October is National Physical Therapy Month. While physical therapy (PT) is more commonly thought of in relation to athletics or orthopedics, PT plays an essential part in the recovery from cancer treatment.
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.
There are many advantages to seeking treatment for pancreatic cancer at a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, where doctors specialize and are experienced in treating the disease. Pancreatic cancer specialists often take a coordinated approach to treatment, providing a team of medical professionals to develop a personalized care plan for each patient.
Roswell Park is one of very few institutions in the United States equipped to offer clinical trials of a full range of immunotherapies. How do these treatments work, and what new immunotherapy clinical trials are underway or close to being launched?
Mohs surgery is the gold standard for removing the two most common forms of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. Dr. Bax explains the benefits of Mohs surgery, and what to expect before, during and after the procedure.
Dr. Gurkamal Chatta and his colleagues are conducting a phase I clinical trial of an immunotherapy for men with metastatic prostate cancer that has progressed in spite of standard treatment. “We are targeting an area of need where there are really no other effective therapies.”
In Western New York and across the country, the Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing population groups. Puerto Ricans are the second largest Hispanic subgroup in the U.S., residing predominantly in the Northeast and along the east coast. In WNY, two-thirds (66.5 percent) of the Latino population is of Puerto Rican heritage. At Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers are interested in knowing the cancer needs of local Hispanics and are conducting research to figure this out.
Metastatic breast cancer is the most advanced stage of breast cancer, known as stage IV breast cancer. It occurs when the cancer develops the ability to spread to other organs in the body – most commonly the liver, lung, bone, soft tissues or brain. Even though the cancer involves other organs, it’s still treated as breast cancer.