Keep reading for three exciting advances on the horizon in cancer medicine.

REDUCING SIDE EFFECTS FOR NEW THERAPIES

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are widely used cancer treatments, but about 55% of patients experience serious side effects. Mayo Clinic researchers are studying how specific subtypes of T cells — immune cells that can mistakenly attack healthy parts of the body while targeting cancer cells — contribute to these side effects. Understanding the connection between T cells and side effects could lead to new tools to better predict and reduce side effects, improving patient experiences and outcomes.

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IMPROVING SURGICAL PRECISION

Mayo Clinic is partnering with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to develop new precision tools to help surgeons perform procedures more accurately, with real-time assessments for surgical decision-making in lung cancer care. The Advanced Research Funding Agency for Health awarded the project a contract for up to $33 million to create “scalable, affordable and easily implementable surgical technology that will transform healthcare.”

BRINGING CARBON ION THERAPY TO NORTH AMERICA

The Duan Family Building opened on our Florida campus in 2025, and by 2028, Mayo Clinic will provide conventional radiation therapy, proton beam therapy and carbon ion therapy in the space.

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Carbon ion therapy has unprecedented potential to help patients whose cancer resists other forms of radiotherapy, but currently it is only available at 15 facilities in Asia and Europe. Mayo Clinic will be the first to offer this transformative treatment in North America.

Learn more about Mayo Clinic's vision for transforming cancer care.

The post The Next Era in Cancer Medicine appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

His ability to fly and run again was restored thanks to a special procedure Mayo Clinic surgeons call "onco-regeneration" — a partnership between orthopedic oncologists and plastic surgeons that returns muscle strength and function to patients who have lost them after surgery to remove soft tissue sarcoma.

Had his condition occurred a few years earlier, Chris may not have made such a remarkable recovery from the severe calf pain that interrupted one of his regular evening jogs just before his 53rd birthday in 2019.

Chris’ wife, Davie, a nurse, insisted he seek medical attention after the swelling of his leg hadn’t subsided in a few days. Local providers initially diagnosed a pulled muscle. But three months later, a concerning lump remained on the back of his knee. An MRI revealed that he had cancer in his thigh.

Davie reached out to a contact she had at Mayo Clinic, Alexander Shin, M.D., an orthopedic hand and microvascular surgeon. It was recommended that Chris make an appointment at Mayo Clinic.

A Rare Diagnosis

Chris flew himself and Davie from their Overland Park, Kansas, home to Rochester, Minnesota, to meet with Mayo Clinic’s Matthew Houdek, M.D., an associate professor of orthopedic surgery and the fellowship director for musculoskeletal oncology.

Chris had myxoid liposarcoma, an extremely rare form of cancer. Although it had been caught before it metastasized, Chris still needed five-day-a-week radiation sessions for five weeks, followed by surgery.

When Chris asked if he should go back home for treatment, Dr. Houdek’s response made the decision clear.

“I could see him thinking about how to nicely say it,” Chris recalls. “He said, ‘Well, I’m sure they’re good, but my team sees this type of cancer every day of the week. Most other places don’t see more than one of this type of cancer a year.’”

That was all it took for Chris to know he should stay at Mayo Clinic.

A Breakthrough Approach

Dr. Houdek and Steven Moran, M.D., a Mayo Clinic plastic surgeon, led the surgical team that operated on Chris in 2019. It quickly became clear there was no saving Chris’ hamstring. Cancer had consumed nearly all of it, and doctors took the rest.

To replace it, they took a latissimus dorsi muscle from Chris’ back and fashioned it into a new hamstring.

“They basically had to play the board game Operation with me,” Chris jokes. “It was amazing.”

The Road to Recovery

It was three months before Chris was allowed to put any weight on his leg. Six months later, he was able to walk up to three miles at a time.

“Mr. Reedy is a testament to how resilient patients with a soft tissue sarcoma are,” Dr. Houdek says. “He did the hard work in the recovery process to get to where he is now.”

By using onco-regeneration, Mayo Clinic surgeons had leveraged the body’s ability to regenerate muscle strength.

“It takes a team to be able to do these procedures,” Dr. Houdek says. “Thankfully we have the collaboration between us, our plastic surgeons, radiation oncologists and medical oncologists to advance functional outcomes for patients undergoing limb salvage surgery.”

Taking Flight Again

Two years after the surgery, Chris was back to jogging. But his real goal was to return to the cockpit.

Chris learned how to fly while in college and is the president and CEO of Butler National Corporation, an aerospace and professional services company. He worried he might not ever pilot a plane again.

“Flying is awesome,” says Chris, who shares two planes with his brother and uncle. “It devastated me to think about not being able to fly again. But Dr. Houdek was always so positive about regenerative medicine. He has outcomes that other people don’t.”

Cleared for Takeoff

Chris’ friends in the aviation community told him that if he could get a recommendation from Mayo Clinic, it would help him in his quest to get his pilot’s medical certificate back. Almost a year to the day from his surgery, with the help of Steven Robinson, M.B.B.S., he received a letter of recommendation from Mayo Clinic’s Section of Aerospace Medicine. Shortly thereafter, the Federal Aviation Administration provided a special medical authorization restoring his pilot privileges.

