SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Cancer patients from across Northwest Louisiana — who are receiving treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston — could soon benefit from new trials closer to home.

The Feist-Weiller Cancer Center is excited to be a part of the Cancer Focus Fund to bring the latest new cancer clinical trials to our community," said Dr. Chris Kevil, Vice-Chancellor for Research at LSU Health Shreveport. "We are confident our clinical trial facilities, coupled with expanded patient access to clinical trials across north and central Louisiana in partnership with Ochsner Health, will yield promising results for all citizens of Louisiana.

The Emerging Viral Threat (EVT) Lab at LSU Health Shreveport has now sequenced a total 651 Louisiana SARS-CoV-2 virus genomes making them the largest contributor to date of genetic data on SARS-CoV-2 in the state. SARS-CoV-2, which is short for ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2,’ is the virus that causes COVID-19, and viral genome sequencing is contributing to a worldwide effort to fight the ongoing pandemic.

The Emerging Viral Threat Lab at LSU Health Shreveport has processed over 110,000 COVID-19 test samples from multiple public health regions of the state and created over 170,000 test kits which were distributed throughout the state during its first six months of operation.

LSUHS is expanding enrollment in the Pfizer-sponsored COVID-19 vaccine study for the next two weeks to include individuals ages 16-18 and those older than 85 years of age.  Those interested in participating in this important vaccine trial should sign up as quickly as possible.  

Clinical research by Dr. Judy King, Professor of Pathology at LSUHS, is featured on the cover of the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, regarding recent diagnosis and treatment of kidney ailment of a patient who tested positive for COVID-19.

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KTBS3 News - LSU Health Shreveport announced this week that it is participating in the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine study and is currently enrolling people to participate.

Dr. Rajib Gupta, shares "COVID-19 is an ongoing pandemic which has affected over 12 million people across the globe. Manifestations in different organs systems are being reported regularly. Renal biopsy findings in hospitalized COVID-19 patients presenting solely with acute kidney injury have recently been described in published literature in few case reports. We describe the kidney biopsy findings of two patients who had recent diagnoses of COVID-19 and presented with new-onset nephrotic syndrome."