DNA mismatch repair status: What colorectal cancer patients should know
When you’re facing a colorectal cancer diagnosis, your doctor will order a test to determine your mismatch repair (MMR) status. But what does it mean, why does it matter and how does it differ from microsatellite instability?
“Mismatch repair status can provide insights on if a patient’s cancer may be hereditary, but it also has important treatment implications,” says gastrointestinal medical oncologist S. Daniel Haldar, M.D. Here...
Total neoadjuvant therapy: A new era for patients with locally advanced rectal cancer
When rectal cancer advances to involve nearby lymph nodes but hasn’t spread to other areas of the body, it’s considered to be locally advanced...
5 things to know about clonal hematopoiesis
Bone marrow is the factory for our blood cells. New cells are created as old cells divide and split. During that process, a mistake can sometimes...
Radiation therapy, the immune system and what’s ahead
Radiation therapy is often thought of as a treatment for localized cancer that hasn’t spread. But when paired with other therapies, it can be an effective option for patients with metastatic disease.
“It has long been recognized that there are opportunities to use drugs to make radiation therapy even more effective,” says Benjamin Schrank, M.D., Ph.D., a resident physician in Radiation Oncology and a member of the Wen Jiang Laboratory...
Liver regeneration: How the liver’s ability to recover plays into liver cancer surgery
Did you know that the liver is the only internal organ that can regenerate? But it doesn’t grow back like a salamander’s tail. When a portion...
Optimizing CAR T cell therapy with bridging radiation therapy
For many patients diagnosed with certain types of B-cell lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy...
Peripheral neuropathy: Causes, symptoms and treatments
Many patients receive chemotherapy as part of their cancer treatment plan. These drugs have long shown benefits in extending patients’ lives...
4 things to know about marginal zone lymphoma
Lymphoma is often thought of as a cancer of lymph nodes, but it's actually a cancer of the lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are white blood cells...
Antibody drug conjugates: A shift in treatment options for solid tumors
Antibody drug conjugates have existed for years, but several recent advances are helping to refine how these cancer drugs work, expanding...
Spatial omics offer a deeper look at tertiary lymphoid structures in cancer
Tertiary lymphoid structures are highly organized clusters of immune cells that form in non-lymphoid tissues. They’re often found at sites...