Whether you find it on social media, via search engine, or on a popular news website, it often seems like medical misinformation is everywhere, including in the cancer space.   Maybe it’s the claim that sugar causes cancer to spread faster. Maybe it’s someone saying that people with dark skin don’t get skin cancer. Or maybe it’s the conspiracy theory that drug companies and government agencies are withholding the cure for cancer so they can continue to profit from expensive oncology care.   These are just a few examples of purported cancer facts you might encounter onl ..read more

While his teenage classmates were getting ready for school, then-13-year-old Sean Swarner was watching the water rise in the shower, his hair clogging the drain. His first cancer diagnosis—and the subsequent treatment regimen—took an immense toll on his self-image and well-being. That morning in the shower, he remembers, all of the fear and despair overcame him: Sean collapsed to his knees, tears and tap water streaming down his face. “I remember looking at myself in the mirror,” he recalls, “and I couldn’t even recognize who was looking back.” After a year of treatment, Sean reached remission ..read more

For patients with cancer, the holiday season can be particularly difficult: How is anyone supposed to prioritize self-care and recovery at a time when much of the world is going on about the joys of giving? As a breast cancer survivor and a career fashion and beauty publicist, Melissa Berry is all too familiar with that challenge, along with the massive toll cancer can have on a person’s self-image. Enter Cancer Fashionista, a platform she’s built to help patients and survivors navigate cancer without sacrificing their self-confidence, self-worth, and self-empowerment. In this episode of Yo ..read more

Caitlin Murray has mastered turning life’s setbacks into something that brings joy to the 1.5 million people around the world who follow her Instagram page. When her 3-year-old son, Calum, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2016, Caitlin and her family’s lives were quickly filled with doctor visits, grueling treatments, and endless uncertainty. Soon after Calum’s devastating diagnosis, Caitlin launched her blog, Big Time Adulting, to help keep her family informed and to cope with the challenges of parenting a child with cancer. However, Caitlin’s unique style of humor ultimately amassed an enor ..read more

Every 14 seconds, someone is diagnosed with breast cancer, making it one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in the world, second only to lung cancer, and the leading cause of cancer-related death among women globally. And, while a cancer diagnosis can be devastating for anyone of any age or gender, one group faces a particularly unique and complex set of challenges: young working mothers. It’s a reality that Irish patient Aisling O’Brien knows all too well. Aisling spent most of 2023 undergoing numerous rounds of treatment—including breast-conserving surgery right before the winter ho ..read more

Prom. Graduation. College. These are just a few rites of passage that high school seniors everywhere look forward to. But for Auburn, a devastating turn of events tilted her entire world off its axis and put all her senior year plans on hold. At just 18 years old, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer. Instead of graduating with her classmates and going to senior prom, Auburn endured numerous rounds of lymphoma treatment, which is notorious for being incredibly taxing, especially for younger patients. Fortunately, one of Auburn’s providers, Dr. Raymond Mailhot, is ..read more

Gabriele “Gabe” Grunewald was a professional distance runner and a relentless optimist. She competed in Big Ten Championship races, became an NCAA track and field All-American athlete, and finished 4th in the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials. Such accomplishments become even more impressive when you learn that—even as she racked up accolades and wins—Gabe also faced cancer numerous times. In 2009, Gabe was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer called adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). Then, in 2010, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Despite these circumstances, Gabe persevered, continuing to tra ..read more

Whether you’re relaxing on the beach, taking a hike in nature, or hitting your favorite water park, we’ve heard it time and time again: Excess sun exposure increases the risk of skin cancer, so protect your skin and apply your sunscreen. Of course, while some skin cancer risk factors are unavoidable, we all know there are proactive, preventive steps we can take—like applying sunscreen and limiting sun exposure—to decrease our risk. But what if you could do something that not only protects yourself from skin cancer, but also people around the world? Although numerous milestones have been made i ..read more

For Dr. Kekoa Taparra, cancer is deeply personal. Growing up in a remote area of Oahu, Hawaii, Dr. Taparra witnessed his younger cousin’s struggles with neuroblastoma. He watched his mother lift and carry his aunt, too weak to walk because of breast cancer. He heard the sharp cries of another aunt suffering with endometrial cancer. These early experiences drove Dr. Taparra to not only dedicate his career to oncology and cancer research, but to focus on addressing the various inequities that face Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) communities—from low rates of inclusion in clinic ..read more

Not only does cancer predate the practice of medicine, but it may also predate the human species entirely. In 2016, archeologists in South Africa unearthed a large 1.7 million years-old bone fragment, ultimately revealed to be the toe bone of an ancient but unknown species of human dating back millennia. On that piece of bone, they discovered something else: a malignant tumor. It’s a stark reminder that, for as long as their profession has existed, oncologists have been studying and treating cancer. For many, it raises a frustrating question: After so many centuries of studying cancer, why hav ..read more