For close to a year, Melanie Spears had been experiencing abdominal pain and constipation. As an Army veteran who had served in Afghanistan, she was used to pushing through adversity — so she tweaked her diet and dealt with what doctors diagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome. Only after microscopic blood samples in her stool led … Read more
When Chuck Stravin was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in 2015, one of his biggest fears was not living long enough to see his four young daughters get married. The disease later metastasized to his lungs as stage IV cancer, but thanks to groundbreaking clinical trials and a care team he considers family, Stravin is … Read more
Tom Lomaglio, Jr., learned he had a rare blood cancer called Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia (WM) in 2000. His father, Tom, Sr., had been diagnosed in 2004, and then his sister, Diane, in 2007. They were all referred to Dana-Farber for care. When Lomaglio visited the first time, he met Steven Treon, MD, PhD, director of the … Read more
Researchers in the late 1970s wanted to address challenges with a chemotherapy drug called floxuridine. It’s a form of chemotherapy invented in the 1950s that turns into its active form, 5-fluorouracil, or 5-FU, when metabolized. One challenge is that 5-FU has off-target effects, meaning it can damage healthy organs when given throughout the body. In … Read more
Most commonly occurring cancers are diagnosed in people over age 50. Over the past several decades, however, rates of many types of cancer have been rising in adults under 50. Reports suggest that these include breast, colorectal, endometrial, esophageal, bile duct, gallbladder, head and neck, kidney, liver, pancreatic, prostate, stomach, and thyroid cancers as well … Read more
The rectum is a six-inch-long portion of the large intestine, which is about five feet in length, but it is the starting point of about one-third of the 145,000 cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed in the United States each year. About 5% of people will develop rectal cancer at some point, and about 11% will … Read more
What does “refractory” mean medically? The word “refractory” in general use means stubborn or intractable, and in medicine it is specifically applied to disease that does not respond to treatment. Refractory cancer refers to cancer that may be resistant to initial therapy or becomes resistant during treatment. “We would consider disease refractory if doesn’t respond … Read more
Discovered only about a decade ago, a key actor in the immune system called STING has become a hot target of research aimed at improving cancer immunotherapy. STING (stimulator of interferon genes) has been called a “master regulator” of the innate immune response against cancer. When activated by substances called agonists, STING turns on genes … Read more
With its deep experience in studying the rare, often lethal cancer known as NUT carcinoma, Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center attracts patients and families, some from far away. Unfortunately, NUT carcinoma is so rapidly aggressive that “sometimes patients get to Dana-Farber and become too sick to proceed with treatment,” which speaks to the urgent need for … Read more
Results of several phase 3 trials and dozens of other studies led by Dana-Farber researchers were presented online and in person June 3-7 at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the world’s largest clinical cancer research meeting. Some of the research reports presented by Dana-Farber investigators include: Improved progression-free … Read more
Hemoglobin is an essential protein in your red blood cells that carries oxygen to your body’s organs and tissues and transports carbon dioxide from your organs and tissues back to your lungs. Is hemoglobin affected by cancer? Anemia is essentially a blood condition marked by a low level of hemoglobin and red blood cells, and in some cases can be … Read more
If a medical professional wants to rule out cancer as a possibility, or suspects cancer may be the root cause of a medical issue, they will order one or more tests. Below are some examples of tests that may be given to either confirm a cancer diagnosis or rule one out. Tests can cause feelings … Read more
Many healthy people are concerned about potential risks from exposures to air and water pollution, household chemicals, pesticides, and substances in the workplace. And for cancer patients, it can raise even more anxiety, with people wondering whether something in their environment triggered their disease. However, links between environmental exposures and cancer have been difficult to … Read more
Every cancer starts with a mistake deep inside the nucleus of a single cell, where DNA is stored. Abnormalities in DNA can be inherited from one’s parents or can occur because of exposure to harmful substances in the environment such as chemicals in tobacco, ultraviolet radiation from the sun, and perhaps, chemicals in our diet. … Read more
What is osteoporosis? Osteoporosis is a condition that thins and weakens the bones in a way that makes them more likely to fracture, especially the bones in the hip, spine, and wrist. Are there any risk factors for osteoporosis? Osteoporosis can occur to anyone, but it is more common in older women. Risk factors include: … Read more
There were an estimated 18.1 million cancer cases around the world in 2020, according to the World Cancer Research Fund International. Of those cases, the United States had the fourth highest number of new diagnoses, with 362 cases per 100,000 people. These statistics are age-standardized — a summary measure of the rate of disease that a … Read more
When breast cancer spreads, or metastasizes, it’s more likely to travel to some parts of the body than others. The most common sites of metastasis include the bones, brain, liver, or lungs. It’s rare for patients with early-stage breast cancer, which has not spread beyond the breast or adjacent lymph nodes, to develop a brain metastasis: … Read more
Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is a rare, very aggressive form of breast cancer that occurs when cancer cells block the flow of lymph in the skin of the breast. This causes the breast to swell and become red or purplish, often in a short period of time such as a few weeks. IBC accounts for … Read more
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
Many cancers develop from cells that have a malfunctioning tumor suppressor gene, p53, which normally helps control unchecked cell growth and prevent cancer. Some scientists are pursuing a strategy of restoring p53 gene function in cancer cells to stop their unruly growth or kill them. The exact effects of reviving p53 activity in tumors are … Read more