When he was 67 years old, Barry Polsky said “I do” for the first time in his life when he married his wife, Randi. One year later, the retired high school teacher and lifelong baseball fan was offered one of his dream jobs as a tour guide at Fenway Park. And earlier this year, at … Read more
Urinary problems are more common among older adults, when incontinence and urinary-tract infections become more prevalent and bladder cancer risk rises. About 9 out of 10 bladder cancer patients are above the age of 55, according to the American Cancer Society. The symptoms of bladder cancer can mirror those of other conditions, so it’s important … Read more
Leigh Ellis, PhD, once seemed destined for a career intercepting passes as a professional rugby player. Now, the Dana-Farber researcher is devising plays to intercept prostate cancer cells before they become metastatic. These tactics could also potentially slow other genitourinary diseases, including kidney cancer. Ellis’ laboratory works to better understand the underlying genetic and epigenetic … Read more
As father and daughter, there are many things Dennis Gorden and Becky Nutley share: a contagious smile, the instinct to help others, and a commitment to family, to name a few. But one thing they never imagined they would have in common was a cancer diagnosis. In 2014, routine blood work revealed that Becky Nutley, … Read more
Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer forms in the prostate, a gland located just below the bladder and in front of the rectum in males. In the United States, a man has a one in five chance of being diagnosed with this disease in his lifetime. But there are still a lot of … Read more
Long-term studies of men with low-risk prostate cancer have demonstrated that active surveillance is safe and that a majority of patients can successfully forego surgery or radiation for over 10 years.
Two years after being given six months to live, Mullan’s cancer is still at bay because of immunotherapy and targeted chemotherapy – and through it all, he achieved one of his dreams: graduating from Harvard Law School.
Testicular cancer occurs when abnormal cells in one or both of the testes begins to grow uncontrollably.
In the past, treating cancers involved classifying them primarily by the organ or tissue where they arose – like the skin, the lungs, the breast, or the colon. Today, it’s often possible to identify the genes and proteins responsible for a tumor’s growth, and, in some cases, to offer a drug treatment that specifically targets … Read more
Efforts are under way to develop and test new immunotherapy approaches for prostate cancer.
Treatments that improve the immune system’s ability to recognize and kill cancer cells are known as immunotherapy. For certain patients with advanced bladder cancer, immunotherapy is proving effective, and several immunotherapy drugs are approved for use in such patients. Currently approved treatments A checkpoint inhibitor is a drug — often made of antibodies — that … Read more
Bladder cancer accounts for only five percent of new cancer cases in America — a small piece of the pie — but considering it is the fourth most common cancer in men, it is important to be aware of the signs and symptoms of this disease. Symptoms of bladder cancer The most common sign of … Read more
Testicular cancer is cancer that originates in one or both testicles — the two egg-shaped glands (enclosed in the scrotum) that produce testosterone (a male hormone) and sperm. Part of what makes testicular cancer unique is that it occurs overwhelmingly more often in young men: The average age of diagnosis is 33 years old. The … Read more
Men diagnosed with non-metastatic prostate cancer now have access to a new tool on the TrueNTH USA website to help them prepare for their first meeting with a cancer physician. The tool, called Personal Patient Profile-Prostate (P3P), was created by Dana-Farber researchers and is now available to all men with non-metastatic prostate cancer though TrueNTH … Read more
It is important to know the symptoms of kidney cancer and be aware of risk factors for the disease. Kidney cancer is more treatable the earlier it is spotted and diagnosed. However, early diagnosis remains difficult because the tumors can grow quite large without causing pain. In addition, because kidneys are located deep inside the … Read more
The immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab (Keytruda) is the first therapy of any kind to improve survival in patients whose metastatic bladder cancer worsened after treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy. Keytruda proved so much better than chemotherapy in this “second-line” use that an international clinical trial was halted when the advantage became apparent. “This is very good news; … Read more
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 180,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, with African American men 60 percent more likely to develop the disease than other ethnic groups. Fortunately, the vast majority of prostate cancer diagnoses will be a slow-growing, highly treatable form of the disease. For many men diagnosed … Read more
Prostate cancer affects 230,000 men each year. Although diagnoses are increasing worldwide, most people die with prostate cancer and not of prostate cancer, according to Mark Pomerantz, MD, a medical oncologist in Dana-Farber’s Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology. In this Cancer Conversations podcast episode, Pomerantz discusses genetics, risk factors, and the controversy surrounding the PSA … Read more
Each year, approximately 8,000 men in the United States are diagnosed with testicular cancer. Testicular cancer occurs when abnormal cells in one or both of the testes begin to grow uncontrollably. It is highly treatable if caught early. Here are some facts about testicular cancer that patients and their family members may not know. Testicular … Read more
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men in the United States, after skin cancer. Yet, “most men die with prostate cancer, not of prostate cancer,” says Mark Pomerantz, MD, a medical oncologist in Dana-Farber’s Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, who recently shared the latest in prostate cancer research and treatment during a live … Read more