Looking back at a year of research and patient care at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center

It’s been another amazing year as MUSC Hollings Cancer Center celebrates its 30th anniversary — from exciting research and advances in cancer care to the inspiring, emotional and heartfelt stories of our incredible patients. Here are our top stories of 2023.

High school students get hands-on experience alongside Hollings Cancer Center researchers

When this summer started, Deanna Jackson didn’t know tamoxifen from oxidative stress.

The most complicated computer program that Jackie Mendez Coutino had probably used was Google Docs.

Now, after two months immersed in cancer research at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, the rising high school juniors from Charleston Charter School for Math + Science are on their way to becoming experts.

They are part of the South Carolina Cancer Health Equity Research Training Youth Enjoy Science program – SC CHEER YES for short – that gives high school students from four Charleston County high schools the opportunity for mentoring by cancer researchers. Through the two-year program, they learn about recent advancements in cancer research and get college and career guidance – all while earning a stipend.

Hollings Cafe owners, known for food and compassion, reach milestone in giving to cancer center

Throwing a surprise party can be a difficult task. You hope not only that people will attend but also that they will keep the secret from the honored guest. You worry that someone might give away the game by accident.

Fortunately, for the recent surprise party thrown for Jose and Wendy Perey, owners of the Hollings Cafe at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center, all worries entertained by the organizers were completely unfounded. As soon as the Pereys walked into a darkened conference room the afternoon of Oct. 20, the lights were thrown on, and a loud and excited “SURPRISE!” reverberated through the small space.

The room was decorated and packed with Hollings doctors, nurses and staff members, all gathered to celebrate the Pereys’ generous regular gifts to Hollings since they first opened the Hollings Cafe. Their latest monthly donation in October brought their total amount of generous giving to $100,000 to support cancer research.

CAR-T-cell therapy without side effects? Hollings researchers show results in preclinical models

When Richard O’Neil, Ph.D., joined MUSC Hollings Cancer Center two years ago, he knew that he wanted to continue finding ways to make CAR-T-cell therapy easier on patients.

What he didn’t expect was that a side project – worked on by Megan Tennant, a graduate student in his lab, as a way to keep busy while a key piece of equipment was being serviced – would potentially open up this treatment beyond the world of cancer.

“I don't think that either of us expected that first initial experiment to work,” Tennant said. “But when we saw how well it worked and really started to conceptualize where this could go and how important this could be, it was exciting.”

O’Neil said they’ve begun conversations with biotechnology companies about how to push forward their findings.

Many adults who smoke cigarettes wrongly think that vaping is worse for them, say Hollings researcher and FDA Center for Tobacco Products director

There are no safe tobacco products. But different products have different levels of risk. Cigarettes and other smoked tobacco products are the most harmful, while products like e-cigarettes may be lower-risk alternatives for adults who already smoke.

Unfortunately, that message seems to have gotten twisted in the public’s mind. A recent survey published in the journal Addiction found that only about 20% of the respondents thought that e-cigarettes had fewer harmful chemicals than cigarettes. This misperception even exists among some health care providers who may not realize where each product sits on the continuum of risk.

“It breaks my heart that I’ve met with a lot of well-intentioned physicians who say to me, ‘Vaping is worse than smoking.’ And I say, ‘No, that’s not true,’” said MUSC Hollings Cancer Center’s Benjamin Toll, Ph.D., director of the MUSC Health Tobacco Treatment Program and co-director of the Lung Cancer Screening Program.

Ovarian cancer survivor chooses positivity

Carol “Sully” Sullivan was on her fifth or so round of chemotherapy treatments for stage 3 ovarian cancer. All of her hair had fallen out, every last bit, so she penciled in eyebrows for a round of pickleball with her league in Hardeeville, a town not quite 25 miles from Hilton Head Island.

But it was one of those hot, sweaty South Carolina days and, without thinking, she wiped the sweat away. In between rounds, standing around with the other players and the spectators, her wife, Joan, noticed brown marks on Carol’s sleeve.

“What’s that on your sleeve?” Joan asked.

Carol’s penciled-in eyebrows were no longer on her face. Their smudged remnants were smeared across her sleeve.

