• Origin Bank Expands Home Lending Services

Origin Bank announced it had hired award-winning lender Jaclyn Litton as vice president, senior mortgage loan officer and sales manager. She and the Litton Mortgage team join Origin’s Mortgage Lending Team in Northwest Louisiana.

Litton has 18 years of experience in the banking industry, specializing in residential mortgage lending, V.A., conventional, FHA and USDA rural development home loans. In her new role, she will help lead the Litton Mortgage Team at Litton Origin to expand loan production volume and collaborate with executive management to structure products strategically and pricing competitively. She will seek to build relationships and connect people to their dreams of homeownership as part of Origin’s culture and vision.

She earned a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in business management administration from Louisiana State University, Shreveport. She earned the designation of Certified Mortgage Specialist from Capstone Institute for Mortgage Finance.

Scotsman Guide has recognized Litton as the number one Originator in North Louisiana, one of their Top Women Originators. She was recently named the number one V.A. Originator in Louisiana and 27th nationwide in 2023. Under her leadership, Litton Mortgage was voted number one by the Shreveport-Bossier community on LocalsLoveUs.com in the Mortgages and Real Estate Loans category for 11 consecutive years.

Litton and her team’s offices remain at 7607 Fern Ave., Suite 1101 in Shreveport, now known as Origin’s Fern Avenue Mortgage Center. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call (318) 747-7400.

• W.K. Cancer Center Patients Included in Groundbreaking Research

Groundbreaking research from a clinical trial that included leading cancer centers nationwide and worldwide could change

how doctors treat endometrial cancer. Willis-Knighton was not only part of this study but provided the second-largest number of participants in North America. The study has shown statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in progressionfree survival for women who have primary advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer.

“This is the biggest news in years for patients with advanced endometrial cancer,” said Destin Black, MD, gynecological oncology surgeon at Willis-Knighton Cancer Center. She was the principal investigator for the clinical trial at Willis-Knighton, published March 27 in The New England Journal of Medicine. The Ruby phase 3 trial is an ongoing international randomized, double-blind, multicenter study that included 494 patients worldwide. Willis-Knighton provided 22 of those participants.

The trial evaluated the efficacy and safety of treatment with the study drug, dostarlimab, combined with standard-ofcare chemotherapy followed by maintenance treatment with dostarlimab versus treatment with chemotherapy plus placebo followed by maintenance with placebo.

Dr. Black said eligible patients were females aged 18 years or older with histologically or cytologically confirmed disease. They were all diagnosed with Stage 3 or 4 disease or first recurrent endometrial cancer with a low potential for a cure by radiation therapy or surgery alone or in combination.

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in the United States. It is the fourth most common cancer among females in the U.S. after breast, lung and colon cancer, and it is the sixth most common cancer among women worldwide.

Stages 1 and 2 are considered localized and have a better prognosis than cancer that has spread to other areas of the body (Stages 3 and 4). Long-term outcomes remain poor, with median overall survival of less than three years for patients with advanced cases.

“If endometrial cancer is early stage, current treatment usually consists of surgery alone or surgery with radiation. If endometrial cancer is diagnosed at an advanced stage, treatment consists of a combination of chemotherapy with possible surgery,” Dr. Black said. “The findings of this trial now show that the addition of immunotherapy – regimen containing dostarlimab – to standard chemotherapy is associated with a significantly lower risk of progression or death.”