May 17, 2024
When the AVMA wanted to share insights from a former resident turned award-winning published researcher, they called on a Purdue Veterinary Medicine faculty member, Dr. Marejka Shaevitz, clinical assistant professor of oncology in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences.
February 9, 2024
Chemotherapy can save lives, but often a cancer patient may be resistant to their prescribed chemotherapy, which costs the patient valuable time. Chemoresistance is a topic that researchers need to understand better so that they can match the right type of chemo to the right patient, which is called personalized medicine. An unusual pairing of veterinary scientists and physicists believe their method of detecting chemoresistance could be the new standard for personalized medicine.
January 12, 2024
Dogs are humans’ best friends. Need to quickly locate a bomb? There’s a dog for that. Can’t see very well? There’s a dog for that. Searching for a lost hiker in the mountains or survivors in an earthquake, diagnosing illness, comforting the bereft — there are dogs for every need.
They are even helping humans track down the causes of cancer. A new study led by Dr. Deborah Knapp, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Oncology, links cigarette smoke exposure to an exponentially higher rate of bladder cancer in Scottish terriers. By assessing individual dogs and studying their medical history, scientists are beginning to untangle the question of who gets cancer and why, and how best to detect, treat and prevent cancer.
December 15, 2023
A breakthrough in the understanding of the relationship between a naturally occurring enzyme and the liver cancer drug sorafenib could improve the effectiveness of the drug, which currently prolongs the life of liver cancer patients for only two to three months. A study of the relationship between the enzyme DDX5, liver cancer and sorafenib, published in the Nature journal Cell Death & Disease, points to the potential for a more effective therapy that combines existing anti-cancer drugs with treatments that spur production of this enzyme.
October 27, 2023
The recently announced Tyler Trent Pediatric Cancer Research Center within the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research has a strong tie to the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine through a faculty member in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences – Dr. Michael Childress. The new center is named in memory of the former graduate and devoted Boilermaker football fan who passed away more than four years ago from the rare bone cancer osteosarcoma. The center will be home to research to cure the disease that claimed Tyler’s life and other pediatric cancers.
September 15, 2023
A Purdue University study’s novel use of an artificial intelligence model has revealed that biological pathways leading to cancer in dogs and humans are more similar than previously known. The research, led by Dr. Nadia Lanman, research associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Department of Comparative Pathobiology, demonstrates enhanced value in studying naturally occurring cancer in dogs to learn more about how to defeat cancer in humans.
June 19, 2023
The Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine now is home to a named center for comparative oncology research that will advance cancer research benefiting pets and humans. The Purdue University Board of Trustees approved the naming of the Evan and Sue Ann Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center in recognition of the donors’ $10 million gift. As a part of the College of Veterinary Medicine, the center will partner with the Purdue Institute for Cancer Research.
May 26, 2023
The Purdue University Institute for Cancer Research is beginning a four-pronged attack against multiple myeloma to be carried out over two years with $4.3 million from the Paula and Rodger Riney Foundation, and Distinguished Professor of Comparative Pathobiology Timothy Ratliff is leading the team of scientists doing the research. Dr. Ratliff is the former director of Purdue’s cancer research center.
May 26, 2023
The 15th annual Purdue Challenge 5K run/walk benefiting the Purdue University Institute for Cancer Research had special meaning this year for a group of participants with ties to the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine. Several members of the PVM community ran in the event Saturday, April 15 to honor and celebrate the life of a cancer victim who was married to a veterinary nurse in the Evan and Sue Ann Werling Comparative Oncology Research Center. Their effort was both thoughtful and helpful, as the fundraising event raised a total of $100,000 for efforts to pursue a cure.
February 3, 2023
Cervical cancer killed 342,000 women around the world in 2020. According to the World Health Organization, the vast majority of these women — about 90% — lived in low- and middle-income countries where access to testing for early detection is either unaffordable or nonexistent. Professor of Comparative Pathobiology Sulma Mohammed in the Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine, and Purdue’s Marta E. Gross Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Jacqueline Linnes are determined to save lives by developing a low-cost, point-of-care paper test that could revolutionize cervical cancer detection worldwide.
