As new cancer cases rise nationally — estimated by the American Cancer Society to have broken 2 million for the first time last year — researchers and clinicians are pushing back with force. Their efforts have already begun to pay off, contributing to some much better news: Cancer survival rates have steadily improved, in part because of new treatments and early detection, according to the society’s report. 

“The field of oncology has been completely transformed from where it was 15 years ago — many aspects of cancer treatment resemble science fiction now,” said the director of the Stanford Cancer Institute, Steven Artandi, MD, PhD, in the new issue of Stanford Medicine magazine.

The issue features a themed package on cancer with articles describing ways treatments have advanced and some of the discoveries and technology behind the new approaches.

Among the articles:

• Lifting the burden of cancer: A roundup of innovations aimed at reining in cancer — including glowing dye that helps surgeons find hidden cancers; radiation treatments that pinpoint tumors without harming the surrounding tissue, even when the body moves; and studies of experimental treatments based on the discovery that tiny, long-ignored rings of DNA in cancer cells critically influence the disease’s severity.
• Unleashing the immune system: An article about a successful cancer treatment once called crazy: cell therapy, which sics a body’s own immune system on the disease.
• The future of cancer innovation and care: A Q&A with Stanford Medicine’s leaders — Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the Stanford School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at Stanford University; David Entwistle, president and CEO of Stanford Health Care; and Paul King, president and CEO of Stanford Medicine Children’s Health — about ways Stanford Medicine is redefining how we understand, prevent and treat cancer.
• Unlocking the secrets of curing cancer: A letter to readers from Minor about how Stanford Medicine is building on its legacy of innovation in cancer research and care.
• A very personal mission: A portrait of Bryant Lin, MD, as his diagnosis of incurable never-smoker lung cancer fuels his desire to teach about the experience from both a doctor’s and patient’s perspective. A Health Compass podcast, Lessons from Lung Cancer, expands on the topic through a conversation with Lin.
• Dangerous infiltrators: A report on the discovery that many cancer tumors tap into the nervous system’s transmissions to jack up their growth — and how scientists are thwarting this process.
• The art of kintsugi: An essay by hospitalist Natasha Steele, MD, about a deep friendship she formed with physician Brooke Gabster, MD, when both were battling cancer during their Stanford Medicine residencies.
• Tackling cancer disparities: An article about Stanford Medicine cancer research, outreach and care designed to eliminate barriers for minority groups.

Beyond the section on cancer, the issue includes:

• Practice doesn’t always make perfect: A deep dive into a biological process that unexpectedly feeds epilepsy symptoms: Seizures worsen by co-opting one of the brain’s mechanisms for learning.
• Lifelines: A story about two nurses at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, Lindsay Parkinson and Jessica Brown, who answered calls for stem cell donation.
• Guiding our way to better health: A conversation with Maya Adam, MD, the host of Stanford Medicine’s new podcast Health Compass, which navigates listeners through topics in health care and medicine.

Stanford Medicine magazine is available online at stanmed.stanford.edu as well as in print. Request a copy or subscribe by sending an email to medmag@stanford.edu.