Getting to know MD Anderson president Peter WT Pisters, M.D.
Peter WT Pisters, M.D., MD Anderson’s fifth full-time president, began his role Dec. 1, with a renewed spirit of unity and excitement. Like each of us here, Pisters feels a deep connection to MD Anderson, our mission and the patients we serve.
Pisters built his career here for 20 years as a cancer surgeon, researcher, professor and administrator. He left in 2014 to oversee the University Health Network, affiliated with the University...
How I found strength during breast cancer treatment
When I received a phone call about an abnormality discovered during my mammogram in December 2016, I didn’t think much of it. I was prone...
Clinical trial participant: Why I don’t mind being in the control group
When I was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes (a precursor of acute myeloid leukemia) in July 2015, I don’t know what shocked me more...
Opioids for cancer pain relief: Myths and facts
Opioids are medications that can help manage pain caused by cancer and its treatment by blocking pain signals from injured nerves to the brain. They can help relieve aching, throbbing pain in the muscles (known as nociceptor pain), or numbness in the hands and feet known as neuropathy.
We spoke with Dhanalakshmi ("Lakshmi") Koyyalagunta, M.D., about what cancer patients should know about opioids and myths surrounding...
My advice for coping with Lynch Syndrome
In 2016, I found out that I had inherited a genetic mutation known as Lynch Syndrome from my mother, who’d died 26 years earlier from cancer...
Employee’s courage inspired by our cancer patients
Angelina was Shamsha Damani’s best friend for three years. A constant in the MD Anderson program director’s daily life, well-known to her...
4-time cancer survivor: ‘Don’t delay the checks’
Between 1995 and 2009, I was diagnosed with four different types of cancer. The first diagnosis didn’t really bother me. The second one hit...
Colorectal cancer taught me to listen to my body
I started finding blood in my stool in the fall of 2013, but at the time, it didn’t seem that strange to me. Constipation runs in my family...
Could the microbiome change the future of cancer treatment?
We practice hand hygiene to help keep ourselves from getting sick from the bacteria all around us. But each of us already has a huge population...
Racing despite adenoid cystic carcinoma metastasis
In the last five years, I’ve competed in 10 professional outrigger canoeing competitions across North and South America. I’ve also had stereotactic...
Triple-negative breast cancer survivor finds hope with clinical trial
A little over a year ago, Robbie Johnson was desperately searching for the right metastatic breast cancer treatment.
"I’d been...
Throat and salivary gland cancer survivor: Why I finally got a feeding tube
I resisted getting a feeding tube for as long as I could. I knew I’d have to use one eventually, but I didn’t feel ready for a long time....
Exploring the final frontier to advance cancer research
Kristine Ferrone has survived Mars – or a simulation of the Red Planet, anyway.
During the summer of 2009, Kristine Ferrone and five...
3 life lessons I learned from my late husband
My late husband, Josh, was diagnosed with stage IV synovial sarcoma — a rare type of soft tissue cancer — in November 2014. He fought the...
Breast cancer treatment revealed courage I never knew I had
Before I started breast cancer treatment at age 35, I had all sorts of ideas about how difficult my life was about to get. In a way, I was...
Focusing on my pancreatic cancer treatment helped me stay positive
Sometimes knowledge is not all it’s cracked up to be. So, when I was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in July 2016, I told Dr. Robert...
Prostate cancer has made my family stronger
When you first hear the word, “cancer,” you think it’s the end of the world. So, when my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer a few years...