A 2022 recurrence of cancer also didn’t slow Chris down when a tumor was found on his spine. He sent his MRI results to Dr. Houdek, and a few days later Chris was in Rochester, being introduced to Peter Rose, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Rose removed the tumor from Chris’ back without hampering his mobility so that Chris could get back to what he loves — living life without limits.

“Within about a month, I was back in action,” Chris says. “Mayo Clinic doctors are phenomenal. They’re skilled and exceptionally intelligent, and they get back to you much quicker than other doctors do when you send them a message. They just take great care of you.”

The post Taking Flight Again appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Although she had been looking forward to getting her license for a long time, she couldn’t sit without being in pain. The sporadic numbness in her leg only made things worse.

In the spring of her freshman year, Miranda took a hard fall on her tailbone. The following fall, despite the lingering pain, she pushed through to run on her high school’s cross-country team in Wayzata, Minnesota. As the season wore on, however, the pain in her back became unbearable — and she was forced to stop running.

Two days after her birthday, when the periodic numbness in her left leg and foot evolved into a complete loss of feeling, she knew something was seriously wrong.

A Life-Changing Diagnosis

An MRI revealed Miranda had a 6-inch, inoperable tumor at the base of her spine.

Nadia N. Laack, M.D., the pediatric oncologist who treated Miranda at Mayo Clinic, confirmed through a biopsy that the cancer was Ewing sarcoma — one of the most common pediatric bone tumors. Unfortunately, the news got worse: The cancer had already spread.

“She had metastatic disease to her lungs, and she was told that she had about a 10% chance of survival,” says Dr. Laack, the Hitachi Professor of Radiation Oncology Research.

But that number didn’t faze her. “I’m a pediatric oncologist — we're eternal optimists. That’s the only way we can do this job. Every patient is a 10%, right?”

When asked if Miranda would benefit from proton beam therapy, Dr. Laack knew they had to give it a shot.

Targeted Treatment, Greater Hope

Unlike traditional X-ray therapy, which affects all tissue in its path, proton beam therapy offers precise control, enabling specialists to focus radiation directly on the tumor while reducing harm to the surrounding healthy tissue.

For Miranda, this precision was critical. X-ray radiation therapy would have treated her entire pelvis, including the uterus, which would no longer be able to accommodate a growing baby. Proton beam therapy allowed for a more targeted approach. One of her ovaries was wrapped up in the tumor, but through proton beam therapy, the other could be shielded. This meant a chance at preserving her fertility.

“Dr. Laack and her team tacked one of my ovaries out of the line of radiation. This forethought gave me the best chance possible at conceiving naturally,” Miranda says. “The fact they moved the other ovary was absolutely life-changing.”

In addition to protecting the uterus and the remaining ovary during proton beam therapy, Dr. Laack designed a comprehensive treatment plan that gave Miranda the greatest likelihood of recovery. She underwent concurrent chemotherapy at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and proton beam therapy at Mayo Clinic to target the Ewing sarcoma, along with radiation to treat the cancer in her lungs.

“I was very grateful to be able to commute to Mayo Clinic and still go home at night,” Miranda says. “It’s amazing that this treatment was available in my backyard.”

A Future Once Unimaginable

In February 2016, Miranda completed her last proton beam treatment. Since then, she has graduated magna cum laude from the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, landed her dream job, met the love of her life, got married, bought a house and had her first child.

“I wanted to find love, own a house and start a family,” she says. “Those were my main priorities after I beat cancer — to live life and live it to the fullest with no time wasted.”

While Miranda has accomplished a lot since her last treatment, one of the most meaningful chapters of Miranda’s journey has been welcoming her son, Everett, into the world. She and her husband, Alec, now center their days around his happiness, giggles and cuddles.

“Mayo Clinic listened to my fears, my hopes and my dreams. It wasn’t enough to simply cure me — they went above and beyond to ensure my quality of life would be the best it possibly could be,” she says. “They understood how important being a mother was to me and acted accordingly. I am forever grateful to Dr. Laack and her team for their contribution to helping me have my miracle baby.”

Miranda had no complications during pregnancy, and she credits the care she received years earlier at Mayo Clinic for making the experience smooth once it came time to start a family. “These are the reasons why it’s important for us to be able to bring in these new technologies to help our patients,” Dr. Laack says.

Looking Ahead

Miranda and Alec have started talking about having another child in the next few years. There’s no rush though — for now, they’re savoring this time with Everett. Because Mayo Clinic made it possible for her to have one child, Miranda is hopeful she can have another.

In her free time, she continues to give back, such as serving on the board of Rein in Sarcoma, a resource for patients and families affected by these uncommon and often misdiagnosed bone and soft tissue cancers.

Looking back, Miranda says she wishes she could tell her 16-year-old self — a young girl who had just received a life-altering diagnosis — how much life was still ahead. What once seemed uncertain has become a life filled with purpose and promise.

“If I could tell her that I would not only survive cancer, but find the love of my life, marry, own a beautiful house on a river, work my dream job and have a child — all by the age of 25 — I don’t think any part of me would have dared dream that big in the moment,” she says. “Simply put, I have a future to look forward to because of Mayo Clinic."

Carey Stanton contributed to this story.

