Supporting the Goals of the National Cancer Plan

A recent American Cancer Society study found that controllable factors like smoking and diet contribute to about 4 in 10 cancer cases, and nearly half of all cancer deaths. They are also culprits in the disproportionately higher cancer rates across the 87 Virginia and West Virginia counties UVACCC serves.

Eliminate Tobacco Use Virginia Initiative

While national tobacco smoking rates have dropped to historic lows below 11 percent, roughly 12 percent of Virginians still smoke, with rates in rural regions of UVACCC’s catchment area significantly higher at 20.6 percent. E-cigarette sales nationwide increased between 2019 and 2023, but more recently use of nicotine pouches has grown dramatically. Research published this year in JAMA Network Open found that from 2023 to 2024, nicotine pouch use by high schoolers doubled.

Lindsay Hauser, MS, MTTS

To cut use in Virginia, UVA and partner institutions are pushing policies that foster a tobacco-free culture in higher education settings. UVACCC and VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center co-lead the Eliminate Tobacco Use Virginia Initiative (ETUVA), part of the national Eliminate Tobacco Use initiative founded in 2015 by the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and the University of Texas System.

Spurred by ETUVA, in 2021 the state formally encouraged all colleges in the Commonwealth – public and private – to establish tobacco-free campuses. To support the effort, ETUVA issues report cards on the tobacco use policies of 49 public Virginia colleges and universities, accessible online in partnership with the state Department of Health’s Tobacco Control Program.

Along with letter grades for each institution, the report cards track progress and provide guidance on how to enact stronger policies. In 2024, seven institutions improved their report card scores by adopting more comprehensive tobacco policies.

“Tobacco-free campuses won’t end tobacco use, but research shows the policy does reduce it, and public colleges are places where we can effect change,” said UVACCC Office of Community Outreach and Engagement Director Lindsay Hauser, MS, MTTS. “By supporting policy changes, ETUVA provides an opportunity to discourage young adults from ever starting to use nicotine products, and encourage current users to quit.”

Online Interventions, With a Human Touch

Becca Krukowski, PhD

Like smoking, obesity compounds risk of 13 forms of cancer that account for 40 percent of U.S. diagnoses in the U.S., according to the NCI. While approximately 2 in 5 Americans have obesity, the condition is more common in rural areas: a 2022 University of Chicago study found obesity rates of approximately 41 percent in metropolitan areas and 48 percent in rural areas.

Contributing to the disparity is the limited availability of traditional weight-loss programs in rural communities. To close the gap, investigators have evaluated online interventions, but their success rates trail those of face-to-face programs. Supported by a $3.37 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant and in collaboration with the University of South Carolina, Becca Krukowski, PhD, Professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and UVACCC member, is evaluating a new approach that enhances online intervention by adding a human touch.

Through 2026, more than 600 volunteers will be enrolled to participate in a 24-week program called iREACH Rural. In addition to core online content, they will randomly receive one of two forms of feedback on their dietary, physical activity, and weight self-monitoring, and may receive additional components including weekly group video sessions and individual coaching calls. Recently, the research team joined with primary care networks affiliated with the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center through NIH’s CARE for Health program. This partnership seeks to improve access to clinical research in rural communities through primary care clinics.

“Weight loss of as little as 5 to 7 percent can reduce obesity-associated co-morbidities, “Dr. Krukowski said. “While we can’t reach every community member in person, by finding the best combination of online content and ‘human touch’ aspects we can optimize our efforts to reduce cancer risk.”

Pathways to Cancer Screening

In the region UVACCC serves – as elsewhere – gaps in access to early cancer detection cost lives. Limited awareness, financial barriers, lack of access to primary care, and transportation challenges can delay cancer screenings, resulting in diagnoses only after symptoms appear, often at a more advance stage.

Wendy Cohn, MEd, PhD

To close those gaps in its catchment area, in 2024 UVACCC established the Pathways to Cancer Screening (P2CS) program. P2CS has three main components: education on updated screening guidelines for providers focused on federally qualified health centers (FQHCs); community navigation, where navigation specialists engage residents to review screening needs, identify barriers and connect them to appropriate care; and support for sustainable screening practices targeting priority cancers. The program has directed screening resources to high-needs areas, including UVA Health mobile mammography, a mailed fecal immunochemical test campaign, and free skin-cancer screenings.

