Cancers originating in the bone, called primary bone cancers, are rare and account for less than 1% of all cancers. There are numerous types of primary bone cancers, and in most cases, the cause isn’t known. Primary bone tumors can have changes in the DNA of the cancer cells, but those DNA changes are acquired … Read more
The shock of a new cancer diagnosis was still settling in for Isabel Nordby when she and her parents made a decision that could greatly impact the teenager’s future — if and when the time is right. Before starting her chemotherapy protocol for Ewing sarcoma in April 2020, Isabel, then 15, had one of her … Read more
Thoughts of having a family may be the subject of an idle moment’s reverie for many young people. A cancer diagnosis can make them inescapable. Not all cancer treatments have an impact on fertility, but for those that do, patients who hope to have children in the future — or simply wish to leave open … Read more
Despite breakthrough treatments for high-grade serous ovarian cancer, about 80 percent of patients relapse within two years, often resistant to treatment. The good news is that Dana-Farber scientists are pursuing multiple avenues of research that very well may improve outcomes. “A number of patients develop progressive disease at a later point, potentially indicating that a … Read more
Drugs that contain radioactive isotopes — forms of chemical elements that emit radiation — are known as radiopharmaceuticals. Radioisotopes have been used to treat cancer as far back as the 1940s, but the field has really taken off just in the past few years as researchers explore their potential in cancer. How are radiopharmaceuticals used … Read more
How did teenager Noah Zierfus stay grounded in the face of a cancer diagnosis? With his perfect trifecta of family, friends, and football. The Springfield, Vermont native was a junior in high school when he noticed he had something like a cyst. The doctors told him it was nothing at first, but Noah and his … Read more
The first time they met, in the break room at work, Raunada Bryant remembers struggling with her heavy Southern accent to pronounce Kristen Donoghue’s first name. Giving up with a laugh, she took to calling her new colleague “K” — not knowing the critical role they would soon play in each other’s lives. Donoghue was … Read more
The time may not be far off when the treatment for a person’s ovarian cancer can be tailored to their malignancy using drugs selected by testing on “organoids” — miniature 3-D clusters of cancer cells grown from a patient’s own tumor cells. Although ovarian organoid tests are not yet being used to guide treatment decisions, … Read more
Although multiple myeloma is relatively rare — accounting for about 2% of all cancers — it is twice as common among African Americans as white Americans. Every year, nearly 35,000 new cases of the disease are diagnosed in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. About 24% of those cases are in African … Read more
After successfully donating stem cells to her brother, Drew, during his treatment for the blood disorder aplastic anemia, Sarah Montgomery was ready and willing to make the life-saving gesture again. When the call came to do so, however, she was forced to decline for a very understandable reason: Her own stem cell transplant. In the … Read more
When Michael Voisine went to the doctor in 2017, he had just one symptom: a burning sensation on his skin, right around the corner of his stomach. After a CAT scan, he was rushed into the operating room for an emergency appendectomy. But doctors found more than just an inflamed appendix: They also discovered an … Read more
When Minnesota native Charles “Woody” Hubbell went to college, he thought his biggest hurdle would be the culture shock of attending an east coast school that he had never visited in person. But his freshman year, he fell completely in love with the Boston College community and his friends as he pursued a major in … Read more
Michael Tichnor still wonders what might have happened if his primary care physician did not ask him one last question during his annual physical two years ago: “Is there anything else you want to tell me?” Until that moment, Tichnor, then 66, had no plans to mention the pebble-sized bump he accidentally discovered on his … Read more
Studies in the lab of Cigall Kadoch, PhD, are shedding new light on how molecular machines called BAF chromatin remodeling complexes “go where they need to go” within the DNA genome of cells, binding to specific locations to govern which genes turn on and off to orchestrate cell functions. The findings, described in the journal … Read more
Jeffrey Borges was used to hearing that doctors had few good treatments for his mastocytosis. He’d heard it when he was first diagnosed with the disease at age 16 and a course of antihistamines and ultraviolet light therapy had little effect on the rash that covered most of his body. He heard it in his … Read more
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommend a third shot of the COVID-19 vaccine if you are being treated for cancer and have already received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. Under the new CDC recommendation, people who are moderately to severely immunocompromised should get another dose. This means that most Dana-Farber patients who are currently being treated for cancer should get a third shot, … Read more
When Dana-Farber launched its new Center for BRCA and Related Genes in August 2020, it was with patients like Janice Dolnick in mind. Dolnick’s cancer journey had already been a long one before she came to Dana-Farber for a consult in 2018. Over the previous 21 years, she’d been through two rounds of breast cancer … Read more
Until recently, health authorities recommended that most individuals have their first colonoscopy at age 50 to screen for colorectal cancer or precancerous growths, which can often be removed to prevent cancer development. But a worrying rise in colorectal cancer in younger people in recent years has prompted a federal task force to recommend the initial … Read more
Quitting smoking during cancer treatment may seem overwhelming, but this is an especially important time to try. Active cancer patients and survivors who cut down on their cigarettes, vaping, or other nicotine use can experience a reduction in heart, stomach, and infection problems related to chemotherapy toxicity, improve their healing and breathing post-surgery, and decrease … Read more
The majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer have early-stage disease that is confined to the breast or nearby lymph nodes and is effectively treated by lumpectomy or mastectomy. Nevertheless, small clusters of cancer cells remaining after surgery — called micrometastases — have the potential to spread at some point and cause a cancer recurrence, … Read more