A recent study found that women who frequently use chemical hair straighteners and relaxers could have a higher risk of developing uterine cancer than those who have not used the products. The study, which tracked 34,000 women nationwide for more than a decade, comes at a time when uterine cancer rates in women are increasing, … Read more
Hemoglobin is an essential protein in your red blood cells that carries oxygen to your body’s organs and tissues and transports carbon dioxide from your organs and tissues back to your lungs. Is hemoglobin affected by cancer? Anemia is essentially a blood condition marked by a low level of hemoglobin and red blood cells, and in some cases can be … Read more
What is TIL (tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte) therapy? Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte, or TIL, therapy uses a patient’s own immune system T cells to fight cancer. The therapy involves removing T cells from a piece of the patient’s tumor – where the T cells have congregated after being alerted to the cancer – growing them outside the body, then … Read more
This year’s holiday season coincides with high rates of several virus-borne respiratory diseases, including flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection. For people planning on gathering with family and friends, there are a variety of steps that can protect against the transmission of these diseases and reduce their severity if they are transmitted. Should I get … Read more
Finding a lump under your skin can be a worrying discovery — but lumps under the skin are more often relatively harmless than cancerous. To help you better understand when to be concerned about a lump under the skin, we talked to Vinod Nambudiri, MD, of Dana-Farber’s Center for Cutaneous Oncology. What are some of … Read more
Immunotherapy for cancer is a form of treatment that uses the body’s immune system to combat the disease. Today, immunotherapy is being applied to a wide range of cancers, often in combination with other agents, and clinical trials are exploring ways of improving and expanding its effectiveness. A particularly promising form of immunotherapy, known as … Read more
With COVID-19 continuing to be prevalent in fall 2023, it’s a good idea for patients with cancer and their caregivers to know the steps they can take to reduce their risk of contracting the disease. As was true during the original outbreak of the disease in 2020, patients with cancer may be especially susceptible to … Read more
In a small percentage of women, a painful breast lump turns out to be cancer.
Most patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) now have several options for first-line therapy, thanks to new clinical trial results and novel targeted agents. Many patients with CLL, a slowly progressive blood cancer in which the bone marrow makes too many white blood cells, don’t need immediate treatment but can be observed — sometimes for many years … Read more
Precursor conditions are early phases of diseases that may develop into cancers such as lymphoma, leukemia, Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia, and multiple myeloma. Most people with precursor conditions do not experience symptoms, and since doctors rarely screen for these conditions, they are sometimes found through routine blood tests but often remain undiagnosed. “Many diagnoses are purely incidental,” says Irene Ghobrial, MD, director … Read more
As people age, it’s normal for their blood-forming cells, known as hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), to acquire genetic mutations, or misspellings, in their DNA. Most of these mutations don’t affect how HSCs function or cause disease. In some cases, however, the mutations give certain HSCs an edge in survival, granting them an outsized role in … Read more
Stem cell transplants are performed in order to give a patient new blood cells, as well as a new immune system. It is this new immune system that plays a key role in making certain blood cancers go away and stay away.
CAR T-cell therapy—a form of immunotherapy that uses genetically engineered T cells to intensify the immune system’s response to cancer—represents one of the biggest advances against cancer in recent years.
CAR T-cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy that uses specially modified T cells — part of the body’s defense system against disease — to attack cancer. It involves collecting T cells from a patient and genetically modifying them to recognize cancer cells. Reinfused into the patient, CAR T cells can spark a potent immune … Read more
Stem cell transplantation, otherwise known as bone marrow transplantation, is the infusion of healthy blood-forming stem cells into a patient to replace or supplement the bone marrow. Stem cell transplants can be used for patients whose stem cells are not healthy, either because of an inherited or acquired problem or as a result of damage … Read more
One of the most exciting new cancer treatments, CAR T-cell therapy takes its complicated name, in part, from a fire-breathing monster in an ancient Greek myth. CAR is an acronym for “chimeric antigen receptor,” referring to genetically engineered molecules manufactured in a laboratory, inserted into the genetic material of immune T cells that have been removed from … Read more
Efforts are under way to develop and test new immunotherapy approaches for prostate cancer.
CAR T-cell therapy is a form of immunotherapy in which patients’ T cells are modified to become better at tracking down and destroying tumor cells. CAR T cells are made by extracting thousands of a patient’s T cells, sending them to a lab where they’re outfitted with genes and proteins that improve their cancer-fighting prowess, and … Read more
CAR T-cell therapy is a kind of cellular therapy, which uses a patient’s own immune system T cells to rally an attack on cancer. CAR T cells are made by removing T cells from the blood, modifying them in a lab to intensify the immune system’s natural response to cancer, and re-injecting them into the patient. CAR … Read more
Neoadjuvant therapy is given to shrink a tumor in advance of the main treatment, which is usually surgery. It is sometimes called preoperative or induction therapy. The most common forms of neoadjuvant therapy are chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and hormone therapy. By shrinking tumors prior to removal, these treatments can make surgery easier for both the … Read more