graphic of Duke Cancer Institute 50th Anniversary "50 Years of Life-changing Care"

Introducing Fall 2023 Breakthroughs

Published

a tilted image of the Fall 2023 Breakthroughs cove, showing a blood drop illustration

50 Years of Patient-Focused Innovations

THIS FALL, WE WRAP UP OUR CELEBRATION OF DUKE’S 50 YEARS of transforming cancer discovery and care as a comprehensive cancer center. This issue of Breakthroughs highlights how we have revolutionized the field of stem cell transplant and improved outcomes for people with blood cancers. This field has also set the stage for promising new cancer-fighting immunotherapies, and as we look to the future, we envision more patients benefiting from the ability to engineer cells to make them better cancer killers and to target them to each individual.

These are just a few of the innovations that you have made possible. You’ll also see featured in this issue a milestone approval of a new drug for advanced breast cancer, as well as one of our efforts to expand breast cancer care to our surrounding communities.

I want to thank you — our donors and friends — for your continued partnership. Your willingness to stand beside us in the fight against cancer motivates us to continue pushing boundaries to discover, develop, and deliver tomorrow’s cancer care...today.

Michael Kastan signature

 



Michael B. Kastan, MD, PhD

Executive Director, Duke Cancer Institute

Professor of Pediatrics

William and Jane Shingleton Professor, Pharmacology and Cancer Biology

Blood droplet illustration

More Options for Patients with Blood Cancers

Bone Marrow transplantation and other cell therapies save more lives than ever, thanks to advances pioneered at Duke over the last few decades.

Read Now
Kameron Kooshesh, MD, at a lectern in front of a Harvard Health Sciences sign
Former patient Kameron Kooshesh speaking at his 2022 Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology graduation.

Truly Cured

Kameron Kooshesh, MD, now conducts the exact type of research that saved his life at Duke when he was a child.

Read Now
photo of Alexa Balthazar in front of Duke Cancer Center

A Whirlwind of Emotions

Alexa Balthazar is grateful for Duke Cancer Institute's Teen and Young Adult Oncology Program.

Read Now
Coach Ovester Grays in the Hillside High gym

Life-Changing Treatment

Coach Ovester Grays says his entire care team reaasured him through nine months of treatment for mantle cell lymphoma.

Read Now
Hannah Woriax, MD, wearing a white coat and speaking with a colleague
Hannah Woriax, MD, cares for patients in Lumberton and Laurinburg through the Duke Cancer Network.

Building Trust

Hannah Woriax, MD, returned home to North Carolina to improve care for breast cancer patients in rural communities.

Read Now
Elizabeth Harden and Richard Hoefer standing in front of windows and rose bushes

Long-Term Partners

Duke alum Eizabeth Harden, MD, and her husband, Richard Hoefer, DO, FACS celebrated their 35th anniversary and Duke cancer's 50th anniversary by establishing a bequest to beneft future doctors and researchers.

Read Now
Group photo of Donald McDonnell lab members standing on a balcony
Members of the Donald McDonnell lab in 2022

A New Option for Advanced Breast Cancer

A drug approved earlier this year has its roots in a Duke Cancer Institute research lab.

Read Now

Written By

Angela Spivey smiles

Angela Spivey

Duke University School of Medicine

Related News

A family and their two dogs smiling on a couch.
Cancer survivor Iris Bugbee with her husband, Greg, daughter Mila, and corgis, Candi and Charli, at her home in Fuquay Varina in 2024. Bugbee participated in a clinical trial aimed at helping young adults battling cancer learn strategies to ease their post-treatment symptom burden through things like mindfulness and physical activity. Photo by Eamon Queeney/Duke University School of Medicine.
Article

Helping Young Adults Move Forward after Cancer

Being diagnosed with cancer and going through treatment isn’t easy for anyone. For people diagnosed as young adults (ages 18-39), the experience comes with some unique challenges.“This is an age of transition,” said Caroline Dorfman, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Duke Cancer Institute. People in this age group are often in the midst of reaching milestones such as graduation, landing a job, building a friend group, getting married, and having children, she said. “One of the things we hear from our patients,” she said, “is that the cancer diagnosis stops them in their tracks from being able to move forward on life milestones.”Even after treatment ends, life doesn’t suddenly switch back to normal. Physical symptoms like pain and fatigue can linger, and emotional distress is common during the post-treatment period. Multiple follow-up appointments can present financial and logistical difficulties as well as emotional reminders of cancer.“Sometimes they just want the cancer behind them and to get back to doing what matters to them,” Dorfman said. “The trouble is that when they are in the midst of treatment, they are just trying to get through it, and they don’t stop to process the experience.”That emotional processing often happens after the last chemo treatment or radiation session.To support young adults during this vulnerable period, Dorfman has designed a 10-week program that aims to give them the tools they need to navigate physical and emotional symptoms and learn how to successfully manage their new lives as cancer survivors.