To focus on the pathways for cancer screening within FQHCs, the Cancer Center established the Virginia FQHC Cancer Screening Collaborative, supported by a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute contract, to synergize communication among the FQHCs, enhance navigation practices and build research capacity.

In P2CS’ first year, one in six navigation clients completed one or more overdue screenings, while more than 150 were connected with primary care. Over a two-year period, screenings for breast, colorectal and cervical cancer at partner FQHCs have seen growth ranging from 9 to 55 percent.

“The early results from our partners in the Pathways to Cancer Screening program are extremely encouraging,” said Wendy Cohn, MEd, PhD, UVACCC’s Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement. “They show the effectiveness of integrating education, community navigation, and evidence-based interventions to boost screening which can lead to a fewer late-stage diagnoses and mortality from screenable cancers.”

High-Risk Pancreatic Cancer Screening

Pancreatic cancer is among the most daunting challenges patients, providers and researchers face, because the disease often doesn’t present symptoms until it has progressed significantly. Only surgery offers hope of a cure, but once symptoms appear and the disease is diagnosed, surgery is no longer a treatment option for most patients. Incidence and death rates are increasing – likely due to factors including obesity – and it is on track to surpass colorectal cancer as the second-leading cause of U.S. cancer deaths behind lung cancer.

Todd Bauer, MD

Early detection improves the odds dramatically. Pancreatic cancer’s overall five-year survival rate is approximately 13 percent, but among patients diagnosed in a dedicated high-risk pancreas screening clinic, that figure increases to 73 percent, according to 2022 UVA study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Led by Chief of Surgical Oncology Todd Bauer, MD, UVA’s High-Risk Pancreatic Cancer Screening Clinic identifies patients with family history or genetic conditions that place them at high risk for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, and screens them yearly using MRI scans and endoscopic ultrasound. Since its establishment in 2013 the clinic has screened approximately 1,500 patients, and has helped UVA attain recognition as a National Pancreas Foundation Academic Center of Excellence for Pancreatic Cancer. The clinic is a top patient accruer in an ongoing ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group study that is evaluating monitoring methods, as well as seeking for pancreatic cyst biomarkers toward the goal of a screening blood test.

Recently, UVA joined 50 other high-risk screening programs for the Pancreatic Cancer Early Detection (PRECEDE) Consortium study, which will test early detection and prevention methods with the ambitious goal of increasing the overall five-year survival rate to 50 percent within a decade.

“Our emphasis on early detection is increasing life expectancies, and we urge anyone who may be at high risk to be evaluated for screening,” Dr. Bauer said. “Courageous patients will continue to drive discovery, and we’re confident these new trials will improve their outcomes.”

New Combination Therapies for Lung Cancer

Ryan Gentzler, MD, MS

Lung cancer’s incidence and mortality have dropped in recent decades thanks to factors including reduced smoking and improved screening and treatment. The disease, however, remains the most common form of cancer as well as the top cause of cancer-related deaths, with incidence in women growing and people who have never smoked for reasons that are unclear.

Thoracic oncologist Ryan Gentzler, MD, MS, serves as Clinical Co-lead of the Cancer Center’s Lung Translational Research Team, which works to focus basic science, translational, clinical, population health, and screening research targeting the disease. He has led multiple clinical trials evaluating new treatments, in particular immunotherapy drugs – which enlist the immune system to fight cancer – as well as targeted therapies for lung cancers with specific genetic mutations.

“Despite recent gains in lung cancer outcomes, there is still a need to develop new treatments for lung cancer to further improve survival rates,” Dr. Gentzler said. “We seek to develop more effective drugs, but also to find ideal combinations and more personalized treatment approaches for unique subsets of cancer in different patients and at various stages of treatment.”

UVA has helped develop chemotherapy plus pembrolizumab immunotherapy that has become standard of care for a large number of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. In 2024, a UVA phase 3 trial of amivantamab in combination with chemotherapy was approved by the FDA for EGFR-mutated lung cancer, and the UVA thoracic oncology team, including Dr. Gentzler and Richard D. Hall, MD, MS, became the first in Virginia to administer a newly FDA-approved immunotherapy drug, tarlatamab, for patients with late-stage small cell lung cancer.

