MUSC Hollings Cancer Center

12/23/2025

Looking for conversational topics with family this holiday season?

How about talking about your family health history? Even when you know that cancer runs in the family, genetic testing can bring clarity, as Kenneth Reid found.

Having that extra bit of info can also help you to make informed decisions about screening and treatment.

Kenneth Reid didn't need genetic testing to know that cancer ran in the family. But the testing gave him insight into his health and the treatment decisions that he should make.

12/22/2025

From the Hollings family to yours...we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a happy and healthy new year.

12/21/2025

This just in! An anonymous LOWVELO donor has agreed to match up to $5K every day between now and the end of the year. So every dollar you donate to LOWVELO will be doubled to help fund lifesaving cancer research right here at Hollings! VIsit LOWVELO.org to pitch in!

12/19/2025

Dr. Christie Hilton recently presented Hollings with a check from Pledge the Pink. We are so thrilled that this will help expand Hollings Breast Oncology resources in the Lowcountry - specifically in the Okatie/Bluffton area. Thank you! 🩷

12/18/2025

What if a better delivery system could be developed for chemotherapy, so the drug was delivered directly to remaining cancer cells after surgery instead of throughout the body?

That's the idea that Hollings researcher Dr. Dieter Haemmerich is working on. His startup, OncoBLAZE, was a finalist in the 2025 InnoVision awards.

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) was strongly represented at the 2025 InnoVision Awards, with startup companies earning the top status in the Education category and placing as a finalist for the Technology Development area.

12/17/2025

Beating cancer is just the beginning. At Hollings, survivorship means more than checking for recurrence. It means helping patients truly live after cancer.

“Cancer doesn’t end when treatment ends,” said clinic lead, physician assistant Ashton Getchell. “For many patients, the end of treatment is the start of a new journey.”

Our Head and Neck Cancer Survivorship Clinic gives survivors the specialized, long-term support they need to manage side effects, restore function and reclaim their lives. The clinic helps with a variety of post-treatment problems, from swallowing and speech therapy to late effects of radiation.

Learn how Hollings is helping survivors thrive after cancer:

A new clinic focused on the long-term survivorship needs of head and neck cancer survivors is seeing patients at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center.

12/16/2025

Thank you to all who were part of LOWVELO25! It was an amazing day from start to Finish Line Festival and we wanted to share a video recap of this fantastic event that was all about curing cancer together at Hollings. We're hoping to hit $1.2M raised by the end of the year. If you'd like to help, visit LOWVELO.org and hit the donate button! https://youtu.be/Z7iJ7L08hmg

We're still riding high! LOWVELO25 was an amazing day from start to Finish Line Festival and we wanted to share a video recap of this fantastic event that wa...

12/15/2025

To all who celebrate, Happy Hanukkah! We wish you and your loved ones a Festival of Lights filled with love, happiness and special memories.

12/12/2025

Hollings researchers have made a surprising discovery about a powerful cancer gene.

Many pancreatic cancers are driven by mutations in the KRAS gene, but one version, called Q61L, almost never appears. The team found out why: This gene mutation is too strong. It activates a key cancer-driving pathway so intensely that pancreatic cells self-destruct – burning out before becoming cancerous.

“This study shows that there’s a ‘Goldilocks zone’ for cancer signaling,” said lead researcher Dr. Aaron Hobbs. “Too little, and they don’t grow. Too much, and they die out.”

These findings could one day help scientists develop new therapies that push cancer cells into the same kind of fatal overdrive.

🔬 Read the full story:

Researchers at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center have discovered why a powerful cancer-causing gene mutation rarely appears in pancreatic tumors.

12/10/2025

We’re bringing cancer screenings closer to YOU! 🩺 Our Hollings Mobile Health Unit is on the move to make early detection easy and accessible. Join us for breast and cervical cancer screenings to take charge of your health today because . 💙
Learn more: https://bit.ly/4ab1Hpf

12/09/2025

As cancer treatments improve, more people are finding themselves in an odd middle ground - their cancer can't be cured, but it can contained, sometimes for years.

People in this position have different needs than someone in the more typical patient path of 'get diagnosed > get treated > finish treatment.'

So how do we identify this group and understand their needs? Researchers at Hollings laid the groundwork in a recent paper, even as they're already working to support people in this position.

As cancer treatments improve, more people are falling into the group termed 'individuals living with likely incurable cancer.' Hollings researchers seek to define this group so that members' unique needs can be met.

12/05/2025

Triple-negative breast cancer is one of the most aggressive and hardest-to-treat forms of breast cancer. But Hollings research points to a potential new direction in treatment.

Lead researcher Dr. Nancy Klauber-DeMore and her team developed an antibody to block a protein that helps the cancer to grow.

In preclinical models, the antibody slowed tumor growth, kept the cancer from spreading and destroyed cancer cells that no longer respond to chemotherapy – encouraging results for investigators who want to bring this antibody to clinical trials.

“We hope this will one day offer patients a new option – one that not only treats the cancer but also re-engineers the immune system’s ability to fight it,” Klauber DeMore said.

🔗 Learn more:

In preclinical testing, MUSC Hollings Cancer Center researchers found that an antibody they developed blocks several of the ways that triple-negative breast cancer can survive, grow and evade the immune system.