The University of Tennessee Health Science Center convened the first Tennessee Statewide Cancer Collaborative Scientific Meeting in Nashville on October 29-30, bringing together researchers, clinicians, and institutional partners from across the state to chart a unified course in the fight against cancer.
With the theme “Advancing Cancer Research Across Tennessee,” the inaugural two-day conference highlighted opportunities to expand research infrastructure, strengthen collaboration, and attract state and federal investment to improve cancer outcomes for Tennesseans.
“Tennessee ranks sixth in the nation for cancer mortality,” said Jessica Snowden, MD, vice chancellor for Research at UT Health Science Center, who organized and opened the event. “We can no longer afford to let geography, income, or data silos determine who survives cancer. Through collaboration, we can turn the tide.”
The scientific meeting grew out of the Tennessee Statewide Cancer Collaborative, an initiative launched earlier this year to build a coordinated network of cancer researchers and clinicians across Tennessee. The collaborative began taking shape at a February planning meeting hosted by the Center for Cancer Research at UT Health Science Center and the UT Medical Center Cancer Institute in Knoxville, chaired by Dr. Snowden, with Neil Hayes, MD, director of UT Health Science Center’s Center for Cancer Research, and Glen Balch, MD, director of the UT Medical Center Cancer Institute, serving as co-chairs.
Through the collaborative, UT Health Science Center is leading a statewide movement to align scientific discovery, clinical innovation, and policy action to ensure every Tennessean, regardless of where they live, has access to high-quality cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. As the state’s only public, statewide academic health science institution, UT Health Science Center is uniquely positioned to convene partners across all 95 counties to drive progress against one of Tennessee’s most urgent health challenges.
The two-day scientific meeting featured sessions on the state of cancer in Tennessee, clinical research, population health, translational research, drug discovery, radiopharmaceuticals, and rural health. Dr. Snowden emphasized the conference’s overarching goal: to transform discoveries into treatments, and treatments into survival. Drs. Hayes and Balch gave presentation on the state of cancer in Tennessee, highlighting the state’s underwhelming performance in the survival of cancer patients, measures to be taken to improve cancer patients’ survival, and the history of cancer initiatives in Tennessee.
Keynote speaker Alan Tackett, PhD, of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, presented “Lessons Learned from Cancer Evolution: Engineering a Drug-Resistant CAR T Cell Therapy.” Dr. Tackett shared new insights into overcoming the limits of immunotherapy for solid tumors and outlined Arkansas’s statewide strategy toward achieving NCI designation, offering a potential model for Tennessee.
Sandra Davern, PhD, section head for Radioisotope R&D and UT–ORII Anchor Researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, highlighted Tennessee’s opportunity to lead in radiopharmaceutical therapies. “Oak Ridge is already a world leader in medical radioisotope production,” she noted. “By aligning research and industry, we can advance cancer treatment, spur innovation, and strengthen Tennessee’s economy.”
On the second day, the first Cancer Discovery Grants were announced, funded through gifts made to UT Health Sciences during Giving Day in April 2025. These $50,000 awards launch four new pilot programs focused on cancer mechanisms, rural care, equitable access, and statewide data and specimen sharing, which are key pillars of Tennessee’s growing cancer research ecosystem.
The 2025 Cancer Discovery Fund supports four priority areas:
- Translational Research in Cancer Mechanisms and Treatment
- Improving Cancer Care in Rural Tennessee
- Access to Cancer Care
- Data and Specimen Sharing for Tennessee Cancer Patients
This year’s grant recipients are:
- Christopher Brett (UT Health Science Center–Knoxville/UTMC): Establishing a pilot cancer microbiome repository
- Rachel Perkins (UT Health Science Center–Memphis): Ovarian cancer translational pilot
- Khyobeni Mozhui (UT Health Science Center/UTK): Developing a blood-based biomarker panel for lethal prostate cancer
- Patricia Roberson (UT Health Science Center/UTK): Adapting a financial toxicity measure for Tennessee working women
- David Schwartz (UT Health Science Center–Memphis): Cancer care access pilot
- Anmol Brar (UT Health Science Center): Rural Oral Cancer Screening – Tennessee Initiative (ROC-TI)
Additional presentations underscored the importance of health equity and rural outreach. Leighanne Soden of the West Cancer Foundation spoke on “Breaking Barriers to Cancer Care,” while Wendy Likes, PhD, DNSc, dean of the UT Health Science Center College of Nursing, concluded the event with “The Tennessee Rural Health Center of Excellence: Opportunities for Rural Cancer Interventions.”