#dana-farber

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Who fakes cancer research? Apparently, lots of people

Faked cancer data is the latest sign of science’s fraud problem.

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🎗️ Christina Ladany's Jimmy Fund Walk Video Story

Reading resident, Christina Ladany, registered for the Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk to raise money for cancer research and to stop this deadly disease. “I am walking for myself and all that have/had cancer,” Christina explains. I have more strength now after the chemo and I am able to do at least the 5k this year.” This will be Christina’s first year walking. I sat down with Christina…

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Making a party out of cancer

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/making-party-cancer/

Making a party out of cancer

Every Sunday, the Cutter family holds a Chemofeast. The door to their home is open to any and all who wish to attend. It’s a day full of food, beverages, and a lot of laughter, and 15-year-old Blake Cutter gets to choose the menu. Then on Monday, his mother, Lois, drives him to chemotherapy at Dana-Farber.

For the Cutter family, which includes patients Lois and her 15-year-old son Blake, laughter is the best medicine. Blake was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft-tissue cancer, back in February. It wasn’t the Cutters’ first encounter with cancer. That had come in April, 2011, when Lois learned she had breast cancer. After recovering from reconstructive surgery, she returned to work on January 31. Two weeks later, Blake was diagnosed. Lois knew what to do: make a party out of cancer. She organized a Chemofeast for Blake every Sunday before driving him to Dana-Farber for treatment the next day. Chemofeast isn’t about the food. From the beginning, the Cutters decided to “celebrate life” and surround themselves with positive energy from others. The Sunday festivities guide them through the rough spots of cancer treatment, allowing them to laugh and appreciate family and friends who love and support them. “I’m glad I got cancer so I could help Blake navigate his way through this,” says Lois. Cancer doesn’t scare her. In fact, her journey through cancer and that of many family members led her to fundraising. Every year, she raises money for the Jimmy Fund and other causes through her beauty salon and other events. Energy, optimism, and spirit are her trademarks. Once, when Lois was at Dana-Farber with a friend, they were laughing about how when doctors said something is “rare or unusual,” it seemed to happen to Lois. Another woman turned to her and remarked: “You remind me that I don’t smile and laugh enough. Thank you for showing me that today.” “Laughing is my number one hobby,” says Lois. “My treatment could have failed me. Instead, I’m standing here today with the ability to help other people, and see them happy.” That includes her son. Blake also had the help of an unlikely new friend, a 3-year-old boy undergoing treatment at the Jimmy Fund Clinic for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The two met at a Red Sox game, and they’ve been best friends ever since. Despite the challenges she has faced, Lois is content. “I wake up every day, place my feet on the floor, and thank God,” Lois says, “You have to believe that things happen for a reason, even if you don’t understand why.” After Chemofeast last Sunday, Lois drove Blake to his final treatment on Monday. She admits that she will miss the Jimmy Fund Clinic. “Of course, I wish Blake was never diagnosed with cancer,” says Lois. “But our experience here at Dana-Farber is something I would never trade.”

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Two Inspiring Stories of Moms

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/two-inspiring-stories-moms/

