After Two Cancer Diagnoses, Cancer Survivor Finds A Light at the End of the Tunnel

There was a time when Georgette Hannoush couldn’t imagine a bright future. In a four-year span, the mother of four—including triplets—was diagnosed with two different types of cancer. But because of her team at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Hannoush has been in remission for more than three years—and she credits her faith and the people she … Read more

Grandfather is Active and Optimistic After Reduced-Intensity Stem Cell Transplant

Alan Dynner was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 2016 at 76 years old. Treatment for the cancer would require a life-saving stem cell transplant, a procedure that most hospitals deemed too grueling for someone Dynner’s age. But thanks in large part to treatment options a short drive from his Boston home at Dana-Farber/Brigham … Read more

Stem Cell Transplants for Pediatric Patients: What to Know

Stem cell transplantation, otherwise known as bone marrow transplantation, is the infusion of healthy stem cells into the body to stimulate new bone marrow growth. Stem cells are vital to a person’s ability to fight infection, and stem cell transplants are performed on children whose stem cells have been damaged by disease or invasive treatments … Read more

Stem Cell Transplants and Cellular Therapies: What’s the Difference?

Donor stem cell transplants and other cellular therapies are treatment approaches that harness the immune system to fight cancer using cells from the patient or from healthy donors. What are stem cell transplants? Stem cell transplants are used to treat blood-related cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma, as well as certain non-cancerous blood … Read more

Stem Cell Donor Celebrates Life of Man He Helped Save

He doesn’t start medical school until August, but Matthew Churitch has already helped save a patient – and gained valuable insight into the role that hope and kindness can play in recovery. Churitch visited Dana-Farber last month with Peter Karalekas, to whom he donated stem cells two years ago. Karalekas, 76, who also underwent chemotherapy … Read more

Platelet Donations Mean Sisterly Bonding for These Siblings

They grew up in the same house and still vacation together each summer, but Pam and Paula Gorgone do some of their best sisterly bonding when they’re giving platelets. Every other Thursday, with rare exceptions, the siblings sit side-by-side at the Kraft Family Blood Donor Center and donate platelets. They chat, watch the news, and … Read more

What Care Do I Need After a Stem Cell Transplant?

A stem cell transplant can be a lifesaving treatment for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma, or certain blood-related disorders. In many cases, however, transplants increase patients’ risk for an array of long-term health problems, often caused by the high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy used prior to the transplant. Dana-Farber’s Adult Stem Cell Survivorship … Read more

Battling Cancer: Restructuring and Enjoying Your New Life

By Rich Rothman In September 2013, I had a bone marrow transplant that doctors advised was the only potential cure for a blood cancer known as MDS (myelodysplastic syndrome). Although we lived in New York City, we chose to have the transplant done at Dana Farber because we were impressed with everything we saw and … Read more

He Lost His Sight to Cancer, But Not His Vision of a Full Life

When Tim Conners collected his wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2012 at the age of 18, he was blind from childhood leukemia that had spread to his optic nerve. A football player and wrestler who’d never been an outdoorsman, he asked to meet Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to climb the Seven Summits … Read more

The Latest Advances Against Hematologic Cancers

Treatment of blood-related, or hematologic, cancers is seizing on insights into the basic genetic wiring of cancer cells and the body’s system for finding and attacking those cells. Research presentations at the annual American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in December gave evidence of how broad, and rapid, the progress is. Targeted therapies, new combinations … Read more

Autologous vs. Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplants: What’s the Difference?

A stem cell transplant is a procedure during which doctors either replace diseased or ineffective stem cells with healthy new stem cells or allow high-dose treatment for lymphoma, some testicular cancers, and other diseases. It is often lifesaving for patients with blood cancer and serious blood disorders. A person may need a transplant for a … Read more

Stem Cell Donor, Recipient Meet Up – Seven Years after Their Cells

Sometimes the best things are worth waiting for. Charles “Chuck” Vanada and Tobias Gillmann, connected across 3,700 miles and one life-altering procedure, can attest to that. In September 2009, Vanada – then a 48-year-old non-Hodgkin lymphoma patient – received a stem cell transplant at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC), thanks to Gillmann, 34, who six … Read more

What is Haploidentical Stem Cell Transplantation?

Medically reviewed by Joseph H. Antin, MD A treatment for patients with blood-related cancers and certain blood disorders, stem cell transplantation involves replacing a patient’s unhealthy blood-forming cells with healthy ones. Patients are first treated with chemotherapy, and sometimes radiation therapy, to wipe out or diminish the bone marrow and lymph nodes where cancers such … Read more

Newborn Screening Saves Baby from “Bubble Boy” Disease – Before He Ever Gets Sick

Happy to have given birth in January 2015 to two seemingly healthy boys, Levi and Colton, after an uneventful pregnancy, Kala Looks gave little thought to the routine heel prick of newborn screening. At 23 and 24, she and her husband, Phillip, were high school sweethearts starting a family with a pair of fraternal twins. … Read more