Early in his career, Vinayak Venkataraman, MD, noticed that one group of patients was putting on a brave face in his sarcoma clinic. In conversations with nurses and social workers, he learned that his young adult patients were struggling with physical, emotional, and social challenges even if they sometimes didn’t tell him directly. “Patients can … Read more
Pathogens are tiny invaders of the body that can make people sick—something that Howard Heller, MD, MPH, has spent his entire career studying. Then, in 2024, Heller discovered at age 64 there was another kind of invader, growing slowly and uncontrollably in his own body: cancer. “I’ve helped patients as an infectious disease specialist for … Read more
Acute leukemias are life-threatening blood conditions that need urgent treatment. Approved targeted therapies such as BCL2, IDH, and menin inhibitors have expanded treatment options for certain patients, but determining if a given patient might benefit from one of these treatments can take time. Doctors need to order multiple complex diagnostic workups that can take days … Read more
While working towards his engineering degree at the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Chile, Matías Vergara Alvarez, MS, played a central role in caring for his parents through their cancer diagnoses — a time in his life that shaped his career. “I was interested in engineering, but I made a complete switch in my job because … Read more
Kornelia Polyak, MD, PhD, has been trying to understand how breast cancer forms ever since starting her lab at Dana-Farber in 1998. Specifically, she has wanted to know how ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a pre-cancerous state that appears only in the milk ducts in the breast, changes into invasive breast cancer, which is breast … Read more
One by one, our immune cells march to the frontlines when it gets a whiff of an invader. They are ready to fight and protect our systems from what is about to attack. But what if we can recruit these specialized soldiers for glioblastoma — a malignant brain cancer that struggles to have enough immune … Read more
CAR T-cell therapy is a newer form of immunotherapy that can treat some types of blood cancers, such as lymphoma, multiple myeloma, and leukemia. Patients can be treated with this therapy as an inpatient or outpatient, depending on their case and specific needs. “Historically, we were giving these therapies in the hospital, but what we’ve … Read more
Rare genetic cancers may affect few people, but their complexity makes them powerful windows into how even the most common cancers develop and behave. Delving into understanding how DNA is damaged and repaired in rare genetic conditions is how physician-scientist Alan D’Andrea, MD, built a foundation of knowledge about Fanconi anemia (FA) – a rare genetic disease of the bone marrow that significantly increases the risk of certain cancers. In people with … Read more
Cancer treatment has evolved dramatically in the first quarter of this century, but there is still much more to do to improve the lives of people with cancer. At Dana-Farber, research continues in the clinic and in the lab in efforts to continue to bring advancements in treatment and prevention for patients. That research has resulted in exciting … Read more
There are over 100 precision medicines approved for the treatment of cancer. These therapies work to shut down the cancer-driving effects of specific mutations. Matching a patient to a medicine — the practice of precision oncology — is complex and advancing rapidly. However, there is no easy, standardized way for oncologists to stay informed of advances. “The clinicians we engaged with said that catching up with FDA approvals is far … Read more
As we close out the first quarter of the twenty-first century, it isn’t hard to notice how much the world has changed since the year 2000. Smartphones. Social media. Artificial intelligence. But how much has cancer care changed? A lot. Possibly more than you think. Treatment for many cancers now include many options beyond chemotherapy, … Read more
In 2014, Dana-Farber pediatric oncologist Brian Crompton, MD, discovered that a gene called STAG2 is mutated in about 15 percent of patients with Ewing sarcoma, a form of bone cancer that largely occurs in children and adolescents. Now, that molecular insight could hold the keys to advancing treatment for the disease. New research led by senior authors Crompton and pediatric oncologist Katherine Janeway, MD, Dana-Farber Pediatric Oncology Section Chief and Chair of the Children’s … Read more
Big ideas are all around us. They pop into our heads when we least expect it and consume our minds until we take steps to make them happen. That’s how research begins, continues, and evolves. At Dana-Farber, scientists are attacking cancer at every level. Researchers go through a continuous cycle of experimentation to see the … Read more
What makes us humans lies in our genes. But even with all their power, they are remarkably vulnerable to errors. But these potentially harmful errors are an opportunity for humankind to study and treat, as it has been for Dana-Farber’s physician-scientist Srinivas Viswanathan, MD, PhD. “We have the ability to make an impact,” Viswanathan said. “There are so many unanswered questions in cancer biology still, especially in our understanding of rarer subtypes of kidney cancer.” One of these subtypes — called translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) — occurs when a gene quietly moves, fuses with another gene, and … Read more
Every year, physician researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute reveal new treatments, protocols, and outcomes that advance cancer research. At one of this year’s biggest cancer research conferences, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Berlin, Germany, Dana-Farber researchers presented 22 studies in breast, lung, and bladder cancer. Here are three of the most exciting advancements — several nearing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval — shared by our experts nearly 4,000 miles across the world. An oral therapy for advanced breast cancer Erica Mayer, MD, MPH, director … Read more
Cancer can make its way through the body by shapeshifting through even the narrowest places, like a skilled driver navigating traffic. It has a sly way of adapting to its environment by finding detours around every blockade clinicians place in its path. A study from the lab of Nilay Sethi, MD, PhD, in Dana-Farber’s Center … Read more
Pancreatic cancer has long been difficult to detect and treat, but that might be changing. Dana-Farber experts in the Hale Family Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research are focused on three key areas that are poised to shift the way people think about, treat, and detect pancreatic cancer. Research shows the effectiveness of RAS therapeutics for pancreatic cancer The introduction of medicines that target a … Read more
Jessica St. Laurent, MD, was sure something had gone wrong. The results of an experiment she’d run showed that the cancer cells she was studying had abnormally high levels of a specific collection of proteins of interest to her team. “I remember seeing the gradient and thinking, This can’t be right,” says St. Laurent, who … Read more
Viruses aren’t thought of as living beings. Rather, they are collections of genetic instructions that hijack the replication machinery of living cells to perpetuate themselves. A specific type of virus called a retrovirus does this by integrating a DNA copy of its RNA genome into the host cell’s DNA. This capability has proven to be … Read more
Gene therapy and immunotherapy are both types of treatment for cancer and other diseases. They represent different approaches to disease therapy, though there is some overlap. What is gene therapy? Gene therapy is a way of treating or preventing disease by altering the genetic instructions within an individual’s cells. Most diseases aren’t caused by a … Read more