Akila Viswanathan, M.D., executive vice chair of Johns Hopkins Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences, was part of a panel discussion on the rise of HPV-related cancers. The panel was just one section of the Washington Post Cancer Summit. Viswanathan was joined by other experts in taking look at rising HPV-related cancer rates in the(...)
Issues & Perspectives
Why Do People Get Cancer?
Posted by | Issues & PerspectivesAdult cancers tend to be a little different from childhood cancers, and trying to explain the disease to a young person adds to the separation. Dr. Donald Small, director of pediatric oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, said cancer in children is rare, and most are treatable. But trying to explain a cancer(...)
Conversation With Dr. Claire Snyder About Ensuring Cancer Patients Get Best Care Possible
Posted by | Issues & Perspectives“During my nearly 20 years as a cancer researcher, I have always been impressed by how both my oncology and primary care colleagues don’t just treat patients, they care for them. I see it as my job to do research to develop tools and resources to help oncology and primary care providers work together to(...)
Radiation Oncology Pioneer Moody Wharam, M.D., Dies at 77
Posted by | Issues & PerspectivesMoody Wharam Jr., Professor Emeritus of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences and former Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, died on Aug. 10 at age 77. Dr. Wharam specialized in the treatment of children with cancer and, in his more than 40 years at Johns(...)
A Look Inside the Kimmel Cancer Center’s Cancer Medicine Cabinet
Posted by | Issues & Perspectives, Patient Stories, Prevention/Screening, Research, treatmentRead the latest issue of Promise & Progress featuring research advances in cancer drug discovery and development, promising new cancer drugs, patient stories and more. From scientific meetings to our own dinner tables, conversations about better treatments for cancer are among the most frequently discussed health care topics. Everyone wants them—the doctors and scientists who(...)
Differences and Disparities in Cancer
Posted by | Issues & Perspectives, Prevention/ScreeningThe good news is that there is an ongoing 1.5 percent annual decline in cancer death rates. The more troubling news is that cancer does not affect all equally. Read Kimmel Cancer Center director William Nelson’s editorial in Cancer Today, a publication of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month
Posted by | Issues & Perspectives, treatmentIt’s Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, so we wanted to gather our best Kimmel Cancer Center resources for you. Learn more about cancer vaccines and other ways our experts are working to get the immune system to fight pancreatic cancer. Watch leading pancreatic cancer and immunology expert Elizabeth Jaffee, M.D., talk about new work from our(...)
Do you qualify for Social Security disability as a cancer patient? 5 tests
Posted by | caregiving, Issues & Perspectives, treatment, UncategorizedSocial Security pays benefits for a medical condition that is expected to last for at least a year, or may result in death. Supplemental Security Income (SSI) supports the aged, blind or disabled who have little or no income, providing cash for basics like food, clothing and shelter. According to social workers at the Johns Hopkins(...)
Historic cancer drug approval has roots at Johns Hopkins and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute laboratories and clinics
Posted by | Issues & PerspectivesBreaking news today as, for the first time, a drug has been FDA-approved for cancer based on disease genetics rather than type. Developed from 30 years of basic research at Johns Hopkins and its Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute, pembroluzimab now can be used for colon, pancreatic, stomach, ovarian and other cancers if genetic testing reveals defects in(...)
Lung cancer immunotherapy options expand
Posted by | Issues & PerspectivesPatients and doctors received news this week of the FDA’s approval of the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab in combination with platinum doublet chemotherapy as first-line therapy for all patients with non-small cell lung cancer, irrespective of patients’ tumor PD-L1 status. The new approval follows the FDA’s decision last November to approve pembrolizumab as a first-line therapy for some(...)