CHAPEL HILL (June 18, 2026) – Research gives patients hope — and oh, what research is happening at the UNC School of Medicine. 

Dr. Cristy Page likes to describe it as “mind-blowing.”

Page, CEO of UNC Health and Dean of the School of Medicine, notes in the accompanying video that one of her own family members had an experience with breast cancer at a very young age.

“It is so stressful and so common,” she says.

She highlights research by Dr. Lisa Carey at the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

“She is an international expert in breast cancer, and particularly triple-negative breast cancer, which is what my family member had and is very difficult to treat,” Page says.

She cites one study Carey is conducting at UNC and 14 other sites across the country where scientists look at an individual patient’s DNA and personalize the treatment to the patient.

“It is mind-blowing,” she says. 

So instead of using a therapy simply “because it works on a lot of people,” she says, the care is tailored to that particular patient.

“To be able to test it for just you, and know, did it work? And how can we alter it? Is — it’s so exciting! Lots of advances in breast cancer because of our phenomenal scientists,” she says.

PAGE ALSO highlights UNC research on glioblastoma, one of the most common brain cancers in adults, which has a very low survival rate.

“It’s been more than 20 years with no change in the standard of care,” she says.

She describes CAR-T therapy, where providers remove immune system T-cells from a patient’s blood, then genetically alter them to attack just the cancer cells.

“Unlike radiation, or these things that can affect the surrounding organs, it only attacks the cancer. And then we can shut it on or off — it’s amazing technology,” she says.

NOBEL PRIZE-winning faculty member Dr. Aziz Sancar also has come up with new ways to attack glioblastoma, Page says.

“We’re able to tie all that together to get even better results,” she says. 

“It just blows my mind that we work with such incredible scientists who can advance it in this way — and then again, give people hope where there has not been much hope with these kinds of cancers.”

And that hope — and better yet, success with these treatments — is a wonderful, wonderful thing.