For a while, Stephanie Dobson attributed her gastrointestinal issues to her pregnancy. It was her second, a girl born in May 2023, a baby sister to her son. But when the symptoms persisted for the 34-year-old mother, she raised the issue with her primary care provider. She was encouraged to see a gastroenterologist. On an … Read more
In March 2020, Isa Infante, PhD, JD, who was 78 at the time, began to itch all over her body. It was a bizarre symptom for Infante, who had always been very active and adhered to a strict macrobiotic diet. “Every inch of my body itched,” Infante remembers. “From the top of my head to … Read more
Nancy Arsenault was taking a lunch break from driving her elementary school bus route in her hometown of Stow, Massachusetts, when she began to experience double vision. She had been first diagnosed with pre-invasive breast cancer in 2006, which recurred in 2011. In 2019, she developed an invasive breast cancer in her chest wall and … Read more
Non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) that are most loaded with genetic mutations are most susceptible to immunotherapy drugs known as PD-L1 inhibitors, a new study by Dana-Farber researchers shows. The study, published recently in JAMA Oncology, can help doctors identify patients with the disease who are likely to benefit from the drugs, which foil tumors’ … Read more
Mark Signer uses his voice to raise awareness about anaplastic thyroid cancer — something he thought impossible two years ago. When he was diagnosed with this highly aggressive cancer in July 2020, he was told to get his affairs in order. And when he awoke from the surgery that removed his tumor, he couldn’t speak; … Read more
The results of the phase 2 clinical trial would have been impressive even if they didn’t involve a particularly stubborn form of cancer. In the trial, led by Dana-Farber’s Jonathan Schoenfeld, MD, MPH, 29 patients with locally advanced squamous cell cancer of the oral cavity were treated with one or two immune checkpoint inhibitors — … Read more
Every school day, when Mike James walks into work at Boston Adult Technical Academy (BATA), he sees an inspiring sign painted by the students: Together, We Can. That philosophy lifted James up after he was diagnosed with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer in August 2019. James leaned on his support network of coworkers, his family, … Read more
Stephan Bunker has learned to be prepared for anything during a half-century protecting others as a soldier, volunteer firefighter, law enforcement official, and director of 911 dispatchers for the state of Maine. So when Bunker was the one facing an emergency — a diagnosis of a brain cancer known as primary central nervous system (CNS) … Read more
Understanding why immunotherapies are highly effective in some patients but fail in many others is one of the top priorities in cancer research — and one of the most challenging puzzles. A research team led by Catherine J. Wu, MD, has uncovered some previously unknown molecular factors affecting donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI), a form of … Read more
A compound that sparks an immune system attack on cancer while also lowering tumor cells’ defenses against such an attack is showing promise in its first clinical trial in patients with advanced or metastatic cancers. One of those with the best result is a former U.S. Marine and Afghanistan war veteran, Josh Mahoney. Mahoney, of … Read more
In December 2013, Michelle Leonard wasn’t too concerned when she felt a pain in her right chest. “I kind of thought, ‘Well at least it’s the right side, not a big deal,’” she says. But then she developed a fever and decided to go to her primary care physician. Her nurse practitioner sent her for … Read more
Stymied and disoriented. That’s one way to describe the state of the immune system in some patients with cancer. T cells revved up to attack tumors are turned into an army of loiterers. Cells keenly attuned to signals of infection or disease fail to pick up the faint notes of cancer. A clinical trial led … Read more
As a former volunteer firefighter, Paul Calnan prided himself on being ready for any emergency. He thought nothing could rattle him — until, at age 47, doctors discovered a large, malignant tumor in his liver. The diagnosis was stage IV intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, a rare form of bile duct cancer that had presented in Calnan’s liver. … Read more
Despite the sometimes-dramatic success of new cancer immunotherapies like checkpoint inhibitor drugs and CAR T cells, thus far only a minority of patients have responded or gained long-lasting benefits. A major reason for the inconsistent results of immunotherapy is a phenomenon known as “T-cell exhaustion” — a weakening or loss of tumor-killing function by T … Read more
Immune therapies declare open season on cancer, rousing immune system cells to take up an attack on tumors. But which immune cells join the hunt, which sit it out, and what happens within immune cells that causes them to go on the offensive? Such questions are especially relevant when immunotherapies show only limited effectiveness against … Read more
By the time Barry O’Brien learned he had stage IV melanoma, in April 2020, the skin cancer that had been halted once before had advanced far from its original spot on his shoulder. He was in need of immediate neurosurgery to remove a pair of tumors in his brain, and with the COVID-19 pandemic surging … Read more
A woman recently came to Bradley McGregor, MD, an oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in severe pain with extreme fatigue. Her squamous cell bladder cancer, a rare type for which traditional treatment is generally less effective, had advanced, and it appeared that she had no other options. But timing is everything. McGregor was conducting a … Read more
Immunotherapy, which boosts the patient’s immune system response against cancer, is an emerging area of treatment and research. The immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is approved to treat women whose endometrial cancer cells have certain characteristics. What type of endometrial cancer does immunotherapy work for? Pembrolizumab is effective in shrinking or slowing the growth of a … Read more
The go-to metaphor for cancer drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors is a brake-release lever — a means of setting loose an immune system attack on tumor cells. Helpful as it is, the analogy glosses over a highly complex mechanism involving multiple types of immune cells, cell receptors, signals, and responses — so intricate that … Read more
The intriguing case of a man with melanoma tumors that responded in different ways to the same checkpoint-blocking drug has yielded an important clue to the causes of resistance to immunotherapy treatments, according to Dana-Farber researchers. The findings could help guide the use of immunotherapy in individual patients. The 74-year-old patient, described in a report … Read more