UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center

UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center is the only cancer center in Virginia named a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

We are also one of only 52 centers in the United States to receive this designation, the highest recognition the NCI gives. We're part of renowned group of leaders in cancer research, prevention, detection and treatment and strive to stay ahead of the curve in innovation, technology and, most importantly, patient care. Our center is accredited through The Joint Commission, Commission on Cancer, National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), and Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT). You don't just have to visit us at the Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center in Charlottesville, VA. You can access care in other locations throughout Central Virginia, including clinics in Fishersville, Culpeper and Pantops. Talk to your provider about finding care that's close to you.

Meet Martin Braun, Budget Manager for UVACCC’s Office of Clinical Research (OCR)! Martin has been a part of the Cancer C...
01/31/2026

Meet Martin Braun, Budget Manager for UVACCC’s Office of Clinical Research (OCR)!

Martin has been a part of the Cancer Center team for over a decade. In his current role, he develops and negotiates budgets for industry-sponsored and cooperative group studies, managing finances throughout each OCR clinical trial.

He confirms that all estimated clinical trial costs, budgets, and grant balances are followed and managed attentively, and also helps secure financial support for UVACCC trials from sponsors, grants, and institutions. Martin aims to be “efficient and proactive, helping ensure studies open in a timely manner and are appropriately funded for patients,” he said.

Outside of work, Martin loves playing soccer and is head coach of the Charlottesville High School boys' team!

Thank you, Martin, for everything you do!

Learn more about the Cancer Center’s Office of Clinical Research: https://bit.ly/4pCNAgj

Congratulations to five Cancer Center researchers recently elected School of Medicine at the University of Virginia endo...
01/30/2026

Congratulations to five Cancer Center researchers recently elected School of Medicine at the University of Virginia endowed professorships!

Congratulations to five Cancer Center researchers recently elected to Urology; Tracy Downs, MD, the Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of Urology; Andrew Dudley, PhD, the Harrison Distinguished Teaching Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology; Evan Scott, PhD, the David Goodman Family Bicentennial Professor of Biomedical Engineering; and Jochen Zimmer, PhD, the Charles Slaughter Professor of Physiology.

They join 25 other newly elected School of Medicine endowed professors honored at the annual Dean’s Office faculty awards and honors ceremony. “We are very thankful for the generosity of our donors that make these endowed professorships possible, as they allow us to recruit and retain some of the best and brightest physicians and scientists in the world,” said Interim Dean Colin Derdeyn, MD.

Read about the ceremony: https://bit.ly/4qenmBX

View the full list of 2025 Endowed Professorship conferrals: https://bit.ly/3YyrFMl

Cancer Center immunologist Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, has been named a Victoria's Secret Rising Innovator! The award includ...
01/24/2026

Cancer Center immunologist Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, has been named a Victoria's Secret Rising Innovator! The award includes a $700,000 grant from the Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancer in partnership with Pelotonia and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), supporting her work to overcome ovarian cancer's treatment resistance.

Dr. Rutkoski has found that gut bacteria interact with particular immune cells and suppress their response, leading to the failure of immunotherapy drugs targeting ovarian cancer. With this new funding, she aims to better understand these interactions and test a potential new treatment in the lab.

“The goal will be to use the discoveries from this award to eventually develop a novel immune therapy that can reinvigorate the immune system and ultimately improve outcomes for ovarian cancer,” Dr. Rutkowski said.

Learn more about Dr. Rutkowski’s research and the Rising Innovator Grant: https://www.uvahealth.com/news/victorias-secret-grant

Philip Chow, PhD, has been awarded $3.3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute,...
01/23/2026

Philip Chow, PhD, has been awarded $3.3 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Cancer Institute, to test digital mental health tools for breast cancer survivors suffering from insomnia and depression.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, and depression and insomnia are two of the most common issues facing survivors following treatment. Without access to trained providers or in-person treatment, their quality of life suffers.

Dr. Chow, who is also a member of The Center for Behavioral Health and Technology at UVA, aims to determine the best sequence, timing, and algorithms for delivering two digital mental health programs to survivors who may not have access to in-person care. One program focuses on enhancing sleep, and the other on improving mood. The programs could reduce symptoms of insomnia and depression for survivors, decreasing their emotional and clinical impacts.

Read more about Dr. Chow’s research: https://bit.ly/4sCLKyH

Xin Li, PhD, has received a $3.9 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Dental and Craniofaci...
01/17/2026

Xin Li, PhD, has received a $3.9 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research grant to pursue a non-opioid therapy that could treat oral cancer patients’ pain while reducing risk of medication dependence.

Dr. Li, who is Research Director of the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia's Department of Plastic Surgery, Maxillofacial, and Oral Health, and her team will study how signals from succinate, a tumor-promoting molecule, drive oral-cancer pain, and test a new therapy targeting succinate and its receptors to reduce it.

Co-investigators include ’s Yi Ye, PhD, University of Virginia’s Varinder Kaur, MD, Yuqi Guo, MD, MS, and Chengli Shen, MD, PhD, along with support from the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network.

Read more about Dr. Li’s oral cancer research: https://bit.ly/3LEAbXb

Research launched at the University of Virginia under the mentorship of John Bushweller, PhD, has resulted in a much-nee...
01/16/2026

Research launched at the University of Virginia under the mentorship of John Bushweller, PhD, has resulted in a much-needed new treatment for patients with a deadly blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

AML is primarily seen in people over age 68 and accounts for about one in three blood cancer cases. More than 22,000 Americans develop the condition each year, and more than 11,000 die, according to the American Cancer Society.

