Enhancing Immunotherapy: The Race to Make “Cold” Tumors “Hot”
A growing arsenal of new drugs that unleash the body’s immune system against tumors has captured the cancer treatment spotlight.
Search Results for: gynecologic cancer
Oncology and Palliative Care Team Up to Benefit Patients
A cancer care team often involves quite a few players: oncologists, nurses, radiation oncologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and others. While these experts often improve patient outcomes, such a large multidisciplinary team can sometimes make communication and coordination difficult. Dana-Farber’s Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care department is working to change that. Palliative care clinicians are now … Read more
An Aggressive Treatment for a Strong Patient
By Theresa Sullivan Barger After triathlete Betsy Feldmann felt pressure in her abdomen while running, which seemed “as if her insides were slipping,” she saw four doctors before being diagnosed with stage II-C ovarian cancer. Feldmann chose an aggressive approach recommended by Ursula Matulonis, MD, medical director of Gynecologic Oncology at the Susan F. Smith … Read more
What Is Hormone Therapy?
Hormone therapy might more accurately be called anti-hormone therapy because it works by blocking hormones that spur certain cancers to grow. Hormones act by attaching to proteins, called receptors, on the outside of cells, resulting in cell or cancer growth. Reducing this type of cancer cell growth by blocking hormones is used most commonly in … Read more
What is Gestational Trophoblastic Disease?
Gestational Trophoblastic Disease (GTD) is a rare disease where a group of tumors develops in the uterus after conception, leading to abnormal development of the placenta. It affects about 1 in 1,000 pregnancies. More than 80 percent of GTD cases are non-cancerous and all forms can be treated, with the majority of cases curable. Physicians … Read more
How to Prevent and Manage Lymphedema
Following radiation treatment or surgery to remove lymph nodes (lymphadenectomy), patients can develop lymphedema, a condition that involves abnormal swelling, usually in the arms or the legs, due to an accumulation of lymphatic fluids. This fluid buildup is caused by blockage or removal of lymph nodes or lymph vessels. Lymphedema is often associated with breast … Read more
When Should My Daughter Get Her First Pap Test?
By Sarah Feldman, MD, MPH Healthy young women should get their first Pap test at age 21. If that test is normal, they should have additional Pap tests every three years. If they have symptoms such as abnormal bleeding or are found to have an abnormality on their cervix during an exam, they may need … Read more