The post A Mother’s Miracle: How Proton Beam Therapy Preserved Miranda’s Fertility appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

This represents an expansion on Mayo Clinic’s work with proton beam therapy, which will soon be available on every campus. But how does proton therapy work, and how is it different from other types of radiation therapies?

How does proton therapy work?

Proton therapy is a type of radiation treatment that uses protons, the positively charged particle found in the nucleus of atoms, to precisely target cancer. Using a particle accelerator, clinicians can direct a beam of protons into a tumor. This allows the protons to release their energy within the target, which minimizes the amount of radiation hitting healthy tissue, leading to fewer treatment side effects. Within tumor cells, the protons damage the DNA of the cancer, breaking up the chromosomes to kill the cells.

The damage can be precisely targeted because protons deposit most of their energy at a specific depth, known as the Bragg peak. Using sophisticated visualization and targeting tools, care teams can adjust the location of the Bragg peak to pinpoint the tumor. Although low doses are released as the protons enter the body, radiation dose falls off very rapidly beyond the location of the Bragg peak, eliminating much of the radiation dose on the other side. This precision reduces damage to surrounding tissue and is important for treating cancers that are near sensitive areas of the body.

How does proton therapy compare to other radiation therapies?

Radiation therapy is common in cancer care — about half of people diagnosed with invasive cancers in the U.S. will undergo some radiation treatment. Conventional radiation therapy is the most common therapy option and is available at most cancer treatment centers. This type of radiation therapy uses X-rays, which kill cancer cells using high-energy photons.

While X-ray therapy is highly effective for treating many cancers, X-rays enter and exit more gradually and do not stop at a certain depth. The dose to nearby normal body organs is often higher, which can make it challenging to treat tumors in certain parts of the body. Some cancers are radioresistant and don’t respond well to conventional radiation therapy.

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On the other end of the spectrum is carbon ion therapy, which uses a beam of carbon ions to target tumors. Carbon ions are bigger and more massive than protons, which means they are highly effective at killing cancer cells. Carbon ion therapy is a good option for patients for whom other types of radiation therapy have failed. However, carbon ion therapy requires significant specialized infrastructure and is not widely available. It is currently only available in 15 centers across Asia and Europe. The carbon ion facility at the Duan Family Building at Mayo Clinic in Florida will be the first clinical carbon ion radiation therapy center of its kind on the North American continent.

Proton therapy represents a middle ground between conventional radiation therapy and carbon ion therapy. It is more widely available than carbon ion therapy and is good for addressing radioresistant tumors, with more precision and reduced effects on the surrounding tissue when compared to X-ray therapy.

Where is proton therapy available?

Proton therapy is available at a growing number of centers across the U.S., including all three Mayo Clinic campuses in Rochester, Minnesota; Phoenix, Arizona; and Jacksonville, Florida, beginning in 2027.

Mayo Clinic has been at the forefront of cancer therapy innovation for over two decades, with its radiation oncologists and physicists continuously advancing radiation treatment techniques and protocols. The expansion of proton therapy to all three campuses reflects Mayo Clinic’s commitment to making cutting-edge radiation treatments accessible to patients nationwide. Scientists and clinicians also leverage these comprehensive tools to conduct clinical trials and research into optimizing proton therapy for various cancer types, including pediatric cancers, where minimizing radiation exposure to developing tissues is critical.

The integration of proton therapy with Mayo Clinic's new carbon ion capabilities at the Florida campus creates new opportunities for personalized care strategies. This dual-modality approach will allow care teams to select the most appropriate radiation therapy for each patient's specific cancer type, location and treatment history. This investment in advanced radiation therapy technologies positions Mayo Clinic to offer patients the most comprehensive radiation therapy options available anywhere in North America.

The post The Science Behind Proton Therapy appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

It wasn't a typical medical question or appointment request. Instead, a patient with alcohol-related liver disease was reaching out in a moment of crisis, seeking help with his addiction to alcohol.

For Vijay Shah, M.D., the Mr. and Mrs. Ronald F. Kinney Executive Dean of Research, that message crystallized everything wrong with current approaches to healthcare and everything that needed to change.

“That patient reached out for support when and where he needed it most, but our current technologies couldn't provide that support,” says Dr. Shah, who is also recognized as the Carol M. Gatton Professor of Digestive Diseases Research, Honoring Peter Carryer, M.D. 

In that moment, the patient didn’t need a prescription or a blood panel. They needed a medical team who saw them as more than a name and a set of numbers on a chart. They needed care that was designed just for them and their specific struggles and needs, including the challenge of managing alcohol cravings.

The experience led Dr. Shah to reflect on the current state of medical care, and particularly the way it prevents patients from receiving the care they need.

“That patient message drove me to ask key questions: How do we serve patients better?” he says. “Imagine if that patient had a wearable device that sent an alert to his care team when he had a craving, so someone could reach out proactively and ensure that he had the support that he needed right in that moment. How do we create those sorts of technologies, to help people before they reach a crisis point?”

To answer these questions, Dr. Shah and his team have created a vision for research at Mayo Clinic that will drive the transformation of medicine from a reactive, one-size-fits-all pipeline to a platform where healthcare is a proactive, personalized journey throughout life.

The Challenge in Healthcare Today

While medical institutions like Mayo Clinic excel at providing expert care, the broader healthcare system still operates largely in reactive mode. Patients develop symptoms, seek care and receive treatments based on population-level guidelines rather than their individual biology and circumstances.

