Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center will host two specialized retreats for lung care in October for colleagues across the organization to collaborate, review progress and identify opportunities to improve patient outcomes.

The event co-chairs are also co-leaders for the Thoracic Oncology program at Vanderbilt-Ingram: Fabien Maldonado, MD, MSc, Director of Interventional Pulmonology at the Vanderbilt Lung Institute, and Evan Osmundson, MD, PhD, Vice Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology.

They worked in partnership with Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MPH, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Genetic Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, for the research-based retreat. Aldrich is an accomplished lung cancer investigator and holder of the Robert A. Goodwin, Jr., MD, Directorship

“These retreats allow us to reflect on our progress, strengthen collaborations across disciplines and identify opportunities to further improve care for patients with lung cancer. We remain focused on building the most patient-centered, data-driven lung cancer program in Tennessee,” said Maldonado, holder of the Pierre Massion Directorship in Lung Cancer Research.

“At our last retreat, we launched a real-time lung cancer time-to-treatment tracker in Tableau to monitor patients through the referral, workup, and treatment pipeline,” Osmundson said. “Gathering again allows us to build on that momentum and continue elevating patient care.”

1. Research Retreat (Friday, Oct. 2, 9 a.m.-1 p.m.): Open to all researchers across all disciplines at 3401 West End Ave., Second Floor, Suite 290.   
2. Clinical Retreat (Friday, Oct. 30, 7:30 a.m.-1 p.m.): Open to clinical practitioners and team members involved in lung cancer care and research, Scarritt Bennett Center, 1027 18th Ave. S.

Click here to register.  

These collaborative sessions offer a valuable opportunity for teams to align around the long-term strategic vision for the lung cancer program as well as assess program performance against national and regional benchmarks.

There will also be time to discuss and identify initiatives to drive progress over the next few years.

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The University of California, Santa Cruz Alumni Association has announced Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MPH, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Genetic Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology at Vanderbilt Health, as one of its 2026 UC Santa Cruz Alumni Awards recipients.

The awards celebrate individuals whose vision, leadership and dedication have made a meaningful impact in their professions, in society, within the university community, and across the globe. Each honoree exemplifies the values and spirit of UC Santa Cruz through their achievements and contributions, according to a release from UC Santa Cruz.

Aldrich, who has authored more than 170 scientific publications and held leadership roles in numerous national and international scientific organizations, joins John Torigoe, James Hein, PhD, Peter Coha, Jim Gunderson, JD, and Stephanie Barron Lu as recipients of the 2026 UC Santa Cruz Alumni Awards; they will be honored Oct. 16 at a UC Santa Cruz celebration gala. 

“This year’s Alumni Award honorees reflect the remarkable breadth of what UC Santa Cruz alumni go on to do and the many ways they contribute to their communities and the world,” said Chancellor Cynthia Larive, PhD. “Their accomplishments are distinct, but each has brought curiosity, purpose, and a commitment to making a difference to their work. We are proud to recognize them and celebrate the paths they have taken since their time at UC Santa Cruz.” 

Aldrich, who is also Professor of Biomedical Informatics and Thoracic Surgery at Vanderbilt Health, received her BA in biology from UC Santa Cruz in 1992. She is an internationally recognized expert in lung cancer epidemiology with a research focus on lung cancer screening, risk prediction for early detection, genetics, and differences in health outcomes.

She contributed to health policy revisions of national lung cancer screening guidelines by demonstrating that high-risk African American individuals were disproportionately missed by existing screening eligibility criteria, earning her the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Award for Research.

“I am deeply honored to receive the UC Santa Cruz Ethos Award. UC Santa Cruz helped shape my belief that scientific progress should benefit all communities, and that principle has guided my work,” said Aldrich, who holds the Robert A. Goodwin Jr., MD, Directorship at Vanderbilt Health. “To be recognized for that commitment by UC Santa Cruz, an institution that has meant so much to me, is especially meaningful.”

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A study led by researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center has discovered genetic susceptibilities that may shed light on why people of African ancestry are disproportionately affected by lung cancer.  

Prior research has shown that Americans of African ancestry have a higher risk of lung cancer compared to white Americans despite smoking fewer cigarettes, but the reasons for this difference are not fully understood, and studies that delve into genetic susceptibilities for lung cancer among this population group have been limited. New research published Aug. 18 in the American Journal of Human Genetics revealed a total of 10 genomic regions — four of which had never been previously reported — associated with lung cancer. 

The researchers performed genome-wide association studies on 6,490 people of African ancestry that included 2,390 with a diagnosis of lung cancer and a control group of 4,100 for comparison. 

The authors confirmed that a well-known genetic region on chromosome 15 plays a major role in lung cancer risk across populations. The authors also discovered four additional genetic regions (on chromosomes 3, 8, 14 and 18) that had not been linked to lung cancer before. When their findings were combined with results from European and Asian populations, a total of 17 genetic regions were associated with lung cancer risk. Several genes in these regions are involved in biological processes such as lung function, cell growth and DNA repair.  

“Our work provides a critical advance in lung cancer by improving our limited understanding of genetic susceptibility in African ancestry populations and offers insights that may guide future treatment efforts,” said the study’s corresponding author, Melinda Aldrich, PhD, MPH, professor of Medicine, Thoracic Surgery and Biomedical Informatics at Vanderbilt.  

Aldrich and Jacklyn Hellwege, PhD, research assistant professor of Medicine, are the study’s senior authors. 

“This work was uniquely positioned to make use of advances in statistical modeling and genetic ancestry information to ultimately make new insights into the genetic architecture of lung cancer in this at-risk population,” said Hellwege. 

VUMC researchers received support from National Institutes of Health grants (U01CA253560, U01CA202979, R01CA141769, R01ES006717, P30CA022453 and P30CA068485) for the study. 

Other VUMC authors on the study are Michael Betti, PhD, James Jaworski, MPH, Shilin Zhao, PhD, and Eric Gamazon, PhD, MS. 

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