Each time the metastatic breast cancer spreads too deeply into Sayde Patel’s lungs, she changes clinical trials. And after six switches in 10 years, she maintains a glass-half-full attitude about the process.
Love and commitment have enabled Lynda and Ellen Thomas to get through Lynda’s diagnosis and treatment for inflammatory breast cancer (IBC).
Carol Snyder Halberstadt has been chronicling her life through poetry since she was 5, a means of self-expression she credits as the springboard to a long writing and editing career. When she was diagnosed in the past decade with lung cancer and then lymphoma, putting this part of her personal odyssey into poetry was a … Read more
On what was supposed to be a memorable night for all the right reasons, things suddenly went terribly wrong for Marie Fricker. Arriving at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for the birth of her first grandchild, she began experiencing dueling discomforts that rooted her to a bench in the front lobby: a sensation of searing heat … Read more
Ovarian cancer often goes undetected before it reaches more invasive stages, but there is one aspect of the disease that frequently remains ignored even after diagnosis: Its impact upon a patient’s sexual health and function. Now, as research and treatment advances are allowing more women to live longer and healthier with ovarian cancer, Dana-Farber is … Read more
Each day, Anthony Lewis Jr. showed up at the convenience store under the guise of purchasing a lottery ticket. He bought the tickets, but his real interest was in the woman behind the counter – an old high school classmate he was working up the nerve to ask out. The warm-hearted cashier finally let Lewis … Read more
Charles “Chuck” Vanada has been looking forward to Thanksgiving with his family this year, but the non-Hodgkin lymphoma survivor has already experienced feelings of gratitude in 2017 more powerful – and in places more unexpected – than anything he could have imagined. In April, Vanada and his wife, Debbie, traveled from their Boston-area home to … Read more
By Allan Osborne Although most caregivers are related to us, cancer patients like myself often receive care and support from non-family members, such as friends and colleagues. It’s important for us to reflect on the important role our caregivers play in our overall treatment. In my opinion, our caregivers have a much harder job than … Read more
Cancer can feel like a slog — not just a physical one, but an emotional one, too. That’s how 56-year-old business owner Amy Macdonald describes the past year and a half living with metastatic melanoma. “The biggest changes in my life are the consequences of the treatment – fatigue, body aches, brain fog, and mental … Read more
By Brittany Collins “Men don’t get breast cancer,” a practitioner told my father, who had concerning symptoms and a sister who carries a BRCA-2 mutation. “You shouldn’t worry.” This was how my family’s cancer journey began. Years prior, my paternal grandmother passed away from the disease, and my aunt had recently completed treatments for her … Read more
When I was young, I wanted to be a doctor. I was the kid who would cry with my friends when they skinned their knees, and do whatever I could to comfort them. In college I learned there were other jobs in healthcare where I could help people, and I eventually became a healthcare advocate … Read more
“The jig is up.” At least, that’s what Christine Ernst thought as she waited for the mammogram technician to deliver the bad news that she knew was coming. What Ernst didn’t know was what exactly that bad news would be, but eventually it became clear: she had stage II HER2-positive breast cancer, a subtype of … Read more
By Linda Dzobiek I have been living with ovarian cancer for 13 years. I was diagnosed at age 53 with Stage 3C ovarian cancer, and after receiving care near my home in Providence, Rhode Island, my doctor referred me to Dana-Farber’s Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers for a clinical trial. I have been … Read more
Judy Wilkins tried four different chemotherapy regiments over 18 grueling months to try to put her lymphoma into remission. Her team never could. But thanks to CAR T-cell therapy, an emerging immunotherapy treatment that is showing great promise in clinical trials nationwide, Wilkins is cancer-free. CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) T-cell therapy is a form of cellular … Read more
Before her vulvar cancer diagnosis, Ronda Cushman led an energetic life as a physical therapy assistant who exercised each morning. Chemotherapy treatment curtailed both passions, but now Cushman may have a new ally in regaining her strength – and caregivers a new way to monitor her health away from the hospital. This past spring, Cushman … Read more
By Mal Malme Each year during my annual checkup with my wonderful oncologist Panos A. Konstantinopoulos, MD, PhD, at the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber, I reflect back on how grateful I am that my ovarian cancer is in remission. And while I appreciate the warmth and clinical expertise that he … Read more
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
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
Ever since he drove a Good Humor truck to pay his way through college, ice cream has meant many things to Dan Schorr: hard work, freedom, friendship, fun. Now, after treatment at Dana-Farber for an aggressive form of lymphoma, he has added another – gratitude. Schorr is founder of Vice Cream, which in June served … Read more
Deciding to have a baby can be a happy – and sometimes scary – time for parents. Worries and questions about finances, the future, and the baby’s health are common. But most parents-to-be don’t have a cancer diagnosis looming over their heads like Abby and Tom Morgan did. A 32-year-old teacher, Abby says she always wanted … Read more