Even when care is accessible in a timely manner, the fundamental approach remains the same: respond to disease after it manifests rather than prevent it from occurring. This model, while effective for many conditions, falls short for patients facing serious or complex diseases that might be intercepted or prevented entirely with the right tools and insights.

The solution required rethinking everything. As leader of Mayo Clinic's research enterprise, Dr. Shah developed a vision that transforms healthcare from reactive treatment to predictive prevention, aligning the institution’s discovery and translational science efforts with Mayo Clinic’s Bold. Forward. transformation of healthcare to accelerate access to new treatments and cures for patients everywhere.

“At Mayo Clinic, our research and practice are intertwined,” he says. “Everything we do must serve our primary value of putting the needs of the patient first, so that's where we focused our vision for research. We are addressing the fundamental challenge that our current system doesn’t have the cures our patients need for most serious or complex diseases.”

His perspectives have been shaped by his career working on liver disease.

“I’ve been interested in liver disease my whole life,” Dr. Shah says. “The liver is an organ of serious and complex diseases — such as cirrhosis. It’s a very complicated organ, and ripe with data, which is critical to our approach. Alcoholic liver disease holds such power over people’s lives, and our current medical technologies and approaches are not what patients need.”

Open image in lightbox

Open image in lightbox

Heidi Dieter, chair of Research Administration, works alongside Dr. Shah, serving as his administrative partner and overseeing many of the primary business functions of the Research shield.

“What excites me most about this vision is how it fundamentally changes our relationship with patients," says Heidi. "We're not just treating disease anymore. We're partnering with people throughout their entire life journey, using data and technology to help them remain healthy and prevent illness before it starts.”

And with 25 years of experience as a clinician and researcher, Dr. Shah brings a wealth of expertise using leading-edge digital tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to bridge discovery science to clinical trials and beyond.

The most dramatic example of this patient-first transformation is already taking shape in how Mayo Clinic conducts clinical trials.

Revolutionizing Clinical Trials

One of the most transformative aspects of this vision involves completely reimagining clinical trials. Traditional trials face a fundamental ethical dilemma: half of participants receive an inactive treatment known as a placebo. This provides a baseline against which the effectiveness of the actual treatment is measured.

“No one participating in a trial wants to be in the placebo group, but we need to collect this data to have the most rigorous study design and truly understand treatment efficacy,” says Dr. Shah. “But what if we could change that?”

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Through AI tools and the power of Mayo Clinic Platform, a vast repository containing millions of patient records from Mayo Clinic and beyond, clinical trial teams can now conduct analyses on data from other patients with the same condition to determine the natural course of the disease without any treatment. These AI-powered control groups are called synthetic placebo arms.

“With AI and our data intelligence, we're starting to reach the point where we can collect real-world data, make synthetic placebo arms, and thereby allow our clinical trials to focus on the active intervention for all of the human patients,” says Dr. Shah. “We're not fully there yet, but we're well on our way.”

This tactic will also include the use of “digital twins” — AI-powered replicas built from individual patient data that can simulate hundreds of different treatments to determine which options might work best for any given patient. This means that clinicians will be able to match patients to the trials that are most likely to succeed for them, while simultaneously identifying which patients will benefit the most from a new treatment or trial.

As these technologies expand, there will also be opportunities to improve access to treatments by developing scalable approaches for decentralized clinical trials, bringing these opportunities into patients' own homes and communities. In short, patients anywhere around the world will be able to access Mayo Clinic-level care, where and when they need it.

“These clinical trials of the future are more patient-centric, they go faster, and they're less expensive,” Dr. Shah says. “With these advances, I believe we can reduce the time it takes to go from discovery to clinical treatment by tenfold — from 17 years down to 17 months.”

This acceleration sits within a broader framework built on three interconnected strategies that work together to deliver cures faster.  

Through the seamless integration of pioneering science discoveries, AI-powered data intelligence, and revolutionary clinical impact approaches, Mayo Clinic is creating a self-reinforcing cycle that not only accelerates the path from laboratory bench to patient bedside but also fundamentally transforms healthcare from a reactive system into a globally accessible platform for preventing and curing serious or complex diseases.

Driving Toward Cures

While these approaches represent the long-term vision for 2045, the foundation is being built today.

The Research shield has already launched two key initiatives — Precure and Genesis. Precure is aimed at intervening before patients get sick, connecting patients to critical insights that can intercept serious diseases before they manifest. Genesis’ goal is cures — using cell therapy technologies and AI-driven solutions to predict organ failure, restore organ function and eliminate the need for transplant.

As part of this effort, research teams are advancing bioengineering and manufacturing efforts, in partnership with industry experts, to design and test new therapies. Scientists are also working on advancing biosensing technology, and new trials are being launched for early detection and treatment across organ systems.

Through it all, the team is building the infrastructure and relationships necessary to make this vision a reality with strategic funding and industry partnerships to turn promising developments into new treatments and cures.

“If a researcher wants to explore a disease under Genesis, we have all the infrastructure set,” says Dr. Shah. “If a company wants to work with us to explore a new biomanufacturing approach to developing cell therapies, we can do that. It’s a scalable process.”

