News

Immunologist and alumna Crystal Mackall, M.D. (’84)., is profiled in USA TODAY.

Pediatric Cancer Research Advance Noted

“Leukemia Treatment Offers New Hope,” reads the USA Today headline of an April 12 article. The story highlights the promising results for a young leukemia patient in a Stanford University clinical research trial using a cancer immunotherapy called CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T cells) to treat solid tumors such as the devastating tumor called a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG).

Immunologist Crystal Mackall, M.D. (’84), the founding director of the Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford, and a leader of the research, told USA Today, “It’s an enormously hopeful moment.” Dr. Mackall, who for 27 years was chief of the Pediatric Oncology Branch of the National Cancer Institute of the NIH, specializes in CAR-T immunoncology research at Stanford.

The article reports that “other cancer researchers are looking to the Stanford trial for inspiration.”

Watch for the Spring 2022 issue of Ignite magazine, which will profile Dr. Mackall in a special collection of stories illustrating how NEOMED creates transformational leaders.

Read “Leukemia Treatment Offers New Hope.”