The UAB Health System and Infirmary Health have entered a relationship to bring collaborative, comprehensive cancer services to patients in southern Alabama, southeast Mississippi and the Florida panhandle. The result of a multi-year planning effort on behalf of the leadership of the two organizations, this partnership was born with the goal of decreasing the burden of cancer, improving outcomes, and expanding cancer scientific discovery through an increased footprint and resources of both organizations.

Each January, Cervical Cancer Awareness Month calls attention to important facts about a type of cancer that is diagnosed in about 14,000 women in the United States annually and is the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide.

Immunotherapy is a common type of treatment that uses the patient’s own immune system to fight cancer and other diseases. Gynecologic cancers are treated in different ways, but immunotherapy is becoming more common in treating cervical cancer, uterine (endometrial) cancer, and other cancers that start in women’s reproductive organs. At the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB, physicians and researchers are improving the use of certain immunotherapies, and many patients are seeing better treatment results.

Francine Walton, MPH, is a program director in the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center’s Office of Community Outreach & Engagement. Sharing the importance of cancer screening, early detection, and access to care is all in a day’s work as she leads the outreach and community education programs. But it’s also a personal priority. Her mother, a four-time cancer survivor, has had a profound influence on Walton’s career path.

Brain cancer is rare but serious. Researchers estimate that more than 18,000 adults in the United States will die from cancerous brain tumors this year alone.

One in five Americans will develop skin cancer, according to estimates by the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD). Avoiding ultraviolet light — a risk factor for all types of skin cancer — could prevent more than 3 million skin cancer cases annually.

In November 2020, retired Chief Master Sergeant Patrick McCrocklin visited the medical center at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., where he assumed he would be treated for a hernia. He actually had two hernias, but doctors also found two mysterious spots on his liver. MRI and PET scans revealed stage 4 colorectal cancer that had spread to his liver, and he was given just six months to live.

In a battle with a rare and aggressive cancer called “double-hit” lymphoma, James “Milton” Wilkins struck first – or rather, his grandson did, with an accidental elbow to Wilkins’ abdomen. This led to a speedy diagnosis that gave him a fighting chance.

Nearly 32 years ago, Jeana Nesmith Russell was beginning her dream career as a nurse in one of the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s hospital units while pursuing her graduate degree. Little did she know that her life was about to change forever.

Medical experts have been trying to discover links between diabetes and cancer for decades. Some research suggests that the diseases may share underlying causes, or that one disease may influence or cause the other.

November is pancreatic cancer awareness month, when health care professionals call attention to a disease that affects more than 55,000 people in the United States each year. Pancreatic cancer is an especially deadly cancer because of the way it silently spreads before being detected.

Like most 17-year-olds, Alison Griffitt was a carefree high school senior excited about her upcoming prom. She wasn’t a sun worshipper, but Griffitt admits that she would pop into a tanning salon before pageants, dances, and other special events.