Two Inspiring Stories of Moms

On a cold October evening, Michelle Maloney braced herself against the night chill. As she hugged herself in bed, she felt a lump in her right breast. The next morning, Maloney scheduled an appointment with her primary care physician, who asked if she could be pregnant. “Anything is possible,” said Maloney.Follow-up blood work revealed that the 39-year-old was, in fact, five weeks pregnant with her first child. Unconvinced that the lump was caused by blocked milked ducts – common in pregnant women – her doctor scheduled her for breast imaging. The tests – performed on October 19, Maloney’s wedding anniversary – revealed breast cancer. Michelle Maloney 7 Michelle Maloney with her son, Matthew Maloney quickly “assembled a team of doctors,” she says. At the helm of her care team was Erica Mayer, MD, MPH, of the Breast Oncology Center at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC), who worked closely with maternal-fetal medicine specialist Katherine Economy, MD, of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), over the course of Maloney’s treatment. “It never occurred to me to go anywhere else,” says Maloney. Once past the first trimester of pregnancy, Maloney underwent a mastectomy and reconstructive surgery and then began chemotherapy. “Chemotherapy was scary for me,” she recalls. “To know that these chemicals can kill cancer but won’t hurt your baby – you have to have faith and belief that it’s going to be OK. I had to be calm more than anything else. That is what propelled me through the process.” “Pregnancy-associated breast cancer is a rare diagnosis, but it is increasing in frequency,” says Mayer. “Over past years of experience and study, treatment plans have been developed that are effective against the cancer and safe for a developing baby. We bring together a multidisciplinary team to care for a woman with pregnancy-associated breast cancer; that team may include medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, radiation oncologists, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, reconstructive surgeons, nurses, and social workers. Our entire team meets with every patient to create a personalized treatment plan, and works together to guide that patient through her treatment and delivery.” Managing the joy of pregnancy and the challenges of a cancer diagnosis was a “rollercoaster,” says Maloney. While undergoing her first round of chemotherapy, Maloney visited the high-risk pregnancy center at BWH, where she received weekly nonstress tests and ultrasounds to monitor her baby’s health. After 12 weeks of initial chemotherapy treatment, her team chose to delay the second portion of her chemo until after she had her baby. “This was their gut feeling,” says Maloney. “This made me feel like I was a person, not just a patient in a tumor board review. They considered everything. It wasn’t the same treatment for every person. I felt valued as a patient and as a person. I can’t say enough about the partnership between Dana-Farber and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They made a plan for me and truly worked together. They were all in sync with the decisions made both for my cancer treatment and my pregnancy. It was fantastic.” On May 26, 2011, Matthew Maloney was born at 6 pounds 6 ounces. Less than two weeks later, and two days after her first post-pregnancy chemotherapy, Maloney, her husband, and her healthy new baby boy attended Relay for Life. “I was in pain, but I was so excited to be participating, not only as a team member and committee member, but as a survivor for the first time,” she says. “I had a lot to celebrate.”

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Every Beam Tells a Story of Growth and Survival

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/every-beam-tells-story-growth-survival/

Every Beam Tells a Story of Growth and Survival

When Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was founded as the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation in 1947, childhood cancer was almost universally fatal. In the years since, as Dana-Farber’s researchers and clinicians have helped dramatically raise survival rates for many pediatric and adult cancers, its campus in Boston’s Longwood Medical Area has grown as well. Patients are the motivation for each new building that rises at Dana-Farber, and in the case of two recent structures, are even immortalized within – thanks to special bonds formed during their construction. JimmyFundBuilding-2After years of working first in a tiny basement laboratory and then in an apartment building, founder Sidney Farber, MD, was able to move his growing Children’s Cancer Research Foundation (CCRF) into a brand-new four-story building of its own in 1952. Shown here with CCRF leaders during its construction, Farber (at center in white lab coat) designed a facility where young patients were treated on the lower floors while researchers worked above them to uncover the mysteries of cancer.

p3680-2By the time construction on the Chares A. Dana Research Laboratories began at the CCRF in 1970, the Jimmy Fund Building (framed here by the bulldozer) had doubled in size. This was still not enough space to satisfy the CCRF’s growing patient population, which now included adults as well as children. The Dana building, with its 17 floors, helped tremendously.

Every Beam Scan 1a-2Young patients in the Dana building’s Jimmy Fund Clinic could watch from across the street as the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Research Laboratories rose on the Dana-Farber campus in 1996. What resulted was a made-for-Hollywood gesture; as children (including Danny Pardi, at center in baseball cap) posted their names in the clinic’s windows, iron workers wrote the names on steel beams forming the new structure. Hollywood eventually did come calling, turning the story into a movie trailer starring Pardi that was shown at theatres to spur gifts to Dana-Farber.

SOG_0484_09a-3 SOG_0426_09-3The bond between the ironworkers and young cancer patients resonated so powerfully with the public and those involved that it was repeated during construction of the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care beside the Smith Building more than a decade later. Once again, young Jimmy Fund Clinic patients posted their names in the windows, hoping an ironworker would immortalize them on a beam. They did, along with the names of many adults with ties to Dana-Farber as patients or supporters. In addition to recording the names of patients on the beams, the ironworkers also took to “passing the hard hat” for gifts in support of research and treatment at Dana-Farber.

