CANCER POPULATION SCIENCE

Grant funding: $6,299,728

Program Themes

• Reducing tobacco use in vulnerable populations and providing evidence to guide tobacco policy.

• Evaluating and developing cancer screening strategies that maximize benefits while minimizing harms.

• Developing behavioral interventions to improve the health and quality of life of those at risk for cancer, cancer survivors, and their caregivers.

Director, Vermont Center

on Behavior and Health

Publication: Journal of the National Cancer Institute

Smoking is a leading cause of premature death and health inequities in the United States. Although about half of adult smokers made past-year quit attempts from 2014 to 2019, only 7.5% reported sustained cessation, and most who made quit attempts did not report using cessation treatments.

This study shows that sociodemographic inequalities in cessation were pervasive and not entirely correspondent with sociodemographic variation in motivation to quit. Further, this paper illustrates that encouraging quit attempts and equitable access to smoking cessation aids are public health priorities.

Publication: Journal of Cancer Survivorship

Exercise can help manage chemotherapy side effects, reduce rates of depression, and even make treatment more effective.

Dr. Gell, along with UVM Cancer Center member Kim Dittus, M.D., Ph.D., and Kushang Patel, Ph.D., M.P.H., at the University of Washington enrolled 39 rural cancer survivors over the age of 60 in a study to pilot test remoteenhance fitness for rural, older cancer survivors.

The study demonstrates that tele-fitness is feasible and initial findings show improvements in physical function and physical activity. Participants improved 23% on a sit-to-stand test, a common way to measure physical function, and reported a 33% increase in step counts as compared to a control group.

Cancer Screening

Brian Sprague, Ph.D. Professor, Larner College of Medicine

Green and Gold Professorship in Surgical Research

Publication: Journal of the American Medical Association

3D mammography screening can reduce the false positive rate for all women and provide a reduction in late-stage breast cancer for the small group of women with dense breasts and high breast cancer risk.

The first of its size, the findings suggest that women with dense breasts and high breast cancer risk should be offered 3D screening to reduce their risk of a late-stage diagnosis, and all women and healthcare providers should be aware of the benefit of reduced false positive rates with 3D screening.

Cancer Cell

Grant funding: $3,832,334

Program Themes

• Epigenetics

• Molecular mechanisms of hematological malignancies

• Mechanisms of breast cancer progression and breast cancer treatment response

• DNA damage and repair and its role in carcinogenesis

• Redox signaling in the pathology and therapy of disease

SPOTLIGHT: NEW DISCOVERIES

JANSSEN-HEININGER PROBES OXYGEN’S MYSTERIES TO FIND LUNG DISEASE TREATMENTS

University Distinguished Professor Yvonne JanssenHeininger, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, is an expert in redox medicine, which specializes in developing new compounds to regulate oxidation reactions. While oxygen is critical for the chemical reactions our cells need to survive, some oxygen reactions occur at the wrong locations or in the wrong proteins, which can cause damage leading to illness and death. The Janssen-Heininger lab team has discovered new tools for determining oxidation targets, designing precise small molecules to treat lung fibrosis and cancer.

Along with UVM Cancer Center member Albert van der Vliet, Ph.D., Janssen-Heininger co-founded the internationally recognized Redox Biology and Pathology Program at UVM. She is a fellow of the Society for Redox Biology and Medicine and a member of the UVM Cancer Center and the Vermont Lung Center. She recently received a Lung Cancer Discovery Award from the American Lung Association (ALA) to study protein oxidation in the development of lung cancer with the aim of creating a new druggable target for chemotherapy-resistant tumors.