Duke Cancer Institute Blog
A womans wearing blue gloves holds up a vial under a fume hood.
Duke's PRIME-PREP Program helped Gabriella Torres get the research experience she needed to become a PhD student in the Duke University Department of Integrative Immunobiology.
Article

Filling in the Gaps

When Gabriella Torres was eight, she needed steroids to control asthma and allergies. Then her allergist recommended she take up swimming, and it helped. When she was nine, her younger brother was diagnosed with leukemia. He was treated and recovered. But watching him go through that left an impression.As she got older, Torres had nothing but questions. Why did swimming improve her asthma? Why did her brother get so sick? And why did treatment work for him when it doesn’t for so many other children?Torres was driven to find the answers. In college at New York University, she thought about becoming a pediatric oncologist; she pursued research experiences recommended for students interested in medicine. But then during her junior year an internship at a pharmaceutical company got her interested in pursuing a PhD. “I had never heard of getting a PhD before that,” said Torres, who is from New York City, where her parents are chefs. “But I was able to see that I could use my love of thinking critically about problems long term but still work on a project that relates directly to helping people.”Torres was on the swim team in college and spent much of her free time training. But she got as much research experience as she could, then applied to the integrative immunobiology PhD program at Duke University School of Medicine in 2023.Torres didn’t get in. Her goal of becoming a scientist could have ended there. Instead, she received a call from Johnna Frierson, PhD, associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion for the basic sciences at the School of Medicine, asking her if she’d be interested in applying for Duke’s PRIME PREP Program, which provides a year of research experience to recent undergraduates.Torres interviewed for PRIME PREP and got in, then she spent time at Duke conducting research in the lab of Stacy Horner, PhD, associate professor in integrative immunobiology.

Duke Cancer Institute Blog

Related News

A family and their two dogs smiling on a couch.
Cancer survivor Iris Bugbee with her husband, Greg, daughter Mila, and corgis, Candi and Charli, at her home in Fuquay Varina in 2024. Bugbee participated in a clinical trial aimed at helping young adults battling cancer learn strategies to ease their post-treatment symptom burden through things like mindfulness and physical activity. Photo by Eamon Queeney/Duke University School of Medicine.
Article

Helping Young Adults Move Forward after Cancer

Being diagnosed with cancer and going through treatment isn’t easy for anyone. For people diagnosed as young adults (ages 18-39), the experience comes with some unique challenges.“This is an age of transition,” said Caroline Dorfman, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Duke Cancer Institute. People in this age group are often in the midst of reaching milestones such as graduation, landing a job, building a friend group, getting married, and having children, she said. “One of the things we hear from our patients,” she said, “is that the cancer diagnosis stops them in their tracks from being able to move forward on life milestones.”Even after treatment ends, life doesn’t suddenly switch back to normal. Physical symptoms like pain and fatigue can linger, and emotional distress is common during the post-treatment period. Multiple follow-up appointments can present financial and logistical difficulties as well as emotional reminders of cancer.“Sometimes they just want the cancer behind them and to get back to doing what matters to them,” Dorfman said. “The trouble is that when they are in the midst of treatment, they are just trying to get through it, and they don’t stop to process the experience.”That emotional processing often happens after the last chemo treatment or radiation session.To support young adults during this vulnerable period, Dorfman has designed a 10-week program that aims to give them the tools they need to navigate physical and emotional symptoms and learn how to successfully manage their new lives as cancer survivors.

Duke Cancer Institute Blog
A womans wearing blue gloves holds up a vial under a fume hood.
Duke's PRIME-PREP Program helped Gabriella Torres get the research experience she needed to become a PhD student in the Duke University Department of Integrative Immunobiology.
Article

Filling in the Gaps

When Gabriella Torres was eight, she needed steroids to control asthma and allergies. Then her allergist recommended she take up swimming, and it helped. When she was nine, her younger brother was diagnosed with leukemia. He was treated and recovered. But watching him go through that left an impression.As she got older, Torres had nothing but questions. Why did swimming improve her asthma? Why did her brother get so sick? And why did treatment work for him when it doesn’t for so many other children?Torres was driven to find the answers. In college at New York University, she thought about becoming a pediatric oncologist; she pursued research experiences recommended for students interested in medicine. But then during her junior year an internship at a pharmaceutical company got her interested in pursuing a PhD. “I had never heard of getting a PhD before that,” said Torres, who is from New York City, where her parents are chefs. “But I was able to see that I could use my love of thinking critically about problems long term but still work on a project that relates directly to helping people.”Torres was on the swim team in college and spent much of her free time training. But she got as much research experience as she could, then applied to the integrative immunobiology PhD program at Duke University School of Medicine in 2023.Torres didn’t get in. Her goal of becoming a scientist could have ended there. Instead, she received a call from Johnna Frierson, PhD, associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion for the basic sciences at the School of Medicine, asking her if she’d be interested in applying for Duke’s PRIME PREP Program, which provides a year of research experience to recent undergraduates.Torres interviewed for PRIME PREP and got in, then she spent time at Duke conducting research in the lab of Stacy Horner, PhD, associate professor in integrative immunobiology.

Duke Cancer Institute Blog
This page was reviewed on 10/16/2023