Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Physicians have performed approximately 1 million stem cell transplants since the procedure was first tried more than 70 years ago. Dana-Farber, which has one of the largest and most successful stem cell transplant programs in the country, has performed more than 11,800 transplants in its 50-year history. Over that span, one-year survival rates have improved substantially, placing Dana-Farber among the best in the world – despite taking on some of the more challenging cases. Dana-Farber's clinical achievements and basic scientific discoveries have helped advance the transplant field. A cadre of Dana-Farber physician scientists has spent decades working to understand the biology underlying transplant success and failure, and harnessing those findings to improve the clinical outcomes of patients. "It's so much easier on patients and so much better," says Joseph Antin, MD, chief of stem cell transplantation emeritus. "It was very stressful, very demanding, with long hospital stays. We can do an outpatient allogenic transplant now that in 1981 would have required a three-month hospital stay." The Dana-Farber transplant program began in the early 1980s and initially focused on autologous transplants, in which a patient's own stem cells are harvested and then returned after the patient receives treatment to eradicate the cancer. This was one of the first autologous transplant programs in the country. However, in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), autologous bone marrow harvests could contain small numbers of leukemia cells that could lead to relapse when infused back into the patients. A preventive approach emerged from the Dana-Farber laboratory of Jerome Ritz, MD, which had developed monoclonal antibodies that could distinguish ALL cells from normal hematopoietic stem cells. These antibodies were used to purge any residual ALL cells from the patient's harvested cells prior to reinfusion. Similar approaches were developed for patients with relapsed B cell lymphoma, myeloma, and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) using antibodies developed at Dana-Farber. This approach also improved the results of allogenic stem cell transplants, in which stem cells are harvested from a donor. Ever since the early days of the program, says Arnold Freedman, MD, an Institute physician who specializes in lymphomas, "we had a large number of physician-scientists doing groundbreaking work in human immunology, but they also had a clinical interest. They asked, 'how can we apply what we're doing in the laboratory to human disease, and make a difference by doing that?'" As a result, by any measure, patients do much better today than in the past. To learn more about Dana-Farber’s pioneering work in stem cell transplants and its leadership in treating all hematologic malignancies, click http://ms.spr.ly/6048lyNSj. For additional information about Dana-Farber for healthcare professionals, http://ms.spr.ly/6049lyNSd.

In an outpouring of support and to ensure that the late Dr. David Livingston’s legacy will endure, nearly 200 of his family members, friends, and past trainees; Dana-Farber Trustees; professional colleagues from Dana-Farber, Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and beyond; and grant-makers who supported his work over the years came together to fund an endowed chair in his honor. The David M. Livingston, MD, Chair at Dana-Farber pays tribute to Livingston’s many achievements during nearly a half-century at Dana-Farber. The endowed chair will support the work of Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD, as the first incumbent. A leading cancer scientist, Jänne will leverage the chair to continue to make fundamental clinical and basic science discoveries that will change how lung cancer is treated and continue Livingston’s legacy by mentoring the next generation of oncology experts.

Kevin Haigis, PhD, Dana-Farber's chief scientific officer, has been elected as a 2023 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). A commemorative ceremony, along with a celebration for the 150th anniversary of the AAAS Fellows Program, will be held at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., this September. “It’s a great honor to be recognized by the AAAS,” shares Haigis. “Basic science is the foundation for new therapeutic discoveries, and AAAS promotes basic, fundamental research across all the sciences.” Haigis, who is one of 502 new Fellows, is being recognized for his distinguished contributions to understanding the complex diversity of cellular dysregulation by different variants of RAS mutations and their consequences in pathophysiology and treatment. The AAAS is one of the world’s largest general scientific societies and publisher of the Science family of journals. Election as a Fellow, a prestigious lifetime honor within the scientific community, recognizes members whose efforts on behalf of scientific advancement or applications in service to society earn distinction among peers and colleagues. 