“Oh my gosh – those are my eyebrows!” Carol exclaimed. The entire group seemed to hold its breath, not sure how to react.

Carol, though, laughed uproariously.

“And to think, they came out good today!” she laughed, and the group broke into laughter.

Parker’s Warrior: Local man rides in LOWVELO23 in memory of his 11-year-old niece

He made a promise to his niece. Michael Mansson was going to ride 100 miles in LOWVELO, and nothing was going to keep him from fulfilling that promise – not the illness that landed him in the intensive care unit and not the stomach surgery that knocked him off his training routine as the ride approached.

It was just weeks after his surgery and days before LOWVELO22 when Mansson had a meeting with his surgeon and declared that he was going to bike in the 100-mile ride to support lifesaving cancer research at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center. His surgeon laughed at him.

“He said ‘You’re not riding a bike 100 miles. It’s too dangerous. You can’t ride a real bicycle,‘” remembered Mansson. “And I said, 'Well, I made a promise and I’m going to do it. I'll ride a stationary bike then.' And he laughed at me and I don't think he thought I was being serious.”

Medical student carries her lymphoma experience with her

Hannah Neimy is a Charleston girl, through and through. She grew up in Charleston, studied at the College of Charleston and is now finishing up her second year of medical school at MUSC in Charleston.

She loves her hometown and wants to stay here as long as possible, but that’s not the only reason she wanted to study at MUSC.

“Having had such an amazing experience with all of the people who took care of me through my cancer diagnosis and treatment and everything thereafter, I just really like the people here, and I want to learn how to be a doctor in a setting where the doctors are so great,” she said.

When Neimy was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, she was told it would be “a bump in the road.”

“Worst bump in the road that I've ever had,” she said.

But now, six years out from her diagnosis, she’s considered cured.

‘Pay attention to symptoms,’ young colon cancer survivor says

“You’re young. You’re healthy. We’re not worried about cancer.”

That’s what Ebony Holmes’ doctor said when she raised concerns about her stomach pains and the blood she saw in her stool.

It’s what the gastroenterologist said when she showed up for the colonoscopy that her doctor ordered, just in case.

And yet, in February 2022, Holmes, at age 38, became one of about 19,000 people under the age of 50 diagnosed with colorectal cancer each year in the U.S.

Gynecologic oncologist explains how removing fallopian tubes could prevent ovarian cancer

A cancer advocacy group recently recommended that, as a way to prevent ovarian cancer, women consider having their fallopian tubes removed when they’re having other pelvic surgeries. That may seem drastic to those who haven’t heard the idea before, but it’s a procedure that has gained traction in the last five or so years, said Brian Orr, M.D., a gynecologic oncologist at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center.

“Unfortunately, there's no effective screen for ovarian cancer. Breast cancer, cervical cancer, colon cancer – they all have very good screens. And the goal of the screen is to catch lesions that are precancer or early cancer, and then the curative potential is extremely high,” Orr explained. “The challenge with ovarian cancer is that it's a silent cancer. It usually presents at advanced stages that are a lot more challenging to treat.”

With ovarian cancer, most patients can achieve remission with surgery and chemotherapy at first, he said.

“Unfortunately, a lot of patients do recur. Once it recurs, it's a lot more challenging to treat and it's usually not curable in that situation,” Orr said.

However, researchers have come to believe that many ovarian cancers actually start in the fallopian tubes, the tubes that connect the ovaries to the uterus. Thus, removing the fallopian tubes – after a woman has finished having children or has decided to not have children – reduces the risk of most ovarian cancers.

Lung cancer survivor enjoying traveling, family after finding cancer early

Susan Fasola hadn’t smoked cigarettes for 10 years when a pain in her chest prompted her to seek a doctor’s opinion. She felt it every time she coughed, always in the same place in her upper right chest.

“It was not normal. I never felt anything like it,” she said. “This wasn't something that made me cough. This was when I coughed; it was like a hitch in a specific spot. And it was always the same spot.”

Fasola had started smoking as a teen in the 1960s – right at the peak of cigarette usage in the U.S., before reports on the dangers of smoking and public health measures really started to make an impact. She smoked two packs a day from the time she was 15 until she was about 30.

Then, with the help of hypnosis, she quit.

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