The once-daily medication, ziftomenib, marketed under the brand name Komzifti, is for AML patients with disease recurrence or treatment resistance, and a mutation of the NPM1 gene. Mutation of the NPM1 gene is a common occurrence in AML. Mutant NPM1 AML cells are dependent on the menin-MLL interaction for survival. Ziftomenib disrupts menin-MLL binding and thereby kills these mutant NPM1 AML cells.

Ziftomenib grew from research begun in 2007 by Jolanta Grembecka, PhD, and Tomasz Cierpicki, PhD, then Dr. Bushweller's postdoctoral mentees, and now at the University of Michigan.

Ongoing clinical trials are exploring ziftomenib’s potential to work in combination with other treatments to target both leukemia and solid tumors. “It is immensely gratifying to see the work of Drs. Grembecka and Cierpicki have this amazing impact for patients,” Dr. Bushweller said.

Learn more about ziftomenib:
https://bit.ly/4pFkH3b

01/13/2026

Our University Medical Center in Charlottesville has been named to Becker's Hospital Review’s list of “100 Great Hospitals in America.”

The publication noted that University Medical Center is “a destination for highly complex and specialized care,” which includes:

• Virginia’s first National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center;
• UVA Transplant Center, the only comprehensive transplant center for adults and children in Virginia; and
• UVA Health Children's, the No. 1 children’s hospital in Virginia, as ranked by U.S. News and World Report, with nine specialties ranked in the top 50 nationally.

🏆 Read more about this honor at https://bit.ly/49ybjbl

Congratulations to Karen Hirschi, PhD, Gloria Sheynkman, PhD, and Jie Sun, PhD, recipients of the School of Medicine at ...
01/10/2026

Congratulations to Karen Hirschi, PhD, Gloria Sheynkman, PhD, and Jie Sun, PhD, recipients of the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia's Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research!

The annual faculty awards and honors ceremony recognizes faculty members for their positive influence on students, trainees, patients, coworkers, and their contributions to advancing science and medicine.

Dr. Hirschi studies the molecular regulation of blood and lymphatic vessel formation, aiming to understand how this process goes awry in cancer, developmental malformations, and other diseases.

Dr. Sheynkman is pioneering a new research area, "Proteoform Medicine", which utilizes novel analytical technologies to characterize protein molecular forms and develop therapies across the spectrum of human disease.

Dr. Sun investigates how the immune system responds to respiratory diseases and cancer, to create potential vaccines and immune therapies to treat lung cancer.

Congratulations to Drs. Hirschi, Sheynkman, and Sun, and to all 21 School of Medicine faculty to receive this tremendous honor!

Click here to read about the ceremony: https://news.med.virginia.edu/featured/school-of-medicine-faculty-honored-at-2025-faculty-awards-ceremony/

Click here to view the full list of 2025 Faculty Awards recipients: https://med.virginia.edu/faculty-affairs/honors/2025-deans-faculty-award-recipients-and-endowed-professorship-electees/

The recent symposium “Thriving Beyond Cancer: Reclaiming Wellness, Intimacy, and Strength,” co-hosted by UVACCC and the ...
01/09/2026

The recent symposium “Thriving Beyond Cancer: Reclaiming Wellness, Intimacy, and Strength,” co-hosted by UVACCC and the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia OB/GYN Department’s Division of Gynecologic Oncology, was a success!

Featuring keynote speaker Susan Modesitt, MD, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, along with UVA Health’s JoAnn Pinkerton, MD, and Tamara Pringle, MD, the event explored the latest insights on the unique challenges faced by female cancer survivors, with a focus on gynecologic cancers, menopause, and sexual health.

The event also included the presentation of the 2024 and 2025 Angelus Awards to Johanna Ellwood, RN, and Paul M. Marshall, PhD, MSN, ANP. The family of Millie and Alex Angelus generously established the award in 1999 to honor a nurse who provides extraordinary care and compassion to women’s oncology patients. Congratulations, Johanna and Paul, and thank you for all you do!

01/08/2026

Link to the 2025 Community Health Survey

01/08/2026

Promising ovarian cancer research by UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center's Melanie Rutkowski, PhD, has earned $700,000 from the Victoria's Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancers in partnership with Pelotonia and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).

Rutkowski received a Rising Innovator Research Grant to further her studies of the role of the microbiome – the collection of microorganisms that live within us – in ovarian cancer and in the disease’s stubborn ability to resist immune therapy.

“It is humbling and a tremendous honor to be selected as one of the recipients for the Victoria’s Secret Global Fund for Women’s Cancer Rising Innovator Research Grant,” said Rutkowski, part of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology at the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. “The financial resources and recognition will provide a central foundation to our lab, enabling us to transform these findings into a novel treatment paradigm.”

🩷 Learn more at https://bit.ly/4aUlauJ

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1240 Lee Street
Charlottesville, VA
22903

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At UVA Cancer Center, we deliver advanced patient care combined with the latest research-based treatment options to improve the quality of life for cancer patients in and surrounding Virginia. With state-of-the-art clinics in multiple locations around Virginia and telemedicine programs for rural communities, UVA Cancer Center is one of the most widely-accessible cancer centers in the region.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked UVA the No. 1 hospital in Virginia. Five of our specialties are among the top 50 in the U.S., including our cancer services. We're also the only cancer center in Virginia listed in Becker’s 100 hospitals and health systems with great oncology programs.

As one of 70 National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers, we're part of renowned group of leaders in cancer research, prevention, detection and treatment and strive to stay ahead of the curve in innovation, technology and, most importantly, patient care.