all Dana-Farber Cancer Institute stories

Researchers ‘NOTCH’ a victory in war on cancer

404132862 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:09:01 -0500

Adult survivors of childhood cancer have an increased risk of suicidal thoughts, even decades after their cancer treatments have ended, according to a study led by Harvard researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI).

Researchers exploit genetic ‘co-dependence’ to kill treatment-resistant tumor cells

404132862 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:00:53 -0400

Cancer cells fueled by the mutant KRAS oncogene, which makes them notoriously difficult to treat, can be killed by blocking a more vulnerable genetic partner of KRAS, report scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT.

Three Harvard teams to receive $9 million each in federal funding for stem cell research

404132862 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:11:45 -0400

Three teams of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers are slated to receive $27 million over seven years in National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) grants for the development of stem-cell based tools and treatments to understand and treat cardiovascular and blood disorders. The NHLBI Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium will consist of nine research hubs, each involving multidiscplinary teams from two academic medical centers.

NIH funds risky, potentially transformative research by Harvard faculty members

404132862 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:17:05 -0400

Eighteen faculty members at Harvard and Harvard-affiliated institutions are among 115 scientists nationally whose promising and innovative work was recognized today with the announcement of three grant programs by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Study finds promise in combined transplant/vaccine therapy for high-risk leukemia

404132862 — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:00:28 -0400

Two of the most powerful approaches to cancer treatment — a stem cell transplant and an immune system-stimulating vaccine — appear to reinforce each other in patients with an aggressive, hard-to-control form of leukemia, Harvard scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) have found.

Study supports DNA repair-blocker research in cancer therapy

705287540 — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 13:43:22 -0400

Regular use of aspirin after colorectal cancer diagnosis may reduce the risk of cancer death, report Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study’s authors also find that the aspirin-associated survival advantage was seen primarily in patients with tumors expressing the COX

Scientists create energy-burning brown fat in mice

404132862 — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 12:24:33 -0400

Harvard researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that they can engineer mouse and human cells to produce brown fat, a natural energy-burning type of fat that counteracts obesity. If such a strategy can be developed for use in people, the scientists say, it might open a novel approach to treating obesity and diabetes.

An unusual collection : A brain tumor tissue bank

404132862 — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:22:27 -0400

Five years ago, as she was walking into Caritas Holy Family Hospital and Medical Center in Methuen, Mass., Patricia Fay saw a priest she knew and cornered him. “I’m like ‘Oh, Father Peter! And I sort of grabbed him by his arm,” she recounts.“I said, ‘What are you doing here? Father Peter! I could use a prayer right now. He asked me what was going on and I told him, “They found a brain tumor and I’m about to get set up for radiation. It’s cancer.”

“Father Peter put his hand on the top of my head, closed his eyes, and started saying a prayer,” Fay continues. But all she could think was, “Oh no! He’s blessing the wrong side!”

First molecular steps to childhood leukemia identified

404132862 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:52:21 -0400

A Harvard research based at Massachusetts General Hospital has identified how a chromosomal abnormality known to be associated with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) – the most common cancer in children – initiates the disease process. In the July issue of Cell Stem Cell, they describe how expression of this mutation in hematopoie

Study pinpoints novel cancer gene and biomarker

50443248 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:25:01 -0400

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists’ discovery of a cancer-causing gene – the first in its family to be linked to cancer – demonstrates how the panoramic view of genomics and the close-up perspective of molecular biology are needed to determine which genes are involved in cancer and which are mere bystanders. The findings are reported in the June 25 issue of the journal Nature.

Radcliffe’s Fay Prize awarded to Norman Yao for pioneering research

50443248 — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:25:41 -0400

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University has named Harvard math and physics concentrator Norman Yao ’09 the winner of its 2009 Captain Jonathan Fay Prize. Yao was selected for the quality and potential impact of his senior thesis, which describes a breakthrough scientific technique he developed to measure the properties of neurofilaments, a family of proteins found in the neurons that constitute mammalian nervous tissue.

AML patients benefit from stem cell transplants

50443248 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:04:20 -0400

A stem cell transplant (SCT) from a compatible donor early in the course of disease is the best approach for the majority of young and middle-aged adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a new analysis of two dozen clinical studies.

After a century, link between chromosomal instability and centrosome defects in cancer cells is unraveled

50443248 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:37:52 -0400

In a new study, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists disprove a century-old theory about why cancer cells often have too many or too few chromosomes, and show that the actual reason may hold the key to a novel approach to cancer therapy.