For Dr. Shah and his team, this isn't just about advancing medicine. It's about fundamentally changing what's possible for every patient who walks through Mayo Clinic's doors.

Detecting Cancer Risk Decades Earlier

The work of hematologist Mrinal Patnaik, M.B.B.S., with clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) exemplifies Mayo Clinic's Precure initiative in action, shifting from reactive treatment to proactive prevention.

As we age, the DNA in our blood cells mutates due to environmental exposures like radiation, chemicals and stress. While most damaged cells are eliminated, some survive and multiply. When numbers of these mutated clones grow large enough to detect, they're classified as CHIP. This precancer stage causes inflammation and over time, significantly increases risk of blood cancers and the risk of dying from all causes, especially cardiovascular disease.

Using advanced DNA sequencing, Dr. Patnaik's team in the Center for Individualized Medicine and Division of Hematology detects CHIP mutations from a simple blood draw. AI-driven software analyzes the data and translates it into actionable insights.

“We're creating tools that can identify precancer decades before it would traditionally be diagnosed,” says Dr. Patnaik. “This gives us a crucial window to intervene.”

Since 2016, Mayo Clinic has monitored over 1,000 patients with CHIP. Under Precure, the goal is accelerating the work and scaling to 100,000 patients. His research examines why people develop CHIP, including hereditary and environmental factors, and understanding which interception strategies have the greatest impact.

CHIP research demonstrates Precure's approach: early detection followed by interception. For patients, this means knowing cancer risk decades in advance and having concrete steps to reduce it, representing a fundamental shift from treating disease to preventing it entirely.

A Legacy Worth Building

These efforts represent more than just a vision for research at Mayo Clinic. They’re part of the Bold. Forward. blueprint for a research-driven, transformed global healthcare system.

“When I think about the legacy we're building, I imagine a world where no patient has to endure what that patient with alcohol liver disease wrote to me about in his portal message, struggling alone when he needed help the most,” says Dr. Shah. “We're creating a future where serious or complex diseases don't define the end of someone's story but become preventable chapters we can rewrite.”

By 2045, Mayo Clinic envisions a new approach to medical care where serious or complex diseases are identified and intercepted before they manifest, and where interventions are tailored to each patient’s unique profile and needs.

“This research vision isn't just about Mayo Clinic becoming the global authority in healthcare innovation,” says Dr. Shah. “It's about ensuring that every person, everywhere, has access to the tools and insights they need to thrive. That's a legacy worth dedicating our lives to building.”

The post N of 1 appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Kicks Against Cancer

On a warm summer morning in Naperville, Illinois, 16-year-old Lauren West laced up her soccer cleats. But this time, it wasn’t about the number on the scoreboard — it was about something far more meaningful.

With her teammates by her side and a field full of children ready to learn the game she loves, Lauren launched Kicks Against Cancer, a youth soccer event with one powerful goal: raising funds to support urothelial cell cancer research at Mayo Clinic — a type of bladder cancer her grandfather, Steve Murphy, is currently battling.

An Unbreakable Bond

Lauren has always had a close relationship with her grandfather. Over the years, they’ve spent countless holidays together and made cherished memories on family trips — everywhere from the lush landscapes of Hawaii to the sandy shores of Anna Maria Island in Florida. Along the way, they also built beloved traditions, like their weeklong Nana and Papa Camp, where Lauren would spend a week at her grandparents’ house every summer, soaking in their undivided attention and love.

When Lauren and her family found out her grandfather had been diagnosed with stage 4 urothelial cell cancer, their world turned upside down.

“I remember feeling a wave of fear and confusion. I had never known anyone with cancer before, and I didn’t really understand what it meant. Was he going to be OK? It was overwhelming and scary,” she says.

Kicking Toward a Cure

By the time Lauren and her family learned the severity of her grandfather’s cancer, Jacob J. Orme, M.D., Ph.D., an oncologist at Mayo Clinic, already had a plan in place for Steve’s treatment.

After discovering Dr. Orme’s research focused on finding a cure for urothelial cell cancer, Lauren knew she wanted to combine her passion for soccer with her drive to make a difference.

As a varsity and Elite Club National League travel soccer player, it wasn’t uncommon for parents to ask Lauren to lead private training sessions with their children.

That's when the idea hit Lauren: She decided to organize a charitable soccer camp where proceeds would go toward cancer research at Mayo Clinic. From there, Kicks Against Cancer was born and became a day of hope, teamwork and support for her grandfather and others with cancer.

“I wanted to raise awareness and support not only for my grandpa but for everyone fighting cancer,” she says. “And hopefully, by doing this, I could inspire younger kids who attend the camp to one day give back to a cause close to their heart too.”

Lauren quickly achieved that goal. The day of the event, she experienced an outpouring of support from family, friends and her broader community. It wasn’t only the support of those close to her that moved her — it was also the kindness of complete strangers. Passersby who stopped to learn about what Lauren was doing didn’t hesitate to give, donating on the spot. “That kind of generosity is something I’ll never forget,” Lauren says.

Hope and Healing

That day, Kicks Against Cancer raised more than $10,000, with an anonymous Mayo Clinic benefactor doubling Lauren’s efforts.

“That number represents so much more than money,” Lauren says. “It’s hope, love and a whole community coming together. That was, hands down, the most meaningful and rewarding part of it all.”

