Christine Pieri graduated from nursing school on a Saturday and started work at Roswell Park the following Monday. In those early days, “I didn’t know much about oncology,” she says, “but once I got here, that became my passion."

Where she once cared for active-duty troops, families and retired members of the armed forces, Dr. Bell now supports patients in waging war against cancer at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

I’m not a tanning guy, but my day-to-day job is all outside. Leading up to my diagnosis, I never wore sunscreen. The biggest thing I learned throughout all of this is to not wait.

One reason this finding is so exciting is that we can now focus on the X chromosome to find the gene mutations that put women at higher risk of ovarian cancer and men at higher risk of testicular cancer.

Prospective employers expressed doubt that she was really a nurse or emphasized that even if she were hired, she would not receive the same pay as the white nurses and would have to eat alone, in the kitchen. Those roadblocks were no match for the determination of Eva Bateman.

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.

Chemotherapy, radiation, surgery and other cancer treatments can be hard on your body. Fortunately, making healthy food choices can help cancer patients feel better before, during and after treatment.

“My first thought was that the news wasn’t real. I remember thinking there was no way I could have cancer. It doesn’t run in my family and everyone told me I’m too young,” says Racine.