Tag Archives: Dana Farber

1. Rube Goldberg on a Drunken Bender, or How I Hope my Immune System Fights Cancer

Immunopatient -- The Book, , , , ,

 

Rube on bender

Dr. James Mier called me two days before Thanksgiving to tell me I had two new brain tumors. He delivered the bad news as gently as possible — the tumors were extremely small, they could easily be zapped with high dose radiation, and if all went well, I’d be cancer free once again.

But still, two new brain tumors? I felt I had made so much progress fighting cancer over the last four years, but once again reality was intruding on my plans for healing. I did the best I could to take him at his word, but a question kept nagging at me — does my immune system work in the brain, like it has been in the rest of my body?  Continue reading 1. Rube Goldberg on a Drunken Bender, or How I Hope my Immune System Fights Cancer →

Dana Farber Excerpts Immunopatient

Immunopatient -- The Book, online resources,

The Dana Farber blog recently excerpted Immunopatient. You can read much longer excerpts here, but the blog didn’t have that much space! Still, I was honored the nation’s leading cancer research institute saw fit to highlight my book. Their excerpt appears below and here’s the original link to the blog post.

Immunopatient: One Patient’s Story of Cancer and Immunotherapy

Published: January 2, 2018

It’s not uncommon for cancer patients to take to a pen after a diagnosis. Peter Rooney’s taken that to another level. Rooney, a former journalist and author of the book Die Free, captured his cancer journey in the new book Immunopatient: The New Frontier of Curing Cancer. The following excerpt is reprinted with permission from Immunopatient by Peter Rooney (Hatherleigh Press, 2017). Available at Amazon.com, wherever books are sold, and at immunopatient.com. 

Continue reading Dana Farber Excerpts Immunopatient →

Immunotherapy researcher Gordon Freeman takes stock

The moonshot, Uncategorized, , ,

It had been almost a year since I had last visited pioneering cancer researcher Gordon Freeman in his office at Dana-Farber. On this blustery fall day I was using a cane, hoping that the reason for my limp and sore thigh was tendon and tissue strain, not new cancer or complications from treatment, recent surgery, and radiation.

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Gordon Freeman

The security guard in the lobby printed me a temporary ID card and pointed the way to the staff elevator that would take me to the fifth floor.

“You’ll have to swipe the ID once you get in the elevator,” she said. “Otherwise you won’t be able to get up there.” Continue reading Immunotherapy researcher Gordon Freeman takes stock →