This post was originally published on Vector, Boston Children’s Hospital’s science and clinical innovation blog. Back in the 1950s, doctors began using steroids to treat Diamond-Blackfan anemia, or DBA, a severe condition in which patients cannot make enough red blood cells. There was no real rationale for using steroids, but there was no other good option, … Read more
Cancer is largely a disease that affects older people. The median age of a cancer diagnosis is 66 years, and one-fourth of new cancer cases are diagnosed in people aged 65 to 74. Adults are most likely to develop solid tumors such as breast, lung, colorectal, prostate, and bladder cancers. In children and adolescents 20 years … Read more
By Ricardo Garcia On Nov. 29, 2011, cancer changed our lives. My son Richi was diagnosed in Barcelona with a high-risk medulloblastoma, one of the most aggressive brain tumors. From that day on, we did not return home. We could never imagine what awaited us. Richi endured a total of eight operations. He entered the … Read more
Bridgette West sparkled last fall in the “Fight Song” music video created by patients at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. But before the 2-year-old became a social media standout with her dancing, she and her family faced challenges that went far beyond a cancer diagnosis. In the summer of 2015, after struggling for … Read more
Like a mill crumbling into a river, solid tumors constantly shed bits of themselves — including their DNA — into the bloodstream. This free-floating genetic material, known as circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA, contains a trove of information about the tumor. Advances in technology have made it possible to extract ctDNA from a blood sample, … Read more
When the time came for Jeffrey Ferreira to undergo a stem cell transplant for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), his Dana-Farber hematologist, Corey Cutler, MD, MPH, had some intriguing news: he was eligible for a clinical trial of a new approach to lowering the risk of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a common and sometimes severe aftereffect … Read more
Two major obstacles once stood in the way of exploring the basic biology of diffuse midline glioma in children. And one of them was the brain itself. The cancer, a subtype of high-grade glioma, forms in some of the most critical parts of the brain, in regions that control such basic functions as breathing, swallowing, … Read more
Asked how he has dealt with three bouts of bone cancer and a partial right leg amputation in less than four years, 14-year-old Jack Berry says that he takes things “one step at a time.” That is, when he’s not surfing, riding his mountain bike, sprinting across tennis courts, or winning ski races. An osteosarcoma … Read more
The last two school years will be remembered for the tremendous challenges they presented students due to COVID-19, but rising second-grader Caroline McMahan and her family were ready for the pandemic’s limitations after what they had already endured. By the time the pandemic began, Caroline, 7, was already adept at washing up, masking up, and … Read more
Numerous genetic mutations increase children’s risk for various cancers. When they are detected early, cancers can potentially be caught at an early, more treatable stage — or avoided entirely. Could adding such “cancer predisposition” genes to routine newborn “heel-stick” screening save lives? Lisa Diller, MD, chief medical officer at the Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood … Read more
If transgender youth and adults are undergoing (or planning) gender-affirming surgery, taking masculinizing or feminizing hormones, and they have cancer, these treatments can have implications for their care. Cancer treatments in turn can have implications for their gender-affirming care. Oncologists should take gender identity into account in making decisions about cancer treatment. This starts with … Read more
Call it mother’s intuition, but leading up to her daughter’s cancer diagnosis, Erica Jensen knew something wasn’t right. At just 10 months, Charlee had started walking, and since taking her first steps the excited toddler was constantly exploring the world around her. Then, at around 15 months, something changed. It wasn’t obvious at first — … Read more
Nolan and Natasha might never have met if they hadn’t been diagnosed with bone cancer. Nolan, 13, is a natural athlete who lives in Maine. Natasha, 11, lives in Rhode Island and loves music and theater. As kids go, the two are pretty different — except for their osteosarcoma diagnoses and the surgery they received … Read more
Vaccines play a vital role in helping to keep us safe. They work by introducing our bodies to a weakened or modified version of a particular virus (such as measles, mumps, etc.). This allows our immune system to produce antibodies — proteins used by the immune system to attack and destroy foreign substances — in … Read more
Neuroblastoma is a rare childhood cancer affecting about 800 children each year in the United States. Because of its unusual behavior — tumors in infants often disappear spontaneously without treatment while it can be aggressive in toddlers — studying the disease has been complicated. That may change with a new research tool: a mouse genetically altered … Read more
This post originally appeared on Discoveries, the blog of Boston Children’s Hospital. Eva Quiroz loves horses. The 10 year old takes riding lessons, and this activity puts a smile on her face. Anyone watching her contentedly guiding a horse around the ring would just assume she has always been a healthy child, says her mom … Read more
This post originally appeared on Discoveries, the blog of Boston Children’s Hospital. A drug used for rheumatoid arthritis has moved a step closer to U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a desperately needed new use. The drug, abatacept, has gained FDA breakthrough therapy designation for preventing acute, severe graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in patients receiving bone … Read more
Medically reviewed by Katherine A. Janeway, MD Cancer affecting the bones may be primary (a cancer that develops within the bone) or metastatic (spreading to bones from elsewhere in the body). Many primary bone tumors are benign (noncancerous), but others are malignant. Treatment options for bone tumors include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, cryosurgery (freezing cancer … Read more
This article originally appeared on Discoveries, the blog of Boston Children’s Hospital. No one knew the heartache about to unfold when Savannah and Brett Lillywhite first began thinking about having a family 10 years ago. The Lillywhites Savannah and Brett are both the unlikely carriers of a rare condition called Shwachman-Diamond syndrome — SDS for short — … Read more
At just 14 years old, Kaitlyn Vu was asked to accept a drastic, life-altering surgery. In early 2019, she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma — a rare type of bone cancer that ultimately led to the amputation of her left foot. Kaitlyn’s ability to meet each challenge of her diagnosis with a combination of grace and … Read more