A cancer diagnosis means making many life-altering decisions, often in a matter of days. These include important choices about what kind of treatment you want and who you want to provide it. An oncologist, a doctor who specializes in cancer, manages your care and treatment from beginning to end. That means everything from explaining your … Read more
The holidays can be a tricky time to stick to healthy eating goals, especially if baking is a part of your family’s traditions. Stacy Kennedy, MPH, RD, CSO, a senior nutritionist at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center, shares a few simple ingredient changes that can help cut some of the fat, sugar, and calories out of … Read more
In November, four states – California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Maine – passed measures legalizing marijuana for recreational use, bringing the total number of states with legal cannabis to eight, plus the District of Columbia. The vote in Maine was quite close and is expected to be challenged by opponents, but as of now, 26 states … Read more
On Dec. 13, President Barack Obama signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act, legislation that includes significant funding to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot, and to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to speed the drug approval process. Laurie Glimcher, MD, president and CEO of Dana-Farber, … Read more
A cancer diagnosis can cause significant changes to your life – including at work. Many patients have to stop working during treatment, take significant time off, or alter their schedules, all of which can take a significant mental, emotional, and financial toll. Some patients may have jobs that provide flexible hours or work-from-home options, but … Read more
At first glance, it looks like a typical holiday get-together – an annual gathering of friends admiring the decorations on one of their homes. What makes the situation unusual is not what the group is doing, but where they were a few hours earlier: the Weymouth, Massachusetts, physician practice of Dana-Farber Community Cancer Care (DFCCC). … Read more
By Rick Fingerman, CFP™ Some people think estate planning is only for the wealthy, but this is just not the case. In fact, estate planning is an important part of every person’s overall financial strategy, whether you’re going through cancer treatment or not. What is estate planning? My definition of estate planning is simply having … Read more
If you are taking care of a loved one with cancer, you are considered a “caregiver.” You may be responsible for navigating your loved one’s medical appointments, taking on increased responsibilities at home, and providing emotional support, all while maintaining your previous responsibilities. This can be a lot to manage, and caregivers often neglect their … Read more
Adjuvant therapies are treatments that are given after surgery or other frontline therapy to reduce the risk that cancer will come back. Frontline therapy may succeed in removing or eliminating the entire visible mass of a tumor, but tiny, undetectable traces of it may remain in the body. Adjuvant therapy is designed to kill or … Read more
Medically reviewed by Charles Thomas, MS, MBA People infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or AIDS are more susceptible to certain types of cancer than people who are not infected. In fact, some types of cancers are so common in people with HIV that they are referred to as AIDS-related or AIDS-defining cancers – including … Read more
By Deb Osborne On that beautiful day in October, filled with all the excitement life has to offer, I didn’t realize how important those words would become. Caught up in the wonderment of our wedding day, the magnitude of those words did not resonate with me until seven years ago when my husband was diagnosed … Read more
Carcinoid tumors are rare, often slow-growing tumors that form from neuroendocrine cells found throughout the body. Carcinoid tumors most commonly arise in the gastrointestinal system, including the appendix, small intestine, or rectum, but may occur in other sites, including the lungs. In most cases, there is no clear cause of carcinoid tumors. There does not … Read more
Nurses at Dana-Farber are used to hearing patients gush about their children and grandchildren during chemotherapy treatments, but Stephanie Ann Benoit, RN, still smiles when recalling how Nancy Raisman sang the praises of her granddaughter. “Aly is going to be in the Olympics,” the lung cancer patient would say proudly, a prediction that came true … Read more
Pain, anxiety, fear: these are a few common feelings that may become particularly heightened after a cancer diagnosis and during treatment. But a traveling mobile art cart, sponsored by the Leonard P. Zakim Center for Integrative Therapies, now offers Dana-Farber patients the ability to reduce pain or stress through expressive arts such as coloring, weaving, … Read more
Nurses, doctors, and other caregivers at Dana-Farber often receive “thank-yous” from grateful patient families, but on one morning in November it was a young man with no connection to cancer exchanging the heartfelt hugs and handshakes. Lance Corporal Dean Sudol, 23, a U.S. Marine just back from a seven-month deployment in Kuwait, stopped by the … Read more
While some may wonder, cancer is not contagious; a healthy person cannot catch cancer from a person who has the disease, nor can it be spread by close contact with a cancer patient. Cancer cells are far different from infectious agents such as bacteria and viruses. A cancer cell is essentially a normal cell whose … Read more
Combination therapy, the use of more than one type of therapy in treating a patient, is a hallmark of cancer treatment. The complexity of the disease – its tendency to spread beyond its original site and become resistant to certain drugs, and its genetic diversity – underscores the need for a variety of approaches to … Read more
Two decades ago, Dana-Farber blood cancer researcher Sophia Adamia, PhD, left her home in Georgia, a country with a turbulent past located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. Not until last May did she return to Georgia, to participate in a conference organized by the State Minister of Georgia for Diaspora Issues. … Read more
By Rosemary Maconchie When my husband Jim died from stage IV pancreatic cancer in April 2015, I was suddenly without my lifelong partner. We were together since high school; and when he died at age 69 I was suddenly alone for the first time in my life. The experience of grief is different for everyone, … Read more
With football season in full swing, concussions and their long- and short-term consequences promise to be in the news. While the harmful effects of repeated concussions, especially among teens and young adults, have been well documented, any links between concussions and brain cancer are less clear. Multiple studies have endeavored to see if such links … Read more