With nearly 239,000 men in the United States diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2013, it is important to have a game plan for prevention, screening and treatment. View the infographic below for more:
Month: January 2014
Cancer Immunology at Dana-Farber
Immunotherapy – stimulating the body’s defenses to recognize and destroy disease-causing cells and proteins – was dubbed the “breakthrough of the year” in 2013 by Science magazine. Dana-Farber researchers have contributed many important discoveries over the years about how the immune system works. Now, they are building on these insights to develop immunotherapy against tumors – known as immuno-oncology.
In 2005 Dana-Farber established the Cancer Vaccine Center (CVC) under the leadership of Ellis Reinherz, MD, Jerome Ritz, MD, and Glenn Dranoff, MD. The mission of the CVC is to translate the promising insights from basic immunology into therapeutics that benefit cancer patients. The CVC undertook a series of clinical trials exploring the biologic activity of autologous tumor cell vaccines and antibodies targeting negative immunoregulatory pathways in patients. These investigations contributed to the foundation underlying the FDA approval of the first therapeutic cancer vaccine (Provenege) and the first antibody antagonizing a negative T cell checkpoint (ipilimumab).
How Can Palliative Care Benefit Pediatric Cancer Patients?
Joanne Wolfe, MD, MPH, founded the Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT) in 1997 to help ensure children who are living with life-threatening diseases like cancer, and their families, enjoy the best quality of life. The program, a part of Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and the Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care, and Wolfe, were featured recently in The New Yorker. We spoke with her about the benefits of pain and symptom management, and palliative care for pediatric patients.
Q. What is PACT?
A. PACT is a group of physicians, social workers, and nurse practitioners. We provide an extra layer of support to children with serious illness and their families throughout treatment, ensuring that the child’s quality of life is a top priority for families and medical teams making difficult care decisions.
We make sure we bring attention to the whole patient and family as children are undergoing treatment for their illnesses.
Is Cancer More Serious If You Also Have Another Disease?
When cancer develops in someone with other diseases, it can be more serious, according to a recent annual report from several national cancer organizations.
“Cancer does not occur in isolation,” says Lawrence Shulman, MD, in commenting on the report. “It occurs in a human being, who may have other medical problems.”
How Donating Blood and Platelets Helps Cancer Patients
If you’ve ever donated blood or platelets, there’s a reasonable chance that your donation went to help a cancer patient. That’s because cancer and certain treatments can damage blood cells, which means some patients may need transfusions of one or more types of blood components. These include: Red blood cells, which carry oxygen to organs throughout the … Read more
How to Ease Chemotherapy Side Effects with Food
Cancer treatments, especially chemotherapy, can make eating well and enjoying food a challenge for many patients. Food may start to taste strange, appetite may diminish, and other symptoms, such as fatigue, bowel changes, nausea, and mouth sores, may make finding nutritious, delicious foods difficult.
“During chemotherapy, it’s very common for patients to not feel like eating, for appetite to be low, or the taste of food to be off,” says Dana-Farber nutritionist Stacy Kennedy, MPH, RD, who stresses the importance of maintaining a healthy diet to manage symptoms. In the video below, Kennedy explains how to combat symptoms by incorporating tart or sour flavors, eating small and frequent meals, and staying hydrated:
New Strategies in Treating Kidney Cancer
Though quite curable when diagnosed early, kidney cancer in advanced stages can become a stubborn disease.
However, the outlook for patients with metastatic kidney cancer has brightened in the past several years. Oncologists have added to their arsenal a number of designer drugs that attack molecular targets – genetic abnormalities that drive tumors – with high specificity.
How to Prevent Mouth Problems During Cancer Treatment
Chemotherapy and radiation are often prescribed because they are both very effective at destroying cells that grow rapidly, such as cancer cells. Unfortunately, they can also harm healthy cells that grow quickly, such as the cells lining the inside of your mouth. Patients undergoing chemo or radiation treatment often report mouth problems, such as sores, dry mouth, or infections, because the treatments make it difficult for the mouth to heal itself and fend off germs.
To help prevent or minimize mouth problems, consider these tips:
Can Dental X-Rays Increase Cancer Risk?
When it comes time for x-rays at the dentist, the technician or hygienist always covers the patient with a lead apron before leaving the room. This precaution often sparks the question as to whether the radiation from dental x-rays can increase the risk of cancer.
Tips for Managing Neuropathy During Winter
Staying warm and healthy during the winter can be challenging for anyone in most parts of the country, but it can be especially difficult for cancer patients, particularly those who may be experiencing treatment-related neuropathy.
Peripheral neuropathy is a temporary or long-lasting nerve problem that may occur as a result of certain chemotherapy drugs. It can cause pain, numbness, tingling, or loss of feeling, usually in the hands or feet, making snowy weather and freezing temperatures all the more challenging.
Pediatric Cancer Survivor Shares Memories of Treatment – and Triumph
By Jordan Leandre
I don’t remember a lot about my treatment process – after all, I was only about 2 1/2. Here is some stuff that I do remember.
New Findings May Change Treatment of Advanced Prostate Cancer
For about 70 years, the standard treatment for patients with advanced prostate cancer was drugs that blocked male hormones feeding the tumor. If that stopped working and the disease progressed, oncologists turned to chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells.
This timetable is about to change. Results of a clinical trial led by a Dana-Farber researcher revealed that such patients lived longer if started on both a hormone blocker and a chemotherapy drug at the same time. The government-sponsored trial found that 69 percent of men receiving both treatments were alive at three years, compared with 52.5 percent of men who initially got just the hormone blocker. The advantage was so striking – especially for patients with greater degrees of cancer spread – that the National Cancer Institute publicized the findings ahead of schedule to alert doctors and patients.
“The results of this study are practice-changing for some patients,” says Christopher Sweeney, MBBS, clinical director of Dana-Farber’s Lank Center for Genitourinary Cancer, who headed the trial. We asked him to explain:
Ask the Expert: Questions and Answers About Breast Cancer Treatment
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, and Erica Mayer, MD, MPH recently partnered with CancerConnect to answer questions about breast cancer therapies. Burstein and Mayer are breast oncologists in the Center for Breast Oncology at Dana-Farber’s Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers.
Q: What medications are helpful for depression after breast cancer treatment and while taking tamoxifen?
Cervical Cancer Screenings: Five Things You Need to Know
As a result of women having regular cervical cancer screenings, incidence and death rates from the disease have decreased by at least 80 percent in the U.S. “Cervical cancer in the U.S. has become less of a frequently diagnosed cancer because of the institution of the Pap smear,” says Ursula Matulonis, MD, medical director of … Read more
Live Web Chat: Answering Questions on New Lymphoma Treatments
Ann LaCasce, MD, a medical oncologist in the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center Adult Lymphoma Program, answered a variety of questions about Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma during a live web chat hosted by Dana-Farber last month.
Five Healthy Habits to Start the New Year
Whether you’re trying to lose weight, gain weight, or just stay healthy, the New Year always brings a new set of goals and resolutions. While this change in lifestyle can often feel daunting, achieving goals does not have to be a solo mission.
“Let friends, family members and co-workers know what your goal is and what you are trying to do,” says Nancy Campbell, MS, exercise physiologist with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “Having these people around can give you the support you need to reach that goal.”
As you work out healthy goals for 2014, consider these five tips from Campbell and Dana-Farber nutritionist Stacy Kennedy, MPH, RD: