What Is Neoadjuvant Therapy?

Neoadjuvant therapies are drug treatments breast cancer patients receive before surgery. These treatments can help shrink tumors and make breast surgery easier for the patient and surgeon, according to Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, a breast cancer specialist in the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber. Neoadjuvant therapy may include chemotherapy or anti-estrogen … Read more

What Can Be Learned from Clinical Trials that Fail?

When a clinical trial shows that a new treatment is no better than the standard, it can be disappointing. But such outcomes yield valuable, potentially lifesaving information. Trials can “fail” if the experimental therapy doesn’t work better than current treatments. These “negative” outcomes are important for several reasons. They can spare patients false hope or … Read more

What Are the Stages of Grief?

By Sue Morris, PsyD Traditionally, the stages of grief have been identified as denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. But do these stages really exist? What happens if you skip one? And how long does each last? These are all normal questions, especially if someone you loved has recently died from cancer and you are … Read more

For the Freis, Dana-Farber Has Always Been Family

by Lauren Emily Frei When I married my husband, Emil Frei IV, in 1992, I knew I was entering into a large family. I just didn’t realize how large – until the first time I walked in the doors of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. My father-in-law, Dr. Emil “Tom” Frei III, was physician-in-chief at Dana-Farber, which … Read more

Nine-Year-Old Raises Colon Cancer Funds – and His Mother’s Spirits

Christine Jaworek-Lopes was moved when she believed her 9-year-old son, Zachary, was writing a school paper about her experiences as a stage IV colon cancer patient at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC). Upon learning what he was really up to, she was stunned. Unbeknownst to his parents, the third-grader spent a month organizing a … Read more

Dana-Farber Staffer Marks Five Years Post-Transplant with Run of a Lifetime

Mary Taber’s marathon training requires a singular focus. It is demanding, solitary, life-affirming – not unlike her treatment five years ago for aplastic anemia and paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). Taber, intranet editor at Dana-Farber, will mark five years from her March 2011 bone marrow transplant by taking to the storied Boston Marathon® route on April … Read more

Nine-Year-Old Honors Dad’s Cancer Journey by Supporting Other Patients

Peter Silveira took to calling his daughter, Hannah, a good luck charm during his treatment for gray-zone lymphoma in 2014-15. Now, with her dad’s cancer in remission, the grade-schooler – who accompanied him to several of his treatments at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) – has taken it upon herself to pass some of … Read more