Congratulations to Dana-Farber’s Michael Reney, EVP and chief finance and business strategy officer, who has been named to Becker's Healthcare Hospital Review’s list of “CFOs to Know” for 2024. Reney joined Dana-Farber in 2015, and is responsible for treasury, accounting, business planning, revenue cycle, payer contracting, decision support, and population management. The Becker’s list features leaders who are instrumental to the strategic financial planning, expansions, and joint ventures of their organizations. Read more here: http://ms.spr.ly/6047lH42W

Does pregnancy reduce the risk of developing breast or gynecologic cancers? Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, breast oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, helps shed light on historical and modern studies that reveal an inverse relationship between the number of pregnancies and the likelihood of developing breast cancer. Episodes of Cancer Questions podcast here: http://ms.spr.ly/6041l8BO9

Scott Armstrong MD, PhD, has been named senior vice president for Drug Discovery and chief research strategy officer at Dana-Farber. In this role, he will help lead the Institute’s research plans and efforts with an initial focus on therapeutic discovery work. “This new position is a direct outgrowth of Dana-Farber’s previous success in drug discovery and development,” states Armstrong. “Now is the time to build on that success and make our investments in drug discovery more impactful for patients.” Dana-Farber investigators played a substantial role in developing more than half of all cancer drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over the past five years. Those efforts involve research into the basic biology of cancer on one end of the spectrum, and clinical trials of new therapeutic agents for patients on the other. A critical part of Dana-Farber’s drug-discovery efforts are the labs that specialize in the discovery of novel therapeutic approaches that interfere with the biology that drives cancer growth. “The labs focused on drug discovery connect our world-class basic biological science research and clinical and translational research,” explains Armstrong. “This is a unique type of science, and we at Dana-Farber have the expertise to do it.” Armstrong collaborated with labs involved with all three of these forms of scientific investigation at the Institute to develop new agents called menin inhibitors for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). It is expected that this year, the FDA will approve the first of these drugs for the treatment of adults and children with common subtypes of aggressive forms of AML.

Survival of breast cancer has improved for everyone in the U.S. in recent years, but the pace isn't the same for all groups of people. Some groups still experience dramatic disparities. The breast oncology team at Dana-Farber has several programs and initiatives that aim to address root causes of disparities in breast cancer screening, access to care, and breast cancer diagnosis. Read more about what Dana-Farber is doing to address breast cancer disparities here: http://ms.spr.ly/6044lBLRr

For years, researchers have explored BAX protein's role in cell death, a promising target for cancer therapy. New findings by Dana-Farber offer a starting point for drugs that inhibit BAX through a covalent mechanism. "BAX has been a focus of my lab for nearly 20 years," says Loren Walensky, MD, PhD, who began studying the protein as a postdoctoral fellow in the early 2000s. "Its enormous potential as a therapeutic target - if you activate it, you can cause malignant cells to die; if you shut it down, you can prevent healthy cells from dying - led us to explore its mechanism of activation and de-activation." Learn more here: http://ms.spr.ly/6044l88jk

Clad in a white hard hat, standing on the ground floor of Dana-Farber's then-half-completed Yawkey Center for Cancer Care, Marlene Nusbaum stared down at the architectural plans spread out before her. She tried to think of every concern voiced by her team at its latest meeting. It was 2010, and Nusbaum was co-leading Dana-Farber's Patient Experience Committee, helping to build the brand-new outpatient cancer center. She knew that in just a few months' time, thousands of adult patients would be coming to the facility daily for their exams and treatment. Did the architect's vision consider how these individuals and their loved ones would arrive to and flow through the building? Was there adequate lighting in the areas that needed it most? Were the exam rooms big enough to accommodate several family members, and would patients be able to get their infusions on the same floor where they saw their clinicians? Nusbaum brought no prior design experience to her role, but she did possess even more crucial expertise: she had gone through breast cancer treatment at Dana-Farber a few years before. And like other members of Dana-Farber's all-volunteer adult and pediatric Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs), she and her team were getting a chance to ensure each step of the Yawkey Center's construction and operations planning was done with these most important end users in mind. For senior leadership, faculty, clinicians, administrative staff, and fellow volunteers who have worked alongside PFAC members in the 25 years since the two councils were formed, these separate groups have shared a common goal as critical allies in virtually every aspect of care. The PFACs strive to help improve the patient experience and ensure patient- and family-centered care across the Institute while adhering to four core principles: dignity and respect, information sharing, participation, and collaboration. Whether it is making sure medication labels are sized to ensure both readability and privacy, advocating for expanded patient and family support services, or helping improve infrastructure and physical spaces, council members consistently prove themselves indispensable across the organization. In addition to giving back to the organization and people that cared for them, they are paving the way for future patients and families to have the best possible experience due to their insights. "The voice and perspective of patients and families is integrated into everything we do at Dana-Farber," says Patricia Stahl, MEd, director of Volunteer Services and Patient Programs. "The individuals that sit on our PFACs have gone through a life-changing experience and come to their role with a new perspective and an enormous passion for making sure that we stay true to our mission and values. It is an honor to serve alongside them." More on 25 years of PFAC: https://lnkd.in/ePG4p3MA