SOG_1452_14-3Today, with the Yawkey Center long since completed, some of the names commemorated by the iron workers remain visible to all who enter the center – a reminder to the researchers, clinicians, and support staff working there about the mission of Dana-Farber.

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From Leukemia Patient to Caregiver

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/leukemia-patient-caregiver/

From Leukemia Patient to Caregiver

Alyssa Ywuc was a 23-year-old nursing student when she was diagnosed with leukemia. After seeing first-hand the work of oncology nurses as a patient, she decided to specialize in oncology nursing. We talked with Alyssa about both sides of the cancer experience – her time as a patient and her future career as a caregiver.

Alyssa’s nurses decorated her room on the day she was supposed to graduate from college. How were you first diagnosed with leukemia? On October 1, 2011, my best friend and I were watching her nieces. I picked up the 1-year-old and I suddenly felt my heart literally beating out of my chest. I quickly put her down and sat for a minute. Being a senior in Northeastern University’s nursing program, I knew immediately to check my pulse. My normal pulse was around 60 beats per minute, but that day, my pulse was 120. My best friend drove me to the emergency room. I had a fever and my heart rate was 196. The nurses and doctors performed tests on me then transferred me to another hospital – thinking I had a heart problem. Once at the other hospital, the doctor came in (we were just expecting him to introduce himself) and he starts talking about oncology and said there’s a good chance I had leukemia. My family and I were blown away. The next day I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and transferred to Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Because I had been healthy my entire life, this was a shock to everyone. How have you managed the last year of diagnosis and treatment? The past 12 months have been challenging, but I have learned so much about myself and the type of nurse I want to become. I believe that everything happens for a reason and that I was diagnosed with leukemia for a reason as well. Before my diagnosis, I felt that I was invincible; nothing bad could ever happen to me. Now, I don’t take a single day for granted. I know how very precious life is and how important all of my family and friends are. Dana-Farber means so much to me. I owe my life to them, literally. I feel so lucky to live close to the most amazing hospitals in Boston. I am currently participating in a study along with my treatment, and I hope that all of the research that the doctors are doing will help future patients. What are three words that you would use to describe being a patient at Dana-Farber? Appreciative, inspired, and positive. Being diagnosed with cancer is something that everyone hopes never happens to them; however, the experience I have had with Dana Farber has been nothing but positive. The staff puts in extra effort to explain everything to me so I know exactly what to expect during different procedures and stages of my treatment. What advice would you give to a newly diagnosed cancer patient? Treasure every day. Enjoy the good days and know that the bad days won’t last too long; you will get through them. Don’t be afraid and ashamed to wear gloves and a mask out in public – especially during the beginning parts of treatment. Your health comes before any of the stares and comments that other people might have. Dana Farber is the absolute best place to be treated for cancer; you are in the right place. One of the things that helped me the most was to keep my sense of humor during my treatment. Cancer is a serious disease, but I believe that you still have to be yourself during the treatment. Continuing my education during treatment gave me something else to focus on other than being sick. What inspired you to become an oncology nurse? Since I was young, I wanted to be a nurse, but all through nursing school I kept going back and forth between which type of nurse I wanted to be. I can now say that without a doubt I want to become an oncology nurse. I used to picture cancer patients as depressed and sad all the time. I now know that they aren’t different and are so appreciative for their treatment and their lives. The nurses, doctors and staff at both Brigham and Women’s Hospital and at Dana-Farber – and especially the staff on Yawkey 8 — have been beyond caring and compassionate to me. I aspire to be just like each and every one of them. This spring I took three required classes and I was even able to walk with my class at graduation this past May (even though I received a blank diploma). My “graduation day” for Northeastern University was on a morning of a chemo appointment. When I came to Dana Farber for my appointment, one of the nurse’s aides directed me to “my” room. The room was decorated with graduation window decals, balloons, a cake, and a graduation stuffed animal dog with signatures and notes on it from all the staff. I couldn’t believe all that my nurse and the staff had done for me. I will finish my final class (my senior practicum) in the spring and will be able to get my official diploma in May.

