Graduate student Kristin Altwegg selected for Early Career Hill Day

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Kristin Altwegg, lead author of a poster presented at the 2019 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

Kristin Ann Altwegg, a fourth-year student in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at UT Health San Antonio, was selected to participate in the AACR Early Career Hill Day on Feb. 25. Altwegg is an affiliate member of the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson, and is in the Cancer Biology discipline of the graduate school’s Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program.

The event, offered by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), was held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Altwegg and 21 other early career cancer scientists from across the United States met with nearly 60 members of Congress and their staff, representing 17 different states.

Early Career Hill Day is an opportunity for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and other early career cancer scientists to meet with members of Congress and/or their staff to convey the importance of robust, sustained and predictable federal funding for medical research.

Altwegg’s biosketch for AACR Early Career Hill Day noted that she “is committed to improving our understanding of breast and gynecologic cancers with a goal of developing next-generation translational cancer therapeutics and prevention interventions to positively enhance disease-free interval and survival outcomes.”

Altwegg, a CPRIT Predoctoral Fellow, received an AACR Associate Member Award for her poster at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) in December 2019. Read a story about her SABCS experience here.

CPRIT is short for Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas.

Her research is dedicated to uncovering the mechanistic contributions of oncogenes, epigenetics and hormonal signaling, with an eye toward the development of novel translational advances in women’s cancer therapeutics, the biosketch continues.

Congratulations to Kristin Altwegg.

 

 

Mays Cancer Center conducting study to learn how COVID-19 vaccine affects patients with cancer

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Novavax vaccine

Individuals with cancer who get COVID-19 are more likely to have severe illness and higher death rates compared to the general public.

The Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson, has prioritized offering the COVID-19 vaccine to its patients and is conducting an observational study to better understand how the immune system responds to the novel coronavirus vaccine in patients with cancer.

“This study will help us understand who has developed protection against COVID-19 and who might need an additional booster shot,” said Dimpy Shah, MD, PhD, epidemiologist and assistant professor of population health sciences at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio). She also is a member of its Mays Cancer Center.

“From my past studies looking at different viruses, we have observed that, despite vaccination, some patients with cancer do not develop sufficient antibodies to fight infection. This is because cancer suppresses the immune system. For this reason, cancer patients were not included in earlier COVID studies, so we do not have good data to know how effective the vaccine is in patients who are receiving cancer therapy,” Dr. Shah explained.

Dr. Shah is leading the study with Kate Lathrop, MD, a breast oncologist at the Mays Cancer Center and an associate professor of hematology/oncology at UT Health San Antonio.

“This will be a very important study for helping us prevent worse outcomes in our patients with cancer and COVID-19. The study could also potentially help us predict how similar vaccines will affect our patients in the future,” Dr. Lathrop added.

Patients will be enrolled in the study when they receive their two COVID vaccinations at the Mays Cancer Center. Their doctors will follow them for up to 18 months to monitor side effects and learn how long the immune response lasts.

The name of the clinical trial is “Host Immune Response to Novel RNA COVID Vaccination in Patients with Cancer.” Mays Cancer Center patients who received the coronavirus vaccine before the study was launched on Feb. 18 may contact their doctor through MyChart to participate.

— Contributed by Rosanne Fohn

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The Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center, is one of only four National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Centers in Texas. The Mays Cancer Center provides leading-edge cancer care, propels innovative cancer research and educates the next generation of leaders to end cancer in South Texas. Visit www.UTHealthsaMDAnderson.org.

Your COVID-19 vaccine questions answered with Dr. Amelie Ramirez

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Your COVID-19 vaccine questions answeredWith the COVID-19 vaccine now here, hopes for stopping the spread and returning to normal life are on the rise. But many people within the community are still hesitant to receive the vaccine, with concerns about safety and efficacy. In this series, “Your COVID-19 Vaccine Questions Answered,” our experts explain why getting the vaccine is not only safe, but also the best way to protect yourself and the people you love.

Latinos face a higher risk of disease, and not just from COVID-19. As a professor and chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences and director of the Institute for Health Promotion Research at UT Health San Antonio, Amelie Ramirez, DrPH, MPH, has dedicated her career to investigate why and to improve health outcomes for the Latino community.Amelie Ramirez, DrPH

Here, she answers some of the most common questions from the Bexar County area about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Q: Why is it important for me to get the vaccine?

Dr. Ramirez: We want our families to be able to get back together. We want to visit our sisters and brothers, parents, and abuelos and abuelas. We want to be able to do our jobs and go to school safely. We want things to get back to normal. The best way to achieve what we want is to get the vaccine right when it is available. Vaccines help our bodies become immune to a virus without becoming ill from it.

Vaccination is a safe, important way we can stop the pandemic once and for all. As Latinos, we are resilient. But part of our resiliency requires action, like getting the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to you, to protect yourself and your family.

Q: What are the underlying medical conditions that can put someone at risk?

Dr. Ramirez: COVID-19 impacts people of all ages. Anyone can get sick. But some groups are suffering more than others.

For example, COVID-19 continues to disproportionately impact Latinos, killing over 76,000 and hospitalizing many more of our mothers, fathers, children, abuelos and other family members.

Also, some people with the following underlying health conditions are at a higher risk for severe illness (requiring hospitalization or intubation) from the virus that causes COVID-19: cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Down Syndrome, heart conditions, immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant, obesity, severe obesity, pregnancy, sickle cell disease, smoking and Type 2 diabetes.

Q: What are the side effects of the vaccine that most people are experiencing? Are they different by age group?

Dr. Ramirez: COVID-19 vaccination will help protect you from getting COVID-19. We know COVID-19 vaccines have gone through many months of rigorous testing and trials, building on many years of research on coronaviruses prior to the recent pandemic. As the vaccines rolled out, they have undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history.

The nation’s leading health experts have indicated that, after millions of people have gotten the vaccine, some do not experience any side effects, while others may experience mild side effects. The most common side effects are pain and swelling where you got the shot, as well as fever, chills, tiredness and headache. These reactions are normal and show the vaccine is working to build protection. They should go away in a few days.

“Your COVID-19 Vaccine Questions Answered” is part of an educational series about the COVID-19 vaccine featuring helpful information and guidance from UT Health San Antonio leading medical experts. If you have questions you’d like our experts to answer, please contact communications@uthscsa.edu.

Be informed. We can stop the spread of COVID-19.