More recently, in June of 2025, the FDA approved antibody-drug conjugate datopotamab deruxtecan for locally advanced or metastatic EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer patients who have received prior EGFR-directed therapy and platinum-based chemotherapy. The approval was based in part on data from the TROPION-Lung01 clinical trial, which Dr. Hall co-led as a Principal Investigator and enrolled patients at UVA.

Pursuing Faster Therapy Response Testing

Drs. Róża Przanowska, Kevin Janes, and Shayna Showalter and MD-PhD Candidate Najwa Labban

Just as every patient is unique, so is their cancer; and different patients respond differently to specific therapies. Luminal breast cancer is the most common subtype of breast cancer, and while less aggressive than others, early-stage cases require years of follow-ups to determine if treatment has worked. A new diagnostic method developed by an interdisciplinary UVA team, however, could take just two weeks to determine which treatments would work for each patient, thus allowing for more individualized treatment.

Led by Kevin Janes, PhD, the John Marshall Money Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Shayna Showalter, MD, Professor of Surgery, Róża Przanowska, PhD, Biomedical Engineering Research Associate, and Najwa Labban, Medical Sciences Training Program MD-PhD candidate, the team adapted a new way of creating “zero-passage” organoids: scalable, cultured models of individual tumors that provide rapid indication of a patient’s likely responsiveness to treatment. The method’s speed and success rates were twice that of standard long-term organoid models.

The discovery, which drew on expertise in pathology, surgery and engineering, “shows what’s possible when researchers from different disciplines come together and pursue a discovery that will translate to clinical care,” Dr. Janes said.

Pioneering a New Era of Noninvasive Brain Cancer Treatment

Groundbreaking research at the University of Virginia was instrumental in the development of transcranial focused ultrasound as a noninvasive treatment for essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. Building on this legacy, UVA neurosurgeons are now exploring the same technology to treat brain cancer without surgery or systemic side effects.

Shayan Moosa, MD

Among them is Shayan Moosa, MD, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery, who is leading a Phase 1 clinical trial investigating sonodynamic therapy—a novel approach that combines focused ultrasound with 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) in patients with recurrent glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and deadly brain cancers. Median survival after diagnosis is typically less than 15 months.

In this trial, patients receive 5-ALA, an inert imaging compound that selectively accumulates in tumor cells. Once localized, low-intensity focused ultrasound is applied to the tumor, activating the 5-ALA and initiating a therapeutic response—without affecting surrounding healthy brain tissue. Thanks to cutting-edge neuronavigation technology, patients are able to remain comfortably awake during the hour-long procedure, which does not require a head frame or intraoperative MRI. Most patients report only mild scalp warming during the treatment. Standard-of-care surgery follows within one to three weeks.

Preclinical studies suggest that this sonodynamic therapy may effectively destroy tumor cells while sparing normal tissue, offering a new pathway for treatment where few options exist.

“This and other work with focused ultrasound has the potential to revolutionize how we treat neurological disease,” Dr. Moosa said. “In fact, I can envision a future where we will be able to cure neurological disorders, including brain tumors, without ever having to make an incision.”

Building Prostate Cancer Awareness

Rev. Maurice Ferrell, PhD

Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in men after skin cancer, with one in eight men diagnosed in his lifetime. Risks vary by age, family history and race. Black men are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed as white males, and more than twice as likely to die from the disease. Statistically, Black patients also experience less access to treatment, and long delays between diagnosis and treatment.

To close the gap and save lives, in 2024 the Cancer Center launched the Stay in the Game initiative in Charlottesville and Danville with the goal of “tackling prostate cancer as a team.”

The Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) team partners with organizations to recruit prostate cancer “champions” who communicate the importance of prostate cancer risk and screening within their own communities. Along with educational resources, COE provides support including events and screening opportunities.

Stay in the Game champions include Rev. Maurice Ferrell, PhD, Pastor of Vance Street Missionary Baptist Church in Danville, who said that conversations fostered by the program could save lives.

“I think that more of us talking about prostate cancer and screening is an encouraging factor, not only our communities, but for our families,” Rev. Ferrell said.

Mobile Technology to Support Patient Mental Health

Demand for mental health support exceeds what today’s provider workforce can deliver. That shortfall is felt especially by people confronting cancer, and can be compounded by obstacles to care like distance, cost and busy schedules.

Katharine Daniel, PhD

Katharine Daniel, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, studies the potential of mobile technology both to understand how cancer patients manage their emotions, and to bridge access gaps with digital mental health interventions (DMHIs): support tools including online resources and apps.

