Scientists are beginning to make inroads into treating cholangiocarcinoma, a rare, lethal cancer of the bile ducts, with precision drugs. Last year, the first targeted drug for some patients with the disease was approved. Now, Dana-Farber scientists say they have identified another genetic alteration in a small percentage of cholangiocarcinoma patients that can be attacked … Read more
Tumors are scrupulous recorders of their own life stories. The wreckage they acquire as a result of therapy, the stratagems they use to survive and dodge an immune attack are all inscribed in their DNA and the set of immune system cells within them. Unfortunately for science, the autobiography of a tumor rarely consists of … Read more
Rachel Slater insists that the hardest part about going to Harvard was getting in — if you don’t count her two bouts with brain cancer. Slater, 22, was a high school senior still waiting to hear back from colleges when she was first diagnosed with oligodendroglioma, a form of brain cancer, in early 2017. She … Read more
Dawn MacKerron realizes it might sound strange to say that getting hit in the eye with a basketball was a blessing. But an accident on the court helped inform treatment for a rare form of lymphoma and participation in a clinical trial at Dana-Farber that set her on a cancer-free path. It all started when … 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
A protein that normally serves useful functions in the body like helping wounds heal and repairing damaged tissues is also high on scientists’ “most wanted” list of cancer culprits. Called STAT3, the protein has been found to be overactive in a variety of cancers — including breast cancer — driving malignant growth, survival, and metastasis. … Read more
Anna Nazarenko doesn’t see herself as sick. The strong-willed, spunky 6-year-old loves to dance and ski, and spent much of April Fool’s day pranking her parents. Aside from the enzymes she takes to help digest her food, you wouldn’t know that she has Shwachman-Diamond syndrome (SDS). The rare, inherited type of bone marrow failure has also … Read more
Cancer cells have a bias toward survival, often becoming heavily reliant on certain protein pathways to sustain themselves. Scientists are finding ways to turn that survival instinct into a liability — by making the cells even more dependent on those pathways, then choking the pathways off. It’s an approach that has now yielded a promising … Read more
Cancer drugs like Gleevec or Herceptin, which were approved for us in the 1990s, prompted hopes of transforming cancer care and perhaps render harsh treatments like chemotherapy obsolete. Known as precision or targeted therapies, these drugs are designed to block the action of specific mutated genes or proteins that drive malignant tumor growth, while sparing … Read more
Khiem Tran’s response to drug therapy for advanced colorectal cancer seemed to defy the severity of his disease. After just a few doses of chemotherapy and a targeted drug, the cancer, which had spread from his rectum to his liver, was in full retreat, with a key marker of tumor burden dropping from stratospheric levels … Read more
Leukemias involving reshuffling or rearrangement of the mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene, known as MLL-rearranged or MLL-r leukemias, account for 70 to 80 percent of acute leukemias in infants under one year old. In these blood cancers, a subset of acute myeloid and acute lymphoid leukemias (AML and ALL), the MLL gene breaks and reattaches to the wrong section … Read more
For an estimated 10% to 30% of people who survive acute COVID-19 illness, the road to full recovery is lengthy and plagued with an array of persistent ills ranging from “brain fog” to fatigue, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal distress, impaired sense of smell, and neurological symptoms. Doctors call this syndrome, “long COVID or post-acute COVID-19,” … Read more
Joy Albi has encountered plenty of surprises during her long career as a defense attorney, but she was still caught off-guard when her HER2-positive breast cancer diagnosis took an unexpected twist last year. The way things turned out, however, made her appreciative for the new evidence revealed in her case. Albi, a Cincinnati resident, had … Read more
Communities of color, particularly Black Americans, have long faced health disparities and a disproportionate burden of cancer. Colorectal cancer is no exception. Colorectal cancer occurs at a higher rate in Black Americans than any other racial or ethnic group in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. African Americans are more than 20% more … Read more
New treatment approaches have increased the number of older patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) eligible for a stem cell transplant. Now, Dana-Farber research has identified those that are most likely to benefit from one. In a prospective study involving patients age 60 to 75 with advanced MDS, investigators found that participants at high risk of … Read more
Rizwan Romee, MD, is a medical oncologist at Dana-Farber and treats patients with advanced blood cancers such as leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. He is also the director of the Haploidentical Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Dana-Farber and principal investigator of the Romee Lab for NK Cell Gene Manipulation and Therapy. Why did you decide to … Read more
Cancers of the colon and rectum are often lumped together as “colorectal cancer” because they have many features in common. However, there are important differences in the structure of the colon and rectum and how cancers of each behave and are treated. What is the difference between the colon and the rectum? The colon, or … Read more
If you happened to be looking for Alex Epshteyn this past winter, you might have found him on the ski slopes. The Charlestown, Massachusetts resident took up the sport just two years ago and has since been enthusiastically sharpening his skills. “I’m overcoming my fear and making progress, which is a great feeling,” Epshteyn says. … 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
Although disparities in the treatment of cancer and other diseases have been an endemic part of the American healthcare system, it took a pandemic to expose how pervasive they are. The high rates of COVID-19 in many communities of color drew attention to the broader health inequities affecting these groups. In recognition of Minority Cancer … Read more