A radiosensitizer, or a radiosensitizing agent, is a drug that makes cancer cells more vulnerable to radiation therapy. Radiation therapy uses high-energy radiation to shrink tumors by disrupting the DNA of cancer cells, causing them to die. Radiosensitizers can be drugs that kill or inhibit growth of cancer cells, like chemotherapy, or drugs that only … Read more
As scientists map ever more of the epigenetic disruptions that occur in cancer, the implications for cancer therapy are becoming increasingly evident.
This originally appeared on Vector, Boston Children’s Hospital’s blog. Cancer and other diseases are now understood to spring from a complex interplay of biological factors rather than any one isolated origin. New research reveals that an equally-nuanced approach to treating high-risk neuroblastoma may be the most effective way to curb tumor growth. One challenge in … 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
Ovarian cancer often goes undetected before it reaches more invasive stages, but there is one aspect of the disease that frequently remains ignored even after diagnosis: Its impact upon a patient’s sexual health and function. Now, as research and treatment advances are allowing more women to live longer and healthier with ovarian cancer, Dana-Farber is … Read more
With more people living longer than ever with chronic or serious illnesses, grandparents with cancer are a rapidly growing group. Here are some tips for how children of almost any age can support a grandmother or grandfather facing cancer. If it has been sometime since you saw your grandparent or the treatment has changed their … Read more
For decades, some activists have warned of links between fluoride and cancer. But years of research confirm that “there is no reason to believe that fluoride, used in an approved manner, in any way causes disease,” according to Herve Sroussi, DMD, PhD, of the Department of Oral Medicine and Oral Oncology at Dana-Farber and Brigham … Read more
Scalp hypothermia, more commonly known as scalp cooling, is a relatively new treatment to try to prevent or reduce hair loss during chemotherapy. It involves placing a tight, cooled cap on the head before, during, and after each chemo session. The cooling cap is attached to a machine that circulates a liquid coolant through the … Read more
Cancer therapy is increasingly aimed at the fundamental abnormalities within cancer cells – the genes and proteins that normally keep cell division under control, but are damaged or faulty in tumor cells. To understand which genes are abnormal, where they’re located within the genome, and how they affect cell growth, doctors and scientists use a … Read more
The approval of a targeted therapy and an immunotherapy drug for some patients with advanced stomach cancer reflects recent new approaches to this difficult-to-treat cancer that hasn’t had many therapeutic advances in recent years. Stomach cancer, uncommon in the United States but a leading cause of cancer death globally, causes few definitive symptoms in early … Read more
Salivary gland cancer, a type of head and neck cancer, is a rare disease in which cancer cells form in the tissues of the salivary glands. It may not cause any symptoms, and it may be found during a regular dental check-up or physical exam. Signs and symptoms may be caused by salivary gland cancer — but they … Read more
Small cell lung cancer is the most aggressive type of lung cancer. Unlike its far more common counterpart, non-small cell lung cancer, treatment with immunotherapy drugs hasn’t yet been approved for small cell lung cancer, but some early findings in clinical trials suggest this type of treatment may have potential. Small cell lung cancer gets … Read more
Survival rates associated with blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma have risen for patients of all ages in recent years, but this increase has been relatively smaller in adolescents and young adults – those aged 15-40 – than in children and older adults. There are likely to be multiple reasons for this, … Read more
After a patient is diagnosed with lymphoma, doctors determine the stage of the disease — or how widespread the cancer is — and then come up with a treatment plan. As with most cancers, there are generally four different stages of lymphoma: I, II, III, and IV. Lymphoma staging Stage I lymphoma In stage I … Read more
Pancreatic cancer is seldom detected early enough for curative treatment to be performed – and even if it were, it would still be very difficult to vanquish. The pancreas, a narrow, six-inch-long gland that makes digestive juices and hormones such as insulin, is tucked away deep inside the body behind the stomach, small intestine, liver, … Read more
“Research” is a broad stroke of a word, the verbal equivalent of painting a wall instead of a masterpiece. There are important distinctions among the three principal types of medical research — basic, clinical and translational. Whereas basic research is looking at questions related to how nature works, translational research aims to take what’s learned … Read more
Drinking tea has been a practice around the world since ancient times, and often has been seen as a way of promoting good health. Whether tea – either the green or black varieties – can reduce the risk of cancer is a question that has been studied, but hasn’t yielded a definite answer. Made from … Read more
Mastocytosis is a rare type of mast cell disorder characterized by the abnormal accumulation of mast cells in various organ systems such as the skin, liver, spleen, intestine, or bone marrow. It is one of two major types of mast cell disorders; the other major, more common type is mast cell activation syndrome. To keep … Read more
It is a growing field of treatment, but there are still wide misconceptions about palliative care in the cancer community. Often mistaken as hospice, palliative care is focused on improving quality of life, reducing pain, and providing emotional support during cancer treatment. And it isn’t just for end-of-life, says Daniel Gorman, NP, of Dana-Farber’s Adult … Read more
Each day, Anthony Lewis Jr. showed up at the convenience store under the guise of purchasing a lottery ticket. He bought the tickets, but his real interest was in the woman behind the counter – an old high school classmate he was working up the nerve to ask out. The warm-hearted cashier finally let Lewis … Read more