a number of pharmaceutical companies to develop ways to potentially create antibodies and/or drug treatments that will decrease or slow down the process of cancer,” said Seftor.

Seftor said although the paper focuses specifically on melanoma, the treatment protocol they are developing could have implications for a number of fast-growing cancers.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

Shepherd President Continues Cancer Research Through Live Videostream

The new president of Shepherd University is partnering with West Virginia University to continue her cancer cell research, and she’s allowing students to watch her work as it’s happening.

Shepherd University President Mary Hendrix began researching how tumor cells grow before she returned to West Virginia in the spring to lead her alma mater. She has made several breakthroughs in the research over the past several years. Now, she’s continuing her work in the state thanks to a partnership with WVU.

Hendrix’s cancer research team is located in Morgantown where they have access to the university’s advanced healthcare technologies. She’ll be participating in the project via Skype, an internet-based video calling system. That livestream will also be available to Shepherd students interested in following the research any time, day or night.

“They could be in a classroom and be able to look at a large screen, and be able, in real-time, to witness these kinds of experimental protocols that we currently do not offer at Shepherd,” she said.

Hendrix says the collaboration will encourage up and coming student researchers to think outside the box when using technology in their work.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation.

First Time in Shepherd's History, Grad Takes the Helm

For the first time in its 144-year history, Shepherd University is being led by a Shepherd graduate.

Mary Hendrix got her Bachelor of Science in pre-med and biology from Shepherd in 1974.

She went on to receive her Ph.D. from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship to train at Harvard Medical School.

Hendrix is credited with more than 270 research publications, and is nationally recognized as a leader in cancer research.

She is also a native of Shepherdstown, WV.

Hendrix’s Top Three Goals at Shepherd:

To increase salaries of staff and faculty
Training the next generation of leaders and model citizens
To be a financial catalyst for the community and West Virginia; working together