Growing up in Italy, I found my happy place with science. Even when dealing with a challenging home life, science offered an escape. But I didn’t get my start in research until later in life.
Now, as a principal investigator with my own lab at MD Anderson, I work with a talented group of researchers focused on myelodysplastic syndrome, specifically how it develops and becomes resistant to treatment. My lab is my life...

Carolyn Drone thought her days of coping with cancer were over. She’d finished leukemia treatment two years earlier and showed no signs of...
I’d never heard of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) before I was diagnosed with it in November 2019. So, I didn’t know it was a bone marrow...
Ever logged into MyChart to check on some lab test results, then just stared blankly at the screen once you saw them? You’re not alone.
Unless you work in the medical field, figuring out what all of those values mean and how to interpret them can sometimes be a challenge.
We sought insight from Adriana Maria Knopfelmacher-Couchonal, M.D., a specialist in Laboratory Medicine. Here’s what she had to say.
How are...

In my almost 73 years on this planet, I’ve been in a war, been held as a political prisoner, and been diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome...
Many cancers grow when there’s a glitch in the DNA of our cells. Sometimes that error is passed down from a parent to their child, and sometimes...
Some cancer symptoms are fairly straightforward. With breast cancer, it’s often a lump. With skin cancer, it may be a mole that changes shape...
After completing a course of treatment, there are few words that sound better to a patient than “complete remission.” It’s an indication that...
A routine physical exam in October 2015 changed my life.
Doctors were alarmed by my low white blood cell count and wanted to...
When I was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes (a precursor of acute myeloid leukemia) in July 2015, I don’t know what shocked me more...