Blood in her urine lead Mary to get a kidney stone scan, but incidentally revealed that she had lymphoma. She immediately called Dana-Farber and was connected with the Cancer Diagnostic Service at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center, which was new at the time of her lymphoma finding in 2018. The staff there cared for and led her through an expedited process to an official diagnosis of follicular lymphoma. At the same time, Mary had been training for the 2018 Pan Mass Challenge.

She started chemotherapy in the in the fall of 2018, every 3 weeks for 6 cycles, because the cancer had become more aggressive. Six weeks after the last treatment, Mary rode the 2-day Pan Mass Challenge to Provincetown and went into remission. After 3 years in remission, the cancer relapsed, and she is back in treatment as of June 2022. Now, she’s on a clinical trial and is awaiting FDA approval for the 3rd line treatment of her specific lymphoma. She feels honored to be on the trial, for herself, but also for all of the future patients that will benefit. Mary is currently in remission again and will finish treatment in March 2024.

Ann LaCasce, MD, MMSc, Associate Professor of Medicine, is a lymphoma specialist and is the Director of the Dana-Farber/Mass General Brigham Fellowship in Hematology/Oncology. She serves on the Alliance Lymphoma Committee, the National Cancer Comprehensive Lymphoma Guidelines Panel and the Lymphoma Research Foundation’s Scientific Advisory Committee.