Dr. Daniel combines patient feedback with clinical research to determine the best resources for cancer patients throughout their journey, “translating the strategies that we know help people from decades of in-person therapy research, and bringing those strategies into a digital sphere,” she said.

DMHIs can offer patients resources like relaxation and mindfulness exercises, sleep logs, and help scheduling activities to reconnect with people or hobbies important to them.

“A cancer diagnosis can be a really big shake-up in a person’s life, and it can bring a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. I want to help patients through that emotional shake-up, so they have a good quality of life, can make the best decisions for themselves moving forward, and have the best health outcomes as possible,” Dr. Daniel said.

Through a recently awarded American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant, Dr. Daniel will soon begin to learn from men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer about their emotional experiences and support needs in the weeks leading up to scans for disease progression. The long-term goal of this work is to build a timely, personalized mobile health intervention system that reduces scan-related anxiety and improves patient quality of life.

New Hope for Metastatic Peritoneal Cancers

Samantha Ruff, MD

Cancer that has spread or metastasized to the peritoneum (lining of the abdominal wall) can be difficult to treat with systemic, intravenous chemotherapy alone. This includes stomach, colon, rectal, appendix, and ovarian cancers and a form of primary cancer of the peritoneum called mesothelioma.

Cytoreduction surgery (CRS) and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) is an operation that combines the surgical removal of all visible tumor with chemotherapy delivered directly to the abdomen. After removing all visible tumor, heated chemotherapy is circulated in the patient’s abdomen for 90 minutes to kill any microscopic cancer cells. This procedure takes all day to complete and patients are typically recovering in the hospital for 7-10 days.

Samantha Ruff, MD, is a surgical oncologist who recently brought this procedure and technology to UVA Medical Center. Through the establishment of the peritoneal surface malignancy program, she hopes that this treatment will offer hope for patients with metastatic abdominal cancers facing a daunting prognosis.

“It is critical that we continue to perform research in this field to determine which patients benefit the most from CRS/HIPEC and work as a team to improve and extend the lives of patients with metastatic cancer.” Dr. Ruff said.

Supporting Survivors’ Sexual Health

UVACCC’s Cancer Prevention and Population Health Research Program (CPH) recently expanded its aims to better capture ongoing work in survivorship to improve outcomes for cancer survivors and to develop novel interventions for this group.

Kelly Shaffer, PhD

CPH Program co-lead Kelly Shaffer, PhD, an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences with UVA’s Center for Behavioral Health and Technology, examines cancer’s impact on cancer survivors and caregivers, evaluating internet-based interventions like Sleep Healthy Using the Internet (SHUTi) which helps survivors combat insomnia.

Dr. Shaffer is principal investigator on a five-year National Institutes of Health-funded study aimed at helping the three in four breast cancer survivors who experience sexual distress and dysfunction. Called the Sexual Health and Intimacy Enhancement (SHINE) trial, it’s evaluating online supports for symptoms including loss of libido, pain during intercourse, and difficulty reaching orgasm.

“Sexual problems from cancer treatment significantly impact the quality-of-life of millions of breast cancer survivors,” Dr. Shaffer said. “The goal of the SHINE trial is to develop an engaging and effective online intervention that can fit within survivors’ busy schedules to address these problems.”

The trial enrolled over 300 breast cancer survivors from across the country, and results are expected later this year. The UVACCC plans to offer the SHINE online program to breast cancer survivors who are UVA patients starting this summer.

Patient Clinical Contributions, by the Thousands

Elizabeth Mulcahy, PhD

More than ever, patients can directly support the fight against cancer by donating their own data and tissue samples for anonymous analysis by scientists around the country seeking the disease’s root causes, markers, and new treatments. It’s possible thanks to the new science of genetic sequencing, combined with ever-increasing data storage and processing capabilities, potentially enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI).

Since 2016, more than 13,000 UVACCC patients have consented to anonymously share tissue samples and clinical data through UVACCC’s Partners in Discovery Program, and of those, more than 1,300 have shared genetic data. In addition to facilitating enrollment of UVA patients, Partners in Discovery which facilitates two-way data sharing of patient data between UVA researchers and national data exchanges including the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network (ORIEN), a consortium of 18 cancer centers across the United States, the Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN), sponsored by the NCI, and the Applied Proteogenomics and Learning Outcomes (APOLLO) program, supported by the Cancer Moonshot.