In Dr. Orme’s laboratory at Mayo Clinic, a picture of Lauren and Steve hangs on the Wall of Fame — his team’s tribute to the patients and family who are affected by cancer. Dr. Orme says those photos are a constant reminder of why they do this research. “At Mayo Clinic, our patients are our partners,” he says. “People like Lauren inspire us every day to get to work to fight cancer.”

At 16, I’ve learned that you don’t have to be an adult or have a lot of money to create impact — you just have to care enough to act.

— LAUREN WEST

Steve couldn’t be prouder of his granddaughter. He says watching Lauren choose to put others first — at an age filled with the usual distractions of classes, sports, friends and new responsibilities — shows a maturity and compassion well beyond her years.

With the support of his Mayo Clinic care team, Steve has turned an initial six-month prognosis into more than two years of life. He has joined a clinical trial based on Dr. Orme’s discoveries, matching his granddaughter’s efforts to help combat this disease. He continues to make the most of each day, while Lauren is determined to make his journey a catalyst for change.

“At 16, I’ve learned that you don’t have to be an adult or have a lot of money to create impact — you just have to care enough to act,” Lauren says. “Whether it’s raising funds, spreading awareness or simply showing up for a cause, philanthropy is about giving from the heart and doing what you can to help others when they need it most.”

The post Kicks Against Cancer appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Biology in Three Dimensions

After doing his medical training in his native country of Hungary, Dr. Ordog studied neuroendocrine biology, touching on topics like electrical signals in the hypothalamus regulating the menstrual cycle. He started as a junior faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno, before coming to Mayo Clinic in 2006. In 2012, he helped found the Epigenomics Program at the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine. In 2020, he moved to work with the Center for Cell Signaling in Gastroenterology.

Now he and Jeong-Heon Lee, Ph.D., are hard at work creating a first-of-its-kind research enterprise: a core dedicated entirely to spatial biology.

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“‘Spatial’ is a little bit of a misleading term,” says Dr. Ordog, “because currently almost everything we do is in two dimensions [like flat X-rays of body parts], but there is no theoretical limit to why anything we discover doesn’t apply in 3D.”

Spatial biology is essentially what it sounds like: the study of tissues, cells and genes put into terms of how they relate to each other in three dimensions. Think of an organ or a tumor as a complex city, where each cell is a building with its own role and relationships to its neighbors. Some cells might be driving a disease, while others are trying to fight it off. Traditional methods could tell us what types of buildings existed in the city, but not how they are arranged or how they influence each other. Spatial biology changes that by creating a detailed 3D map of every cell in a tissue sample, showing not just what genes each cell is expressing, but how those cells work together — or against each other — in the complex ecosystem of a complete tissue.

The Perfect Partnership

Drs. Ordog and Lee make a top-notch team. Dr. Ordog brought Dr. Lee, then a postdoctoral researcher at Indiana University, to Mayo Clinic to tune the technology he developed there toward human health applications. Dr. Lee’s primary focus now is an area called spatial transcriptomics, studying how gene expression in one cell affects gene expression in its neighbors.

“The ultimate goal is to build a 3D model of any tissue we study, providing information about how the cells are positioned relative to each other and how they behave — as in what genes and molecules they express,” says Dr. Ordog.

Molecules and genes are just the beginning. To Drs. Lee and Ordog, spatial biology isn’t just about the relationship between cells in one modality, but in all the ways they can relate to one another — their genes, their proteins, the ways they contact one another, cells dividing in one region and dying in another. Dr. Ordog calls this “spatial multiomics,” combining different techniques in the same space.

“We want these to be more than the sum of their modalities,” says Dr. Ordog. “The goal is to bring all these elements — the study of genes, molecules, proteins, etc. — into all relevant tissues.”

The Power of Spatial Multiomics

Bringing together all these different scientific threads will help Mayo Clinic do something completely unprecedented: create a whole new kind of pathology.

“Spatial biology shortens the translational pipeline,” says Dr. Ordog. Rather than needing to start with preclinical models, doctors and researchers can now start primary discovery with a tissue biopsy or surgical materials directly from a patient. They are looking for the needle in the haystack that might lead to a new discovery or therapy. 

The bottom line is that we want to increase the amount of information gathered from the precious biopsy material taken from our patients.

— Tamas Ordog, M.D.

“That’s what modern biology has enabled. You can pick out your molecule of interest based on whatever you’re studying,” says Dr. Lee. “You can study diseased versus not-diseased tissues. Say you discover molecules in diseased state that aren’t in healthy tissues, that’s your target.” Then scientists can go back to the lab and examine what they’ve discovered in other models to look for treatment options, armed with the knowledge that what they have found is directly involved in a patient’s health.

From Lab to Clinic

Dr. Ordog envisions a “virtual patient vignette”: A patient comes in with a form of cancer that comes in multiple forms, each with different prognoses, signs of progression and immune cell profiles, and each responds to different therapies. In the past this would be a dizzying knot to untie, but with spatial multiomics, it becomes clearer. A biopsy taken from the patient is serially chopped into sections, each of which gets processed a different way. Then the data is put back together into a three-dimensional image.

Instead of trying different therapies to see what works, clinicians could use this approach to examine the tumor's cellular architecture and predict which treatment would be most effective, saving precious time in the fight against cancer.

