A ‘game-changer’ for von Hippel-Lindau disease treatment
People with a rare, inherited disorder called von Hippel-Lindau disease develop cancerous and noncancerous tumors in up to 10 different parts of their bodies.
“Having von Hippel-Lindau disease can be overwhelming,” says Eric Jonasch, M.D., who heads MD Anderson’s von Hippel-Lindau Clinic. “Tumors recur frequently throughout your lifetime, and they could only be removed surgically – until now.”
Jonasch led a clinical trial...

Chordoma survivor: How a spine tumor changed my perspective
My life changed forever on the morning of Nov. 6, 2016. I’d felt some pain in my lower back, and decided to go to the emergency room at the...
Q&A: Chordoma, a one in a million bone cancer
When you have a rare cancer that only affects one in a million people, it can be difficult to find the answers and information you need. That...
Spinal cord ependymoma survivor confronts fear
When I was undergoing radiation therapy for my spinal tumor, I took my 12-year-old brother to the MD Anderson Proton Therapy Center. He wanted to see the machine and was fascinated by the process.
On the drive home, he asked me, “Bubba, what’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?”
I had to be honest with him: I told him it was the surgery I’d just gone through and proton therapy. It was really fear of the unknown. With cancer...

Radiation therapy: What it is and what to expect
More than half of cancer patients will receive radiation therapy, but what is it? Does it hurt? And what are the side effects?
We spoke...
Spine surgery innovations stem from new technology
Every year, MD Anderson’s surgeons perform more than 200 spine tumor operations. While some of the patients have primary spine tumors, almost...
Finding strength after my ependymoma diagnosis
My cancer story started in December 2013, when I was 36 years old. I was raising my 11-year-old son, busy with nursing school and just weeks...