“Contributing to, and having access to such a large dataset for so many patients with different cancer types gives our researchers the opportunity to observe and understand cancer at every level, from specific gene mutations to population statistics,” says Elizabeth Mulcahy, PhD, Director of Partners in Discovery.

Removing Barriers to Clinical Trial Participation

The complex challenge of fighting cancer is compounded by simpler obstacles that keep patients from participating in research. UVACCC’s Office of Clinical Research (OCR) facilitates clinical trials by working with sponsors, investigators, and patients. The OCR is also taking fundamental steps to increase trial participation while reducing disparities and providing compassionate care.

Mark Dewey

Mark Dewey joined the OCR in 2022 as a Bilingual Clinical Trials Navigator to support cancer patients enrolled in clinical trials of novel therapies. He quickly found that simply getting to and from the Cancer Center posed a significant barrier to participating in and completing trials. Many trial participants reside in rural parts of UVA’s catchment area not served by public transportation. Others may need to travel from as far as Roanoke, Hampton Roads and Baltimore.

“That’s a problem, because if you’re participating in a cancer clinical trial, you probably don’t feel well enough to drive for four hours and then drive back,” Dewey said.

The gig economy furnished a simple solution: a UVACCC Uber Health account supported by trial sponsors to provide transportation for participants who could not otherwise participate. During the program’s first year, beneficiaries included nine people living in Richmond, Lynchburg, Palmyra, and two hours away in Manassas, many of whom were able to join trials requiring weekly infusions only because of this program.

“The thing that might keep somebody from participating – in a trial that might save their life – is someone picking them up for a ride,” Dewey says. “And that is what this program does.”

Refining Computational Genomics Tools

Advances in genomics technologies and computing power also fuel the rapid growth of computational genomics, a field that applies statistical and computational techniques to make sense of massive genomic datasets and uncover how biological systems work. UVACCC recently appointed member and Associate Professor of Genome Sciences Chongzhi Zang, PhD, its inaugural Director of Computational Genomics.

Chongzhi Zang, PhD

In his leadership role, Dr. Zang serves as a connector for colleagues pursuing computational genomics research, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration, particularly with UVA School of Data Science, and working to boost University researchers’ use of local and national cancer data available through cross-institutional platforms such as ORIEN. His work is helping UVA scientists unlock the full potential of powerful, data-driven approaches to improve cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.

Dr. Zang’s own research focuses on chromatin, the complex of DNA, RNA and proteins that packages our genetic material into the structure of chromosomes. His lab has developed of a series of innovative computational tools that cut through noise within complicated genomic sequencing data, allowing scientists to more accurately identify the molecular signals that control which genes turn on or off in specific cell types. This is critical because those gene activity pattens ultimately determine the identity of a cell, and whether it develops normally or potentially becomes cancerous.

More recently, Dr. Zang’s team has made important discoveries about “transcriptional condensates”, tiny, droplet-like, protein-filled structures inside cell nuclei that help activate genes. When these condensates form abnormally, they can drive cancer and other diseases. By analyzing large-scale genomics data, Dr. Zang’s team has identified DNA patterns influencing condensate formation, providing new clues into how genes are regulated, and potential targets for future precision cancer therapies.

“The enormous amount of big data now available to cancer researchers holds tremendous potential that we’ve only begun to tap,” Dr. Zang said. “Our work here at UVA and with national partners continues to build the tools and insights needed to unlock that potential, and we are committed to helping our colleagues and researchers across disciplines in the broader community fully harness these resources to advance the future cancer research.”

Accelerating Clinical Trial Matching with AI

UVA clinical researchers also seek to match cancer patients with clinical drug trials best suited to their unique disease traits. To help, UVACCC is developing and testing sophisticated software including (AI).

Matching patients with the appropriate clinical drug trials is challenging because of different ways each patient’s cancer may be diagnosed, treated and respond to therapy, as well as clinical trials’ complex eligibility criteria. Currently, UVA’s clinical research coordinators spends a significant amount of time reviewing patients’ records, clinical notes, and referring documents to determine if a patient is eligible for a trial.

