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"Is my grief normal?" That is one of the most common questions posed by people who have lost a loved one. A new study by Dana-Farber researchers has helped answer that question by affirming the commonly accepted stages of grief "“ disbelief, yearning, anger, depression, and acceptance "“ and the sequence in which these emotions occur. The findings will appear in the Feb. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is offering wedding party favors that help fight cancer. Couples getting married can honor their guests by making a donation to Dana-Farber's Jimmy Fund, which supports adult and pediatric cancer care and research. The donation will be noted on table cards or scrolls, which can be placed on tables at the wedding reception.

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In an elegant, multiple-gene knockout experiment, a team of Boston scientists has discovered that a trio of molecules, called FoxOs, are fundamentally critical in preventing some cancers, maintaining blood vessel stability, and in keeping blood-forming stem cells healthy.

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Despite the widespread use of prescribing safeguards for infusion chemotherapy, few of those measures have been implemented with oral chemotherapy, according to a study led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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Answering one of the oldest questions in human physiology, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered why the body's immune system "“ perpetually on guard against foreign microbes like bacteria "“ doesn't attack tissues in the small intestine that harbor millions of bacteria cells.

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Postmenopausal women with early-stage, hormone-sensitive breast cancer have a lower risk of disease recurrence when their treatment includes a new class of hormone therapy drugs, yet one out five women prescribed the drugs may not take them regularly.

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Two "new generation" drugs for the bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma may work even better together than they do individually, according to the results of a multicenter Phase I clinical trial to be presented by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in Orlando, Fla.

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Overweight black Americans are two to three times more likely than heavy white Americans to say they are of average weight "“ even after being diagnosed as overweight or obese by their doctors, according to a new study led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers.

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Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report they have found how the brain turns on a system designed to protect its nerve cells from toxic "free radicals," a waste product of cell metabolism that has been implicated in some degenerative brain diseases, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, and aging.

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Recognizing breast cancer patients' desire to stay informed about the advances in medical research today and the shortcomings of many breast cancer web sites, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has developed a Web site that provides accurate information on breast cancer care and research for patients, as well as their family and friends.

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Dana-Farber investigators have developed the first complete map of the molecular "control panels" operated by the cells' estrogen receptor, the master regulator of cell growth in the most common form of breast cancer. This may eventually help doctors match patients with treatments that are most likely to be effective and overcome the problem of resistance to current hormone therapies.

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Findings from a study led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston have rewritten science's understanding of the process of skin tanning "“ an insight that has enabled them to develop a promising way of protecting fair-skinned people from skin cancer caused by exposure to sunlight.

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Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School have found that breast cancer patients 63 years of age or younger may experience more chemotherapy-related serious adverse effects than reported in clinical trials, according to a new study in the August 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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A study of low-income housing residents has documented that the more television people say they watched, the less active they were, researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and colleagues report. The findings of television's effects on physical activity are the first to be based on objective measurements using pedometers, rather than the study subjects' memories of their physical activity.

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Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston have isolated rare cancer stem cells that cause leukemia in a mouse model of the human disease. The leukemia stem cells isolated proved to be surprisingly different from normal blood stem cells -- a finding that may be good news for developing a drug that selectively targets them.

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Researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a novel gene that facilitates the spread of malignant melanoma, a life-threatening skin cancer, using a technique they say can speed the discovery of hard-to-find cancer genes.

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Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report that a common "oncogene engine" "“ a small family of malfunctioning cell growth switches "“ drives several seemingly unrelated, lethal forms of cancer, including malignant melanoma. The finding suggests that it may be possible to attack these different cancers with the same therapy.

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Recent advances in chemotherapy have significantly reduced the risk of disease recurrence and death in breast cancer patients whose tumors are not hormone sensitive, according to a study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and 10 other institutions.

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Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborators have identified four distinct genetic subtypes of multiple myeloma, a deadly blood cancer, that have different prognoses and might be treated most effectively with drugs specifically targeted to those subtypes.

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Dana-Farber researchers found that rituximab reduced the severity of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in 70 percent of the study participants. Chronic GVHD is a potentially life-threatening complication of donor bone marrow and stem cell transplants.

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A combination of an oral chemotherapy agent and a drug to prevent blood vessel growth has shown encouraging results in advanced neuroendocrine tumors, rare cancers of hormone-making cells that usually resist chemotherapy, researchers say.

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Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a molecular interaction that triggers a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer, and suggest that attacking this target with selective drugs might improve treatment.

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CD8 T cells eventually become "exhausted" in their battle against persistent viral infection, and less effective in fighting the disease. Dana-Farber and Emory University researchers have traced the problem to a gene that turns off the infection-fighting drive of CD8 T cells in mice.

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An anti-cancer compound derived from bacteria dwelling in ocean-bottom sediments appears in laboratory tests to be a potent killer of drug-resistant multiple myeloma cells, and potentially with less toxicity than current treatments, report researchers.

