Breast cancer

One in eight women will get breast cancer in her lifetime, with more than 4,500 women in Virginia diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

Researchers at the Leroy T. Canoles Jr. Cancer Research Center are collaborating with scientists around the country to find ways to predict how patients will respond to therapies and develop more effective ones. Because male or female, breast cancer affects us all.

Prostate cancer

In Virginia, deaths from prostate cancer exceed the national average, and men in Hampton Roads are far more likely to lose their lives to the disease than elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Fighting prostate cancer means fighting a disease that takes the lives of our friends and family. Even when caught, prostate cancer can severely diminish the quality of life.

That's why the Leroy T. Canoles Jr. Cancer Research Center has created a two-pronged approach to combating prostate cancer. Not only do we develop new diagnostic tools that lead to patient-specific care; but we also focus on disease prevention techniques to identify the cascade of events that can result in prostate cancer. We've built a world-class team of innovative physicians and researchers, and, through extensive collaboration, we believe our prostate cancer research will lead to earlier detection, better care, and improved life expectancy.

Pancreatic cancer

The Leroy T. Canoles Jr. Cancer Research Center's wide-ranging research aims to increase early detection rates and develop comprehensive new ways to treat pancreatic cancer.

Our community is particularly hard hit by pancreatic cancer. In two out of three Hampton Roads municipalities, death rates are higher than the national average. 

Researchers approach this mission on several fronts. We're searching for unique protein signatures, or biomarkers, that can serve as early indicators of pancreatic cancer. We're studying signaling pathways that promote the development of pancreatic tumors while trying to identify ways to stop these tumors from spreading. Although pancreatic cancer does have a genetic component, we're also trying to increase the community's awareness of other risk factors such as obesity, smoking, and the recent onset of diabetes.

Lung cancer

Our researchers have made great strides over the last few years. In the near future, the results of our research will enable earlier detection and more effective treatment for lung cancer patients.

Lung cancer has a higher mortality rate than the next three most common cancers combined — colon, prostate and breast cancers. It is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer, accounting for 14 percent of all new cases and 27 percent of all cancer deaths.

Men in Virginia, especially black men, have higher rates than women of being diagnosed with and dying from lung cancer.

Head and neck cancer

In Virginia, more than 800 new cases of oral cancer occur each year, with many concentrated in the eastern part of the commonwealth.

As both a medical school and healthcare center, we have the power to work from bench to bedside and from bedside to bench. We believe this approach will lead to new and effective diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic strategies for head and neck cancer. We start by asking the right questions. What can we do to improve early detection rates while building our understanding of what causes cancer recurrence? Why do some head and neck cancers resist chemotherapy and radiation? And how can we develop new drugs that fight cancer as it progresses? Finding answers will benefit all patients — even those far beyond Hampton Roads.

HTLV-1

Our researchers are studying HTLV-1, which has been linked with a type of lymphocytic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma called adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL). This cancer is found mostly in southern Japan, the Caribbean, central Africa and parts of South America, as well as in some immigrant groups in the southeastern United States.