Art helps reduce stress by providing a happy distraction from medical worries. Now Roswell Park is introducing new ways for patients and visitors to enjoy the creations of Western New York's talented artists.
Roswell Park
Over the past year, Cancer Talk brought you more than 200 articles with practical tips for healthy living, information about cancer prevention and treatment, the latest news from Roswell Park, and stories of hope and inspiration. Which ones piqued your interest? Here are the 10 most-read posts of 2017.
What happens when patients are given greater access to their medical records, including the notes written by their doctors during each visit?
When Megan Johnson was 21 months old, a large tumor collapsed her lung and pushed her heart to the other side of her chest. It was a primitive neuroectodermal tumor (PNET), a rare and very aggressive type of cancer. Doctors advised her parents that her chances of survival were less than 10 percent.
Buffalo is the city of good neighbors. We’re always willing to lend a helping hand and do our part to make our communities better. At Roswell Park Cancer Institute, we take pride in our city and extend our care to the neighborhoods that surround our campus.
If spring is best greeted in a garden then I was fortunate to be in Buffalo in the spring, while my husband Roman was receiving his BMT at Roswell Park. We had arrived in mid-March (just as winter was ending) for Roman to be admitted. I was staying at the nearby Kevin Guesthouse.
“You would think that after 34 years of marriage, I would have known everything there was to know about my wife, Theresa,” says Ralph Germaine. But as he watched her yearlong battle with breast cancer, her inner strength and optimism surprised even him. While Theresa was hospitalized at Roswell Park, she and Ralph found respite in the peace and greenery of Kaminski Park, in the center of the Roswell campus.
For Roswell Park's executive team, walking around is the best way to get the pulse of what's happening in the hospital. The practice is helping improve facilities and procedures from the ground up.
2016 introduced us to a group of special survivors, including Mary Best, who shared tips for other young adults on handling social situations involving alcohol. KayEllen Gebhart’s first-hand advice resonated with ovarian cancer survivors, we shared tips on coping with "scanxiety," and you told us what not to say to a cancer patient.
The idea of building a cancer hospital in Buffalo first came to light just three years after Dr. Roswell Park opened the doors to the world’s first cancer research laboratory.
One day in 1955, Dr. James Grace’s two-year-old son, Jimmy, spiked a fever of 105°. It was the first sign that the little boy had acute leukemia — a fast-moving disease that in those days had no hope of a cure. When his son died only a few months later, Dr. Grace converted his pain to passion.
What is often most difficult in the general treatment of lung cancers is understanding the specific complexities of each unique case. For decades, doctors and the medical community alike have lumped all lung cancers together as one entity.