Francisco Vega

Dr. Francisco Vega is a Professor and the Lymphoma Section Head in the Department of Hematopathology at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC). Dr. Vega is an internationally recognized expert in lymphoma who is routinely involved in lymphoma diagnosis and has led an NCI-funded research laboratory focused on translational research in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) and chemoresistance. He also served as the Medical Director of the Biospecimen Shared Resource at Sylvester Cancer Center, where he developed, implemented, and standardized high-quality specimen collection, processing, and the generation of patient-derived tumor xenografts (PDX). Currently, Dr. Vega is establishing patient-derived tumor xenograft (PDTX) models that recapitulate T-cell leukemias/lymphomas (TCLs) in an experimental system to study microenvironment interactions, target discovery, and novel drug development. Additionally, Dr. Vega's team has initiated pre-clinical trials using a mouse model of human T-PLL to test various drug combinations for the treatment of T-prolymphocytic leukemia, a rare but devastating neoplasm that lacks effective treatments. Dr. Vega and his team are also investigating the role of crosstalk between B cells and T follicular helper (TFH) cells in the pathobiology and tumor progression of a subset of mature T-cell lymphomas known as T follicular helper lymphomas or angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphomas (AITL). In AITL, neoplastic TFH cells extend their influence beyond germinal centers, actively recruiting and stimulating B cells and plasma cells, with B cells reciprocally providing survival signals to the neoplastic TFH cells. This bidirectional crosstalk between B and neoplastic TFH cells appears to be critical for the persistence of AITL, and Dr. Vega's team hypothesizes that it can be exploited as a therapeutic target in AITL treatment.