IN OCTOBER 2024, Carolina Millon, a former retail executive in Falls Church, Virginia, anxiously checked her email and found a notification that she had new test results from a recent breast biopsy ready to view. She took a deep breath before clicking on the link. As a carrier of mutations in the BRCA2 and CHEK2 genes, […]
Oncologists and researchers increasingly focus on how to predict, treat and monitor for cardiovascular problems that develop before and after treatment. PETER WOLF FIRST NOTICED an unusual sound in his chest in the spring of 2018. When he inhaled, especially after he exercised, he heard a distinct “gurgling”—like air pushing through fluids. It wasn’t painful, but
Shorter courses of more intense radiation therapy mean fewer visits and less cost for patients. Studies show abbreviated treatments are just as effective as longer courses. ONE MORNING AS SHE DRESSED FOR WORK in July 2017, Tiffany Fagnani’s eye began to twitch. Then her arm began to twitch too. Fagnani, then 36, was working as a
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JUST AFTER LABOR DAY in 2019, Sascha Roth, who was 38 years old, was diagnosed with stage III rectal cancer. Roth co-owns and operates Urban Country Designs, a furniture and interior design company in Bethesda, Maryland. After noticing some rectal bleeding, she had a sigmoidoscopy, and a growth in her rectum was removed. When her gastroenterologist
Immunotherapy: When is sooner better than later? Read More »
BEFORE MEGAN-CLAIRE CHASE received her first round of chemotherapy in October 2015, her oncologist told her that side effects of cancer treatment could include some memory loss. “They said, ‘You might get a little forgetful. It will probably be minimal. Don’t freak out,’” she says. Chase, who was single, 39, and working in radio advertising in
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AMY YOFFE HAS ALWAYS KNOWN that cancer runs in her family and is acutely aware of the loss that comes with it. Growing up in the 1970s, she often heard that her father’s mother was orphaned as a little girl after her mother—Yoffe’s great-grandmother—died of breast cancer at age 35. The children moved from home to home,
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AT SUNRISE ON MARCH 4, 2020, the same day the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Houston and one week before the World Health Organization declared the global spread of the disease a pandemic, Callie Piper went to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to begin a long day of appointments and tests. Piper
Cancer Care’s Virtual Revolution Read More »
Since the 1960s, the dream of ultra-fast high dose radiation promised better cancer treatment with fewer side effects. Will the reality measure up? For more than 100 years, radiation has been a pillar of cancer treatment. But the practice—hitting cancer cells with beams of intense energy—doesn’t come without a cost to the body. Radiation can
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SCIENTISTS HAVE SPENT DECADES mapping the tens of thousands of genes encoded in human DNA. They want to understand how genes function and to use this knowledge to treat diseases. CRISPR, a revolutionary gene-editing tool, offers one way to do that. With CRISPR, researchers can “snip” DNA in living human cells and make changes to the
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IN JUNE 2014, oncologist Fabrice Denis of the Jean Bernard Center, a cancer hospital in Le Mans, France, began approaching people diagnosed with advanced lung cancer whose disease hadn’t progressed after initial treatment. He wanted them to try an unconventional approach to health care. It didn’t involve a new drug, a combination therapy or an experimental
The Patient Stays in the Picture Read More »
