On May 15, 2018, Skip Viragh’s vision for a single place where cancer patients can receive top-notch outpatient cancer care was realized with the opening of the Skip Viragh Outpatient Cancer Building at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Our new hub for cancer services and clinical research provides one-stop for stellar cancer diagnostic and(...)
About Valerie Matthews-Mehl
Posts by Valerie Matthews-Mehl:
A Look Inside the Kimmel Cancer Center’s Cancer Medicine Cabinet
Read the latest issue of Promise & Progress featuring research advances in cancer drug discovery and development, promising new cancer drugs, patient stories and more. From scientific meetings to our own dinner tables, conversations about better treatments for cancer are among the most frequently discussed health care topics. Everyone wants them—the doctors and scientists who(...)
Starting a Conversation about Advance Directives
Bright and early at 6 am on April 16th, Harry J. Duffey Family Patient and Family Services staff members greeted patients clad in t-shirts encouraging them to learn about advance directives. The effort was part of the National Healthcare Decisions Day “Start a Conversation Project” and is aimed at helping people understand advance directives and(...)
Remembering Dr. Richard Humphrey, Multiple Myeloma Pioneer
Richard Humphrey, a multiple myeloma pioneer who was among our founding Cancer Center faculty members and former director of its diagnostic immunology laboratory, died on March 27, 2018. Dr. Humphrey reflected on the early years of the “Oncology Center” on its 25th anniversary: “Mighty oaks from tiny acorns grow. Who would have predicted that such(...)
“SEEK” and You May Find Cancer
The team of cancer genetics experts that deciphered the genetic blueprints of cancer, have developed two new screening tests that have the promise to detect cancer in an early and curable stage. As the names of the tests indicate PapSEEK and UroSEEK, they seek out and find genetic evidence of cancer by detecting DNA released(...)
Early-Stage Prostate Cancer: To Treat or Not to Treat
Prostate cancer is a leading health problem for men. As strategies for prostate cancer screening and active surveillance are refined, men may benefit from early detection and cure of life-threatening prostate cancer but avoid overtreatment of the non-life-threatening variety. Read Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson’s editorial in Cancer Today, a publication of the American(...)
Geriatric Oncology: Cancer Care Coming of Age?
The American Cancer Society forecasts that nearly 1.7 million new cancer cases (more than 4,600 each day) and nearly 596,000 cancer deaths will occur in the United States in one year. An emerging driver of the cancer epidemic is the aging of the population. Read Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson’s editorial in Cancer Today,(...)
The Promise of Precision Medicine
All cancers are fundamentally disorders of acquired defects in genes. The genes serve as blueprints for all of the components of cells and tissues in the human body. In cancers, faulty blueprints lead to malfunctioning cells that grow uncontrollably, spread throughout the body and overwhelm normal organ functions to threaten life itself. Full realization of(...)
Cancer Research: Back to Basics
Many types of cancer are caused by gene mutations acquired during a person’s lifetime. Systematic cataloging of these acquired gene defects has led to improved screening, detection, diagnosis, prevention and treatment. A more deliberate investment in discovery research could reveal more opportunities for developing cancer treatment by making better sense of the acquired gene defects(...)
Patient Creates Award to Distinguish the Best Lung Cancer Doctors and Nurses
Kimmel Cancer Center team is among inaugural recipients (Photo: from left: Christine Hann, Russell Hales, Marilyn Holman, Matt Holman, Hanika Reyes Rodavia) Despite being a scientist, Matt Holman was unsure of the best treatment plan and where to go to find it when his wife Marilyn was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer in 2016. He(...)