Category Cancer Patient Stories

On March 24, 2016, after a routine physical, Caesar was told his PSA (prostate specific antigen) was abnormally high, leading to more tests. The result? Highly aggressive prostate cancer. It was an enormous shock for the healthy restaurant owner. “It’s terrible…

By Marie Allen-Hadge I don’t think the day you are diagnosed with a terminal disease is ever erased from memory. I remember going to the emergency room on May 31, 2019, with severe abdominal, shoulder, and back pain. After an…

As any mother would, Linda Darbyshire always thought the world of her incredible daughter, Amy. Linda and her husband, Jack, adopted Amy from China when she was just 6 months old. Only a few short weeks after arriving in China…

In July 2013, then 27-year-old Lindsay was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma ER/PR+ HER2- breast cancer. She soon made her way to Dana-Farber’s Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers and, with her doctors, made the choice to have a…

I’ve been getting physicals annually since I was 23. Even with my long career as a firefighter, there was never any cause for concern until my June 2016 visit, when my PSA was a little high. I went back a…

“My cancer diagnosis was a great opportunity,” says John Shumate. “You didn’t expect me to say that, did you?” John was diagnosed with stage IV B Hodgkin lymphoma in May 2010. Since then, he has traveled the country seeking out…

Each fall, pediatric patients at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund Clinic stand along the bridge connecting Dana-Farber’s Dana and Yawkey buildings, waving down to participants in the Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk presented by Hyundai. This moment has become a…