Touring the Mass General Lung Cancer Research Lab

[Geekbabe]

i was honored to tour MGH’s lung cancer research lab in Charlestown today. I met world famous Dr Alice Shaw, I got to see how cancer cell lines are grown! A piece of me lives on in that lab

I met a lot of researchers, so young, so eager, their eyes lighting up as they talked passionately about their work. So much talent, so much intelligence, so much curiosity!

I also learned of a fund raiser that is devoted exclusively to Mass General Lung Cancer Research. 100% of every dollar donated goes to MGH & to finding cures for people like me. Be a Piece of the Solution is the name of the organization, started by a man who lost his wife to lung cancer ... https://philanthropy.massgeneral.org/be-a-piece

The day was simply epic, the work they are doing there is mind blowing

 

[shortylickens]

Neato.


So like, are you better or worse?

 

[Geekbabe]

Neato.


So like, are you better or worse?

I am stable, as a stage IV patient Iwill probably never be cured..but I care about the people who come after me! The amount of never smokers or people who quit decades ago getting lung cancer is staggering. This disease is the number one cancer killer of both men and women.

 

[John Connor]

The amount of never smokers or people who quit decades ago getting lung cancer is staggering.

My mom quit 2 years ago and was a smoker for 44 years. Very disconcerting.

 

[senseamp]

As a self identified geek, did anything impress you in terms of technology at this facility?

 

[Geekbabe]

As a self identified geek, did anything impress you in terms of technology at this facility?

When they use the term “ research bench” they mean it, a lot of work areas looked pretty small.

What impressed? The tons of microscopes, computers, big monitors, huge vats for freezing samples. The process of making culture medium to grow cell lines in, being able to see cultures on a microscope with images enlarged on a PC screen. Seeing how cancer interacts with normal cells in the body was fascinating & is a subject of research, what do other cells do to,enable cancer to grow & how can we shut that crap down?

 

[Geekbabe]

The group at this event was small, the patients invited seemed to be those with targetable mutations. I think I was the only one with a smoking history.

What was kind of somber was being told by one of the researchers that my driver mutations turned off the body’s ability to fight cancer. It’s a lot harder to turn a function back on than it is to turn a mutation malfunction off. Basically my hope lies in continued immunotherapy research & probably in CRISPR to edit my genes if I can live that long.

What was also surprising was being thanked many times for donating biopsy samples, this shocked me. Why on earth would one be treated at a center of excellence, a hospital know for research & not want to help in this way? I’ve had three biopsies & frankly was terrified but I took the Ativan they offered & gladly signed consent to donate extra tissue. Good discussion with Dr Shaw about how many patients are frightened even by blood draws & how many patients don’t get genetic testing of biopsy samples at all in other hospital settings.

I came away even more firmly committed to Mass General & grateful to be receiving care there. My daughter, the runner cane to the event with me & plans to get her running group involved in raising funds in my honor.