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A Very Rare Cancer

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/a-very-rare-cancer/

A Very Rare Cancer

Decisions, Decisions. What to do.When to do it. Am I really immortal? Where to stay during my 3 consecutive day treatments at Dana-Farber as I live about an hour away? Where to live during this whole thing. What to do with all my stuff. All my belongings. It’s just stuff. How will I feel? Will I be strong? Who is around to help me? Do I want help? How do I tell people? REALLY? What can I eat? How will I feel? When will my hair begin to fall out? Do I shave my head now or wait? When do I buy a wig? What kind? I hate needles.I am solution oriented, so what’s the solution to this? What was the name of this again? “Monophasic Synovial Sarcoma” A very rare Cancer. It is 1% of all Cancers. I just happen to be in that 1%. Aren’t I lucky? WTF

July, just happens to be Sarcoma Awareness Month. I am learning a lot

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New Program to Target Aggressive Thyroid Cancers

New Story has been published on https://enzaime.com/new-program-target-aggressive-thyroid-cancers/

New Program to Target Aggressive Thyroid Cancers

Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center has announced plans to open a new program that specializes in targeted treatments for patients with advanced and aggressive thyroid cancers. The Thyroid Cancer 360 Program aims to improve outcomes for the most acute thyroid cancer patients by targeting the unique genomics and biology of an individual’s specific disease. It is being led by Jochen Lorch, MD, MS, director of the Thyroid Cancer Center at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center.

The idea for the program developed as Lorch worked with one of his most determined and courageous patients, Elizabeth Panke, MD, PhD. Panke is a pathologist in Ohio and a cancer patient. She was successfully treated with personalized medicine in 1999 to treat her ovarian and endometrial cancers. Panke also underwent a total thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine treatment to treat her thyroid cancer, but the tumors still spread to her lungs – an aggressive response that occurs in about 10 percent of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinomas. In 2014, it became clear that Panke’s thyroid cancer was consistently not responding to treatment. Having found success in the past with precision medicine, Panke began urgently researching ways to utilize this method for her thyroid disease.

“A landmark 2014 study, led by Dr. Lorch, showed a patient with a typically deadly anaplastic thyroid cancer who had a dramatic response to treatment personalized to their tumor,” said Panke, who has also survived uterine cancer. “Dr. Lorch uncovered mutations in the tumor that enabled this response, a prime example of personalized cancer treatment at its best. Through this work, he expanded our understanding of diagnostic and treatment strategies for one of the most aggressive and difficult to treat thyroid cancers and gave us hope to move forward.”

In the Thyroid Cancer Center, part of DF/BWCC’s Head and Neck Cancer Treatment Center, Panke saw encouraging hope for critically ill thyroid patients – including herself. She used “snail mail” to send Lorch an archived box of her tumor samples to study for mutations and any possible link between her ovarian and thyroid cancers. At the same time, Panke and her husband established the Panke Thyroid Research Fund at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center in 2015. The fund supports research within the Thyroid Cancer 360 Program, with a focus on leveraging knowledge from individual thyroid tumor genomic and biological profiles – including Panke’s – to further develop diagnostic and treatment strategies. The resources of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School are all being used to grow the program’s database of challenging cases.

“While most thyroid cancer patients are cured with standard therapy, some patients develop refractory disease that is incurable and has a very poor prognosis,” says Lorch. “Our personalized cancer treatment program is designed to help identify the most appropriate targeted therapies for these patients as their cancer evolves, and to develop new therapeutic approaches in the treatment of advanced and aggressive thyroid cancers. We have begun to leverage our knowledge of cancerous cells and how they operate to move the ball forward.”

Studying Panke’s tumor samples, Lorch’s team found no link between her ovarian and thyroid cancers. However, they did identify a new mutation in a gene which may be a useful target in thyroid cancer patients. Lorch says that The Thyroid Cancer 360 Program allows for potentially lifesaving advances to be made for patients in desperate need of new therapies. Panke believes that it is an honor to have been part of team that launched the program off the ground and she is hopeful that it will soon begin to help others, including herself.

“My husband and I feel very privileged, and we are extremely grateful to be able to access personalized cancer care through Dr. Lorch and Dana-Farber,” Panke said. “We appreciate that Dr. Lorch and Dana-Farber are leading the way in the battle against cancer, and have a worldwide reputation for setting the standards of cancer research and care that is unmatched anywhere. We are excited to be associated with Dr. Lorch and with a research institution making such great progress in effective, personalized thyroid cancer treatment.”