When Sandra Noack returned home from a visit to Bogota, Colombia, to visit her family, there was a letter waiting for her. It was a leaflet sent via the Massachusetts Department of Public Health describing a clinical trial at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute for Latina and Hispanic breast cancer survivors. The trial didn’t involve any medicine. … Read more
Runners call it Heartbreak Hill, but for Michelle O’Brien the long, rising stretch of pavement that crosses the 20-mile point of the Boston Marathon® route represents the top of the mountain. Just over three years after being diagnosed in back-to-back months with two unrelated cancers — invasive breast cancer in December 2020, and then stage … Read more
Thirteen years after Vici Robinson was treated for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer, she began experiencing shortness of breath. Her local physicians in New Hampshire determined her symptoms came from liquid that was filling her lung. Then came the shocking news that this was caused by a breast cancer recurrence which had metastasized. At 81, Robinson … Read more
When Meghan MacDonald visited her primary care provider in the fall of 2022 to get a lump in her breast examined, they confirmed her suspicion that it was just an inflamed cyst. Relieved, MacDonald began a course of antibiotics, but when the lump didn’t go away, her doctor ordered a mammogram, and when the results … Read more
For a while, Stephanie Dobson attributed her gastrointestinal issues to her pregnancy. It was her second, a girl born in May 2023, a baby sister to her son. But when the symptoms persisted for the 34-year-old mother, she raised the issue with her primary care provider. She was encouraged to see a gastroenterologist. On an … Read more
Throughout the 20 years Robert Jenkins has been living with follicular lymphoma, he has been through many different treatments — from traditional chemotherapy protocols to innovative approaches like CAR T-cell therapy and bispecific antibodies. His lengthy survivorship has allowed Jenkins to benefit from new advances as they’ve emerged, and along with his wife, Lorna, one … Read more
As Chen Wen Ye nears five years of being cancer-free, Chen has committed herself to helping others facing such issues.
When Youling Sun was diagnosed in Shanghai, China, with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in 2018, he called his son, Conghao, in Boston, for advice. His son’s message was unequivocal: Come to Boston for your treatment. Today, Sun, a retired office worker from Shanghai, has multiple reasons to be thankful he took that advice — both … Read more
Stories of young adults being diagnosed with colorectal cancer are becoming more common as the rates continue to rise among adults between 20 and 49.
After treatment at Dana-Farber, Dena Ofengeim was able to get on her bike, train with her friends, and complete the Pan-Mass Challenge.
As a veteran scuba diver who has donned her wetsuit around the globe, Stephanie Lafontaine is never more at peace than when deep below the water’s surface. Even if she’s sharing the depths with sharks, she considers it her happy place. So when Lafontaine, 42, learned in April 2019 that she had inflammatory breast cancer … Read more
As a systems operator who works to help maintain the electrical grid for New York state, Brian Houlihan, 46, is used to getting power to the people. But when the multiple myeloma he has lived with since 2011 stopped responding to chemotherapy, it was Houlihan who needed a recharge. He got it, through an innovative … Read more
Sally Johnston cannot be slowed down. She just recently returned from a month-long trip to South Africa for a safari, and Namibia to visit a longtime friend, and is already planning her next excursion. The 74-year-old survivor has always been active, and she says it’s time to achieve her goal of visiting all seven continents. … Read more
Arliene T. Penn entered the Mrs. Globe pageant in 2023 not to win a title, but rather to spread a very important message on a very large stage. In the end, she did both. Competing as Mrs. British Virgin Islands, Penn reached the semifinals of the international event. Far more important to her, however, was … Read more
Alanna Devlin Ball, LCDR, USN (Ret), and Alexandra Takacs, MSN, RN, both knew from an early age that they wanted to join the military. And while neither of these veterans envisioned cancer as part of their future, they agree that their service experiences helped shape their time at Dana-Farber. Ball, a medically retired Navy lieutenant … Read more
Laura Orfanedes was worried that she was going to end up with breast cancer. No one in her family had it, and yet she could not shake the feeling. So she took action. She went in for her first mammogram at age 40. In December 2009, at age 43, her annual scan showed an area … Read more
Patti Keenan was a senior in high school before learning that the mysterious disease she was treated for twice as a young girl in the 60s was, in fact, a rare form of cancer. Her parents, not wanting to frighten Patti at a time when pediatric cancer survival rates were much lower, kept their daughter’s … Read more
In the fall of 2019, John Brazeau’s back pain got so bad that it interfered with his ability to engage in the two hobbies he loved most in his retirement on Cape Cod: golfing and clamming. Despite keeping up with physical therapy exercises meant to relieve the pain, it wasn’t diminishing. Then in 2020, Brazeau … Read more
David Trueblood’s long career in journalism was shaped by new technology, including the rise of digital photography and the impact of online media. So, upon learning in early 2023 that he would need a stem cell transplant due to myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a rare blood disorder impacting his bone marrow, Trueblood appreciated the role innovation … Read more
Michelle Karalekas’ time in the Mont Tremblant Ironman Triathlon in Quebec on Aug. 20 — 14 hours, 5 minutes — was not her fastest in the grueling event, but it may have been her most impressive. It was the first time she’d competed since undergoing a stem cell transplant for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) almost … Read more