“The bottom line is that we want to increase the amount of information gathered from the precious biopsy material taken from our patients,” says Dr. Ordog. “Spatial biology can increase the understanding that comes out of the tissue exponentially.” That, in turn, can allow for in-depth machine learning and artificial intelligence analysis of patient data, which Dr. Ordog hopes to test sometime in the future.

All in all, Dr. Ordog, Dr. Lee and the entire team are hopeful their work will simplify the detective work that doctors and patients often experience when hunting for a diagnosis or treatment. Looking over a slide deck he uses to explain the technology, Dr. Ordog sounds a hopeful note.

“We can find the needle in the haystack without having to grind all the hay up.”

The post Reconstructing a Tumor Cell by Cell appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

"The inspiration for this program was an interaction I had with the mother of a pediatric patient. Her request was simple — ‘please take me where my child is,’” says Aman Anand, Ph.D., a radiation oncology medical physicist at Mayo Clinic. "Due to radiation safety protocols, I knew this would never be possible in the physical space. But I’m a tech geek, so I thought there has to be a solution in the virtual space."

That solution became an immersive livestreaming system that allows family members to virtually accompany their loved ones during treatment while maintaining all safety requirements. The technology creates a sophisticated virtual environment, where family members can observe treatment sessions through high-definition 360-degree cameras and specialized virtual reality (VR) headsets.

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A Technological Bridge to Compassionate Care

The technological implementation is elegant yet relatively simple. The system uses commercially available virtual reality headsets combined with specialized software and high-definition cameras.

For safety and procedural reasons, patients undergoing radiation therapy don't wear VR equipment themselves. Instead, cameras in the treatment room transmit secure feeds to headsets worn by family members in a separate space. The system is carefully designed to maintain patient privacy and adhere to strict radiation safety protocols.

"We invested tremendous effort into making the interface intuitive and the experience seamless," explains Dr. Anand. "The environment we've created isn't just functional — it's designed to provide emotional comfort during what can be an anxious time for families."

Dr. Anand attributes the program's success to a remarkable team. Sujay Vora, M.D., chair of Radiation Oncology, was instrumental in scaling the vision. Brady Laughlin, M.D., introduced the first family into the program. Fan Yang, M.D., has championed a bold vision to support future clinical trial efforts. Yi Rong, Ph.D., played a crucial role in refining the clinic workflow and ensuring thoughtful and safe clinical integration. A widely published innovator, Dr. Rong instantly recognized the potential of this technology and has been instrumental in shaping the framework for its clinical trial design and future validation.

Other key members of the team included Justin Pettit, Harrison Stuckey, Elizabeth Hardin and Sasha Daza.

Looking to the Future

Supported by philanthropic contributions from the Gaylord family, the program began as a pilot in one treatment room, but it is rapidly expanding. Currently, the team offers the experience to one family member once weekly, but the overwhelmingly positive response has accelerated development plans.

Dr. Anand and his team are now exploring applications beyond radiation oncology, including potential uses in rehabilitation medicine, intensive care units and palliative care. One particularly promising extension involves hospice care, where the technology could help terminally ill patients virtually visit their homes or significant places when physical travel isn't possible.

"We're also exploring ways this technology might help reduce the need for anesthesia in pediatric patients," Dr. Anand says. "If immersive experiences can help keep children still during treatment, we might avoid the need for regular sedation during treatments that don’t cause significant discomfort.”

The environment we've created isn't just functional — it's designed to provide emotional comfort during what can be an anxious time for families.

— Aman Anand, Ph.D.

The technology has evolved from a practical solution into what Dr. Anand describes as "a platform for compassion in healthcare." The program's success has garnered attention from both pediatric and adult physicians, with interest extending beyond Mayo Clinic to other healthcare institutions.

Dr. Anand says the project’s progress also reflects the dedication of countless others — including the entire Radiation Oncology practice, the therapy team, management leaders, and collaborators from Information Technology, Endpoint Services, Public Affairs, Brand, and the Institutional Review Board.

"At its core, this effort reminds us that technology is most powerful when it strengthens human connections," Dr. Anand says. "In healthcare especially, innovation should always serve the human experience."

The post Bridging Physical Distance With Virtual Connection appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

With her plans for her future pushed aside, Brescia's focus was now on her health and hope. It's an unexpected chapter facing an increasing number of adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer.

Brescia's Dream

At 4 years old, it was clear Brescia had a flare for creativity. She readily admits she was never one to miss an opportunity to play dress-up, draw pictures or tell a story. 

"Being creative has always been at the core of what I do," she says. Early on, she developed a love for photography and videography. Brescia's dream was to pursue a career that allowed her to put her creative energy to work. 

After high school, Brescia's passion led her to college to study film and media production. She even traveled to Italy to study abroad. After her Italian adventure, Brescia returned to the U.S. to finish college. First, she went to her doctor for her annual checkup. 

 "I lived a really healthy, balanced lifestyle," says Brescia. "My doctor found swelling on the side of my neck. I hadn't noticed the swelling and didn't have any symptoms." Brescia was sent for an ultrasound followed by a surgical biopsy. 

