Carolyn D Britten, MD

Dr. Nancy DeMore is a board-certified breast surgical oncologist and is the BMW endowed chair in cancer research at MUSC Health. Her clinical interests are breast cancer in young women, breast conservation therapy, breast sarcoma, inflammatory breast cancer, oncoplastic surgery, sentinel node biopsy, and skin and nipple-sparing mastectomy.As a surgeon, Dr. DeMore has played an integral role in the evaluation of minimally invasive techniques that have changed the standard of care for patients who require sentinel lymph node biopsy. Furthermore, she has expanded the indications for breast conservation by advancing the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (cancer-killing drugs taken before primary therapy).Dr. DeMore is also a physician-scientist with extensive research experience in developing new therapies for breast cancer. She has been a co-investigator on 11 active clinical trials and 24 completed clinical trials, which have led to clinical advances in the care of breast cancer patients, in particular, those with metastatic breast cancer. For more than 25 years, she has investigated tumor angiogenesis (the growth of new capillary blood vessels, which provide tumors with oxygen and nutrients.) Her lab focuses on discovering novel factors that stimulate this growth and developing new drugs that block these factors and therefore inhibit tumor growth. Dr. DeMore has been appointed to a six-year term on the NIH Oncology 2, Translational Clinical IRG, Cancer Immunopathology and Immunotherapy Study Section. Her hope is that over the next 20 years, she will have helped contribute to excellent patient care, advancement of less-invasive survival techniques, and development of novel therapies that will improve survival for patients with metastatic disease.Dr. DeMore obtained her medical degree from Chicago Medical School. She completed her residency at Boston University Medical Center, a cancer research fellowship at Harvard Medical School, and fellowship training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. DeMore practiced as a professor of surgery at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for 13 years.

Dr. John Kaczmar is a medical oncologist who specializes in caring for patients with cancers of the head and neck. He attended college at Cornell University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He then obtained his medical degree at Columbia University Medical School in New York City, where he served as president of his class. After medical school, he undertook a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. There, he served as a member of the resident steering committee and attained an additional certification in health care leadership in quality. Following this, he completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, before joining the Medical University of South Carolina in 2017. There are many challenges involved in treating cancers of the head and neck. Dr. Kaczmar's research interests are focused on overcoming these challenges through the use of the body's own immune system (immunotherapy) and targeted therapies aimed at fighting head and neck cancer growth. In addition to bringing cutting-edge treatment options to patients, he has an interest in working to improve the tolerability of proven treatments so as to maximize quality of life.

Dr. William Vandergrift is an associate professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at MUSC. He trained at the Medical University of South Carolina for neurosurgical residency and at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, California, for fellowship in minimally invasive brain surgery. His medical school training was completed at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. He has a mechanical engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.Dr. Vandergrift takes care of patients with brain and spine disorders. He has a special interest in brain tumors and skull base surgery for tumors including pituitary tumors, acoustic neuromas, meningiomas and gliomas. He also works with the epilepsy team to perform surgery for intractable epilepsy including laser ablations, open resections and vagal nerve stimulators.