The views discussed in this piece do not represent the U.S. Government. Sara Minkara lost her sight at the age of seven due to juvenile macular degeneration — a rare genetic condition — but she has never allowed that to slow her down. Once she grew up, she made her life’s goal helping the world … Read more
Non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) that are most loaded with genetic mutations are most susceptible to immunotherapy drugs known as PD-L1 inhibitors, a new study by Dana-Farber researchers shows. The study, published recently in JAMA Oncology, can help doctors identify patients with the disease who are likely to benefit from the drugs, which foil tumors’ … Read more
Jared Olinski was lifting his four-year-old son off of the floor when he felt three sharp pops in his back followed by pain. At first, cancer wasn’t on his radar. Olinksi was only 35 at the time. “I assumed I pulled a muscle,” Olinski remembers. His primary care physician thought it was a slipped disk … Read more
Difficulty swallowing, known as dysphagia, can come in many forms. Some people with dysphagia may experience issues in the oral phase or mouth. This is characterized by one or more of the following: holding food in the cheek without being aware of it due to weakness difficulty moving the food around the mouth leakage of … Read more
Anne Keane is a big fan of counting, from laps swam to miles ran to birthdays celebrated by her daughter Ruby. The most recent was Ruby’s seventh, and Keane plans on marking many more as she continues enjoying an active lifestyle with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). “We’re just so lucky to get to wake up … Read more
Mark Signer uses his voice to raise awareness about anaplastic thyroid cancer — something he thought impossible two years ago. When he was diagnosed with this highly aggressive cancer in July 2020, he was told to get his affairs in order. And when he awoke from the surgery that removed his tumor, he couldn’t speak; … Read more
Like a fugitive from justice, cancer cells stake their survival on their ability to remain inconspicuous. In many cases, however, they are decked out in molecules – called tumor-associated antigens and neoantigens – that shout “cancer!” to the immune system and prompt a potent antitumor response. But tumor cells have other means of dodging an … Read more
While some racial and ethnic groups have been underrepresented in clinical trials of therapies for lung cancer, breast cancer and other malignancies, researchers speculated that the situation might be different for adult leukemia trials. The unique features of the disease — the speed with which it needs to be treated after diagnosis, the delivery of … Read more
Even as science has removed all doubt about the link between environmental factors like tobacco smoke and lung cancer, the role of genetics in people’s risk of the disease has been much harder to pin down. A study by Dana-Farber investigators provides new evidence that, in people with lung cancer, genetic ancestry can influence the … Read more
In an era when targeted therapies are often effective against multiple types of cancer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated approval of a two-drug therapy for solid tumors carrying a specific mutation in the BRAF gene is a prime example of this trend. For patients with glioma brain cancer that harbors the mutation, the … Read more
What is chemotherapy? Chemotherapy is a powerful group of medicines that are used to treat cancer throughout the body. Chemotherapy (chemo) work by a variety of different mechanisms, but their general effect is to slow or stop the growth of cancer cells, which divide and grow quickly. The most common ways chemo may be given include intravenous (IV), … Read more
CAR T cells’ superpower is to identify cancer-related targets on the surface of tumor cells and order an attack on those cells. But they lack anything resembling X-ray vision to detect nefarious protein targets within tumor cells. That shortfall has limited their effectiveness in diseases like acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), in which tumor cells display few surface … Read more
Results of several phase 3 trials and dozens of other studies led by Dana-Farber researchers were presented online and in person June 3-7 at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the world’s largest clinical cancer research meeting. Some of the research reports presented by Dana-Farber investigators include: Improved progression-free … Read more
Every year, Nancy Demers celebrates two birthdays. The first marks the day she was born: August 6, 1943. The second — March 20, 2015 — is the day the then-71-year-old Connecticut resident received a stem cell transplant at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center and the start of a healthy new life. Eighteen months prior, in September … Read more
Every school day, when Mike James walks into work at Boston Adult Technical Academy (BATA), he sees an inspiring sign painted by the students: Together, We Can. That philosophy lifted James up after he was diagnosed with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer in August 2019. James leaned on his support network of coworkers, his family, … Read more
At 43, Erick Eigner was leading a healthy and fulfilling life: spending time with family, working in marketing at Microsoft, and hitting the gym six days a week. Cancer was the last thing he was thinking about when he went to the doctor for a physical and mentioned some concerns he had about swallowing. The … 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. What type of cancer causes low hemoglobin? Anemia is essentially a blood condition marked by a low level of hemoglobin and red blood cells, and in some cases … Read more
Stephan Bunker has learned to be prepared for anything during a half-century protecting others as a soldier, volunteer firefighter, law enforcement official, and director of 911 dispatchers for the state of Maine. So when Bunker was the one facing an emergency — a diagnosis of a brain cancer known as primary central nervous system (CNS) … Read more
Carcinomas and sarcomas are different types of cancer. Carcinomas are much more common than sarcomas, but the biggest difference between them is where they occur in the body. Carcinomas are usually named for the location where they arise (such as breast cancer, colon cancer). Sarcomas can occur in many different body locations and are generally … Read more
Karl Helfrich, PhD, has been a cyclist for 40 years. When he was diagnosed with a slow-growing brain tumor, he thought that might be the end of his hobby. Instead, he was only off the bike for three weeks, and continued to ride the roads near his home in Falmouth, Mass. while undergoing radiation and … Read more