Stymied and disoriented. That’s one way to describe the state of the immune system in some patients with cancer. T cells revved up to attack tumors are turned into an army of loiterers. Cells keenly attuned to signals of infection or disease fail to pick up the faint notes of cancer. A clinical trial led … Read more
Chuck Stravin carries a white three-ring binder to all of his oncology appointments. Inside are his appointment notes, information about his treatment history, and the latest research and advancements regarding his disease. Nestled alongside these documents also sits a family photo of Stravin, his wife Liz, and their four daughters. Stravin’s family has been instrumental … Read more
Scientists are gratified when a clinical trial reveals whether one treatment — often an experimental therapy or drug combination — is superior to another. But researchers then often look more deeply into the data, searching for characteristics of tumors associated with a treatment’s effectiveness, or lack of it. In today’s world of precision medicine, identifying … Read more
Before the use of CT scans (formerly known as CAT scans), back pain was associated with the diagnosis of kidney cancer — but this is no longer the case. Today, general cancer screening often catches kidney cancer before this symptom occurs, according to Bradley McGregor, MD, clinical director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology … Read more
Early on an October morning, Shaun Tierney started a promising new treatment for his stage IV kidney cancer. Anxious to tell his longtime oncologist, he texted Toni Choueiri, MD, director of the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at Dana-Farber. What he didn’t expect was that Choueiri would have his own big news: “Kaelin … Nobel … Read more
Medically reviewed by Bradley McGregor, MD Kidney cancer occurs when the cells of the kidney acquire abnormal mutations in their DNA and then multiply. These cells may accumulate and form a tumor; in some cases, they metastasize and spread elsewhere in the body. Can I inherit kidney cancer? A family history of kidney cancer does … Read more
Dana-Farber’s Toni Choueiri, MD, will participate in his first Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) bike-a-thon in August. “Considering his dedication to me and his other patients, I am not surprised that he is riding in the PMC and raising money to develop new treatments for people with my type of kidney cancer,” says a former patient of Choueiri’s.
Two years after being given six months to live, Mullan’s cancer is still at bay because of immunotherapy and targeted chemotherapy – and through it all, he achieved one of his dreams: graduating from Harvard Law School.
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a type of kidney cancer that starts in the lining of the very small tubes in the kidneys, called tubules.
It’s not uncommon for cancer patients to take to a pen after a diagnosis. Peter Rooney’s taken that to another level. Rooney, a former journalist and author of the book Die Free, captured his cancer journey in the new book Immunopatient: The New Frontier of Curing Cancer. The following excerpt is reprinted with permission from Immunopatient by … Read more
In 1947, when Dana-Farber Cancer Institute founder Sidney Farber, MD, set out to find a drug treatment for childhood leukemia, cancer treatment took two forms – surgery to cut out cancerous masses, and radiation therapy to burn them out. Cancers that couldn’t be removed or irradiated – either because of their position in the body, because … Read more
Kidney cancer is one of several cancers that has responded well to immunotherapy drugs, which can free the immune system from restraints that cancer cells can impose on it. The drug nivolumab (Opdivo), for example, which was recently approved, can extend survival in patients with metastatic kidney cancer after other drugs have failed. But can … Read more
Kidney cancer, or renal cancer, is a form of cancer in which cancer cells grow in the tissues of the kidneys. These two bean-shaped organs, located on each side of the body above the waist, are responsible for filtering and cleaning blood, removing waste, and producing urine. Kidney cancer generally develops as one tumor in … Read more
Though quite curable when diagnosed early, kidney cancer in advanced stages can become a stubborn disease.
However, the outlook for patients with metastatic kidney cancer has brightened in the past several years. Oncologists have added to their arsenal a number of designer drugs that attack molecular targets – genetic abnormalities that drive tumors – with high specificity.