News Releases

The Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania, the world’s first comprehensive center aimed at advancing research, treatment, and prevention of BRCA-related cancers, is pleased to announce Douglas Easton, PhD, and Antonis Antoniou, PhD, as the recipients of the seventh annual Basser Global Prize.

From improving outcomes in children with brain cancer to lowering the risk of damage to the brainstem in children with central nervous system tumors, a pair of new studies published today add to the growing body of research showing the potential benefits of proton therapy.

One in three people in the United States are not up-to-date on their screening for colorectal cancer, the second deadliest cancer in the United States, so doctors and researchers like Mehta and his team are working on ways to make tests more widespread and/or easier to complete.

Blocking a kinase known as CDK7 sets off a chain reaction that results in the death of prostate cancer cells that have spread and are resistant to standard therapies, according to a new study from researchers in the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

While the changes are beneficial, the recommendations still fail to address many persisting problems in the modern world of genetic testing, according to a new JAMA editorial co-authored by Susan Domchek, MD, executive director of the Basser Center for BRCA at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

The outer layer of the skin completely replaces itself every two to four weeks, but when this process is blocked, cancer can grow.

Five years ago, David C. Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, both a Penn Medicine researcher and patient, tried an experimental treatment based on his laboratory research findings in the hopes of saving his own life.

A crucial signaling pathway that can tell the immune system to fight off cancer can also be co-opted by cancer cells to put the brakes on the immune system, according to a new study from researchers in the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Katherine L. Nathanson, MD, deputy director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania and the Pearl Basser Professor for BRCA-Related Research in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, has been awarded a $3 million research grant from the Gray Foundation.

Treating metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab after they’ve completed locally ablative therapy – meaning all known sites of their cancer were either treated with surgery, radiation, or other definitive treatments – almost tripled the median progression-free survival (PFS) compared to the historical average.