Chengfeng Yang, PhD

Professor
Department of Medicine
School of Medicine
Member
Molecular Oncology Program
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Research Information

Research Interests

Dr. Chengfeng Yang studies the mechanisms of cancer initiation (environmental carcinogenesis) and progression (metastasis) with the goal of developing mechanism-based strategies to more efficiently prevent and treat cancer.

Currently, the Yang laboratory has three research programs:

  1. Environmental carcinogenesis research: Investigating the mechanisms of how metal carcinogen (hexavalent chromium, cadmium and arsenic) exposure generates cancer stem cell-like cells to promote lung tumor development and progression. The mechanistic studies focus on metal carcinogen exposure-caused long non-coding RNA (lncRNA), functional RNA modification (methylation) and other epigenetic dysregulations.
  2. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) research--Determining the mechanism of how TNBC metastasizes to lungs focusing on the role of lncRNA dysregulations.
  3. Cancer therapy research--Developing new therapeutic strategies for TNBC treatment focusing on repurposing FDA-approved drugs that have not been used for cancer treatment and nanoparticle-mediated drug delivery approaches.

External Appointments

Cancer Biology
MetroHealth Medical Center