The patient’s medical history told of a grueling journey. From the age of six, when the patient began experiencing weakness on her left side and double vision, she had to undergo repeated blood draws to reduce dangerously high levels of red blood cells. Over the next eight years she needed higher and higher doses of … Read more
Brian Regan knows how overwhelming it can be to hear the words “you have cancer” as a teenager. That is why, nearly a decade after his own diagnosis, he feels compelled to help young patients and families currently grappling with the physical and emotional challenges of treatment. Regan, 27, is a member of the Pediatric … Read more
Rosemary Iwakura, 17, was experiencing strange symptoms before her acute lymphoblastic leukemia diagnosis (ALL) almost two years ago. She was unable to focus on her schoolwork or activities and fainted on several occasions at school and at home. “I thought; ‘People faint for many reasons,’” she recalls. “We weren’t sure if we were supposed to … Read more
Nytasha Jette was panicked when her two-month-old son, Elyahs Jones, was found to have an extraordinarily high white blood cell count — over 300,000 — during a regular check-up. The family physician noted that Jones had very pale hands and was worried that the child wasn’t getting proper blood flow. Jette rushed Jones to Dana-Farber/Boston … Read more
To see Tara Daniels today, with a corporate job in marketing and about to close on a house, you’d never know what she’s been through, how thrilled she is to be alive. This month marks five years since she received a high-risk bone marrow transplant for a life-threatening blood cancer. Tara woke up feeling sick … Read more
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the second most common leukemia diagnosed in children. It is hard to treat and can be fatal in some cases. While there have been some recent successes with genetically targeted therapies for adults, AML has different genetic features in children, and care has been slow to advance. “The state of care … Read more
For decades, retinoic acid has been a key part of the arsenal against the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. For just as long, scientists have wondered exactly how it works. The answer, Dana-Farber researchers have found, is by reprogramming the activity of two crucial pairs of genes with such precision that the drug almost seems to have … Read more
Each time the UPS truck makes its way up Becky Baker’s driveway in Lyons, New York, her 3-year-old grandson, Cal, is certain there’s a package for him. Today, the delivery is in fact for Cal — but not exactly the drivable mini Jeep he was hoping for. “Those are your diapers, buddy,” his grandmother says, … Read more
Cancers originating in the bone, called primary bone cancers, are rare and account for less than 1% of all cancers. There are numerous types of primary bone cancers, and in most cases, the cause isn’t known. Primary bone tumors can have changes in the DNA of the cancer cells, but those DNA changes are acquired … Read more
The shock of a new cancer diagnosis was still settling in for Isabel Nordby when she and her parents made a decision that could greatly impact the teenager’s future — if and when the time is right. Before starting her chemotherapy protocol for Ewing sarcoma in April 2020, Isabel, then 15, had one of her … Read more
How did teenager Noah Zierfus stay grounded in the face of a cancer diagnosis? With his perfect trifecta of family, friends, and football. The Springfield, Vermont native was a junior in high school when he noticed he had something like a cyst. The doctors told him it was nothing at first, but Noah and his … Read more
When Minnesota native Charles “Woody” Hubbell went to college, he thought his biggest hurdle would be the culture shock of attending an east coast school that he had never visited in person. But his freshman year, he fell completely in love with the Boston College community and his friends as he pursued a major in … Read more
Her home is filled with plants, inside and out, but one holds special significance for Tara Daniels. A visitor could easily miss it amongst its more grandiose neighbors, but to her it serves as a reminder of the most challenging period of her life — and how she got through it. Back in 2016, the … Read more
Widespread testing of pediatric tumors has confirmed a long-held suspicion: far more of them have hereditary roots than was once thought. Physicians and researchers now estimate that at least 10% of cancers in children and adolescents, and probably many more, are linked to hereditary genetic mutations that increase cancer risk. The findings have changed the … Read more
The last two school years will be remembered for the tremendous challenges they presented students due to COVID-19, but rising second-grader Caroline McMahan and her family were ready for the pandemic’s limitations after what they had already endured. By the time the pandemic began, Caroline, 7, was already adept at washing up, masking up, and … 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
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
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
Thanks to developments in precision medicine, some adult cancers are now treated with designer drugs that target the genetic mutations that caused them. But most children with cancer have not reaped the same benefits. Unlike adult cancers, childhood cancers carry few genetic mutations. And the mutations these tumors do have are typically harder to make … Read more
If transgender youth and adults are undergoing (or planning) gender-affirming surgery, taking masculinizing or feminizing hormones, and they have cancer, these treatments can have implications for their care. Cancer treatments in turn can have implications for their gender-affirming care. Oncologists should take gender identity into account in making decisions about cancer treatment. This starts with … Read more