With the goal of being able to screen every single eligible patient, UVACCC is building a software tool called IMPACT (Intelligent Matching of Patients to Clinical Trials). A preliminary test used IMPACT to screen approximately 200 UVA patients for eligibility to share data via the Partners in Discovery program. IMPACT not only detected all the patients identified by the human, it found a few additional patients.

“Clinical trial matching is a challenging problem everywhere. And AI is the type of technology that can directly address the obstacles here,” Dr. Mulcahy said. “Because IMPACT is being built in-house and will be trained with real UVA patient data, it has the potential to directly improve care for our patients.”

UVA is also evaluating AI’s potential to improve researcher access to data resources across internal departments and databases. The ultimate goal is to build a one-stop user interface providing immediate access to patient clinical, genomics, and specimen data across multiple platforms. In order to do this, the UVACCC is collaborating with a software company called Manifold AI to help merge data for over 130,000 patients diagnosed with and/or received treatment for cancer at UVA. A straightforward research question that previously took weeks to months to answer will soon be answered in a matter of minutes using the Manifold system.

“I am very excited about this collaboration because it has the potential to change how clinical research is done at UVA and dramatically accelerate research progress,” Dr. Mulcahy added.

Supporting Today’s Team and Tomorrow’s Leaders

Marquita Taylor, PhD, MPH, MBA

Led by Associate Director Marquita Taylor, PhD, MPH, MBA, UVACCC’s Office of Organizational Excellence and Workforce Strategy supports the development of faculty, staff and trainees with programs that foster the growth and success of team members and their work, both at UVA and beyond.

Career and leadership development efforts supported by the Cancer Center include the Pathway to Growth Mentorship Program, a 10-month program that mentors and mentees based on goals, interests, and expertise to support growth by sharing industry experience, communication and networking skills, and professional tools for maximizing performance and managing challenges.

Serving team members with terminal degrees, the Emerging Cancer Center Leaders Program is an intense, 10-month fellowship providing essential knowledge, skills and training as a pathway to cancer center leadership opportunities.

The YOU@UVA Leadership Program began this year in partnership with the Integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV). It offers early-career faculty, trainees, and clinical research professionals a six-month professional development experience designed to enhance leadership, mentorship to accelerate translation of research ideas into health solutions.

“Our mentorship and leadership development efforts help team members thrive and deliver impactful research, care, and community engagement, while building a resilient culture that reflects our unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence in cancer care and discovery,” Dr. Taylor said.

The Next Generation

Lucy Pemberton, PhD

To feed the talent pipeline and support the future of research, the UVACCC’s Cancer Research Training and Education Coordination Core (CRTEC), led by Associate Director for Education and Training Lucy Pemberton, PhD, engages groups ranging from local high school students to faculty at UVA and other institutions.

CRTEC partners with UVA’s medical and graduate students for the Discover Medicine program. Throughout the academic year, Discover Medicine hosts local high school students each month for daylong, interactive visits to the School of Medicine. Each focuses on different organ system with activities including research lab tours and research demonstrations, Q&As with graduate and medical students, and hands-on practice at tasks like history-taking and basic exams with direction from student volunteers.

During the summer, the Cancer Center facilitates multiple programs for undergraduate and faculty-level researchers. They include the NIH funded Summer Research Experience in Cancer (SuRE-C), which enrolls undergraduate, and first- or second-year medical students for 10 weeks of research and professional development. The Short-Term Research Initiative for Visiting Educators (STRIVE) hosts faculty from institutions with fewer research resources, such as teaching-intensive, primarily undergraduate institutions, to pursue research in collaboration with UVA faculty for 4-6 weeks each summer.

Discover Medicine

With support from the American Cancer Society, CRTEC offers the Cancer Research Summer Internship Program (CR-SIP), a paid, 10-week summer internship for undergraduate students interested in cancer research; and for the first time in 2025, the Cancer Research-Post-Baccalaureate Fellows Program (CR-PFP). CR-PFP is a two-year program that provides an individualized research experience for STEM bachelor’s degree holders who plan graduate studies in biomedical science, public health, or a health profession. Both programs encourage application by individuals who have had limited exposure, experience, and access to research opportunities.

“Attracting the most talented and passionate students and supporting their growth as researchers, clinicians and leaders will speed future progress in the fight against cancer, and save lives,” Pemberton said. “This, and the other goals of National Cancer Plan, give us a roadmap to reduce the burden of cancer within our lifetimes and beyond.”