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In one of the first studies to examine chemotherapy errors in ambulatory care for cancer patients, researchers have found that about three percent of chemotherapy orders in three outpatient infusion clinics studied contained mistakes.

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The targeted drug trastuzumab, or Herceptin, previously shown to prolong survival in advanced breast cancer, dramatically reduced the chances of recurrence in patients with early-stage disease when given for one year following standard chemotherapy.

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Abnormal cell division that yields cells with an extra set of chromosomes can initiate the development of tumors in mice, researchers have shown, validating a controversial theory about cancer causation put forth by a scientific visionary nearly 100 years ago.

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Dana-Farber researchers say they have uncovered a molecular explanation for the episodic attacks of irrational and demented behavior in porphyria, the disease believed to have afflicted "Mad" King George III, the British ruler blamed for losing the American colonies.

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A team of researchers led by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have discovered a genetic abnormality in the cells of some advanced melanoma patients that worsens their chances of survival, but also might be a target of future drug attack against the dangerous skin cancer.

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Using single nucleotide polymorphism array technology, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborating institutions have found something much larger: sections of the chromosomes of lung cancer cells where cancer-related genes may lurk.

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Meat sizzling on the grill may tempt your taste buds, but all that barbecuing may be cooking up cancer-causing chemicals. Dana-Farber provides a few tips on how to grill more safely.

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Dana-Farber researchers have identified nearly 100 chromosome regions where genes are either over-copied or missing in non-small cell lung cancer. The findings provide clues about the location of genes potentially linked to lung cancer and a range of possible therapeutic targets.

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A novel strategy devised by Dana-Farber scientists has proved highly effective in killing drug-resistant multiple myeloma cells in the laboratory and could open a new form of attack on the deadly blood cancer, they report. The approach focuses on the proteasome and the aggresome.

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The Prostate Health Education Network and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute today announced a new city-wide prostate cancer screening and education initiative to combat the disease in African-American men, who are at the world's highest-risk for prostate cancer.

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A study has shown that a AMN107 "“ a compound discovered by and in development with Novartis Pharma AG - is about 20 times more potent than Gleevec in treating CML and is effective in treating Gleevec-resistant disease in model systems.

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Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and collaborating institutions have shown that viruses can be prevented from infecting humans by interfering with signals viruses use to reproduce in human cells. The results point to a strategy for broadly treating acute viral infections.

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Primary-care physicians who encourage their patients to let them know about bothersome side effects of prescribed medications "“"“ and who address such problems promptly "“"“ can reduce the chances that patients will be harmed by the medications, according to researchers in Boston.

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The recent death of Robert Matsui -- the 14-term Congressman from California who succumbed to myelodysplastic syndrome on Jan. 1 at the age of 63 -- has placed a national spotlight on a group of poorly understood and often incurable blood cancers.

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Few things about growing older are as inevitable and obvious as "going gray," yet scientists have been unable to explain the precise cause of this usually unwelcome transformation. Researchers say they have found the cellular cause of graying hair.

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Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston have discovered that malignant melanoma, the potentially lethal skin cancer, can't grow without a steady supply of a protein that normal cells can do without.

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Holiday giving to friends and family is both easier and more rewarding when gifts chosen give many ways "“ something the recipient can enjoy, yet something that also supports an important cause.

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The Center for Disease Control has awarded researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute two grants totaling $3 million to develop workplace-based health promotion and prevention programs.

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It will be snowing art in November and December when original works"” decorated snowflakes"” by some of the best-known award-winning children's book illustrators will be auctioned online in a charity event, Robert's Snow: for Cancer's Cure.

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Young women who were treated for cancer as children have a greater chance of developing breast cancer if their treatment included chest radiation, if they initially had cancer of the bones, muscles, or connective tissue, or had a family history of breast cancer, according to a new study.

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Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have corrected a flaw in cancer cells that lets them evade the normal cell-death process, and as a result they eliminated leukemia cells from mice.

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The Lance Armstrong Foundation has given a $1 million gift to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to establish the Lance Armstrong Foundation Adult Survivorship Clinic. The clinic, which will be part of the Perini Family Survivors' Center, will expand Dana-Farber's commitment to serving cancer survivors of all ages.

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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have found that removing three key proteins believed essential to cell division and growth had little impact on normal tissue development of a mouse embryo.

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Researchers have found that adding only six months of hormone therapy to external beam radiation therapy for localized prostate cancer increased patients' likelihood of surviving to five years by 10 percent.

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In the first comprehensive survey of gene activity in each cell type composing normal and malignant breast tissue, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified genes in non-cancerous supporting cells that can spur the growth of breast cancer cells.

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A potent chemotherapy that is highly effective in treating the most common form of childhood leukemia can significantly harm the heart, but findings from a multi-center study suggest that adding an experimental drug to the therapy can reduce or prevent the damage.