The Diagnosis

The surgical biopsy revealed Brescia had Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare type of blood cancer. "Being diagnosed with cancer at 20 years old was so scary, and I wouldn't wish that on any 20-year-old," says Brescia. "I think about the young version of me who just found out she had cancer, and I just wish I could give her a hug." 

Hodgkin lymphoma is a type of cancer that begins in the lymphatic system, which is part of the immune system. Brescia says the news came as a shock because she felt healthy and had no family history of cancer. "It felt like there was something I could have done to prevent it, but I learned that there's nothing I could have done," says Brescia. 

Navigating Life With Cancer

"When I was going through college and diagnosed with cancer, it was not what I was expecting," says Brescia. "Being a young adult with cancer was very hard and challenging. It is scary and can be very frightening." 

At 20 years old, Brescia falls into a group of patients referred to as adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer. AYA patients are between the ages of 15 and 39. Experts say AYA patients face a distinct set of challenges. 

"One of the reasons this age group is so important is based on their life stage — the things they uniquely face, like body image, disruption in school and work, financial challenges, feeling isolation," says Allison Rosenthal, D.O., with the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center. 

Doctor and Cancer Survivor

Dr. Rosenthal knows firsthand the challenges AYA patients face. "I had leukemia in medical school. There were a lot of missed opportunities in my care to recognize the issues that I might face as a 24-year-old woman," explains Dr. Rosenthal. 

Putting her experience into action, Dr. Rosenthal championed Mayo Clinic's Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program. The program is tailored to meet the unique needs of AYA patients to include medical care, fertility concerns, social and relationship issues, school and work concerns, and the personal and emotional impact of cancer in this age group. 

Brescia underwent about four months of chemotherapy treatment under the care of Dr. Rosenthal. "She did a beautiful job of explaining to me what the process was going to look like and what my treatment plan was going to look like. Because I'm so young, she walked me through the whole process," says Brescia.

Cancer-Free and Focused on the Future

After her cancer treatments, Brescia returned to college and got her degree. She started her own marketing agency providing social media management, videography, photography and brand development with her personal creative touch. She also celebrated her five-year anniversary of being cancer-free. 

"I also have a podcast called the Checkered Jaguar where I get to have incredible conversations with people, share their stories and connect people who may be going through similar challenges that I went through," says Brescia. "We're all in this journey together, and just being open and vulnerable with my journey — as challenging as it may be — I feel like it connects me to people all around the world." 

This article was originally published in Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center Blog. 

The post Navigating Life as a Young Adult With Cancer: Brescia’s Story appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

“Maya was young, but she was amazingly ahead of her years,” Dr. Dronca says. “She spoke about wanting to be a Mayo Clinic doctor from a very early age — before she was 4. She spoke many times about wanting to help people and follow in my footsteps.”

The experience of caring for her sick daughter — and the pain Maya endured making regular in-clinic visits — was a powerful force as Dr. Dronca imagined building a program like Cancer Care Beyond Walls.

Although she initially was unsure it would ever be safe to administer chemotherapy in patients’ homes, Dr. Dronca continually pushed toward the development of the program. She knew how much it would mean for patients and their families to have Mayo Clinic-quality care in their homes.

“She is a visionary,” says Jeremy Jones, M.D., a consultant in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and the medical director of Cancer Care Beyond Walls for Mayo Clinic Platform. “When she first told me about this, I said, ‘You’re dreaming! We can’t possibly pull this off.’ But she insisted we could. I’m personally just happy to be able to work with her and to be in her shadow. She’s a great person and an even better leader.”

Benefactor support was integral to the launch of Cancer Care Beyond Walls, and it fuels life-changing cancer research every day at Mayo Clinic. The Maya Dronca Foundation has given generously to Mayo Clinic as part of its mission to fund research that helps prevent, intercept and treat pediatric cancer — giving every child a chance for a happy, cancer-free life. The foundation was founded in 2021 on the strength of gifts that followed Maya’s passing.

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Cancer is a leading cause of death among children in the United States. Nationwide, approximately 15,000 children under the age of 20 are diagnosed each year.

“Maya would have wanted to help other kids who were going through what she went through,” Dr. Dronca says. “Raising funds for pediatric cancer is very meaningful to me.”

Dr. Dronca took up dance after losing Maya, on the recommendation of a friend who owned a dance studio. In each of the past two years, the Maya Dronca Foundation has held its Dancing with the Doctors fundraiser. Nearly all the entrants have been Mayo Clinic in Florida doctors.

“Dancing is such a medicine,” Dr. Dronca says. “The event was a way for me to bring some joy into something that is so sad and caused so much heartbreak.

“Many physicians want to raise funds to help our patients, and dancing got us out of our comfort zone as doctors.”

Dancing with the Doctors has gone even better than Dr. Dronca could have imagined. She has been amazed by the dedication her medical colleagues showed to dancing and the event.

In 2024, the Maya Dronca Foundation contributed $100,000 to Mayo Clinic.

“The day we were able to donate that first $100,000 was one of my best days in the last few years,” Dr. Dronca says. “So many people worked so hard to raise those funds. To think we’ve done our part to help this fight and know that Mayo Clinic will really put it to good use is an amazing feeling.”

Maya would have wanted to help other kids who were going through what she went through.

— Roxana Dronca, M.D.

The post Maya’s Legacy appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.