This Week’s Triple, Tough Dose of Real Stories on Women with Cancer
Dear Readers,
It’s been a tough week on the breast cancer front.
Many in the community first learned that Ellen Moskowitz, a former leader at the Metastatic Breast Cancer Network (MBCN), died. Ellen was a funny, articulate woman who lived with MBC. When I interviewed her for an article on the value of a day designated to awareness about metastatic disease, she kept me laughing.
Robin Roberts, a co-host of Good Morning America who was treated for breast cancer less than 5 years ago, announced that she’ll be getting a bone marrow transplant for MDS. The blood condition is, in some cases, a complication of chemotherapy. I wrote a piece about this for the Atlantic Health. This unfortunate news reminds us an aspect of cancer treatment some of us would rather put out of our heads. The main message – which I hope came through editing – is that all cancer patients should take careful notes on their planned treatments and ask their doctors about the long-term consequences of therapy. Not all chemo is the same; the risks vary among regimens and doses. The reality is that some of us – patients and doctors – prefer not to think about late, long-term, possible effects of treatment, like secondary tumors, when there’s a life-threatening condition in hand. This doesn’t mean chemo isn’t the right choice. Often it is, but it should be weighed out, carefully.
Finally, we learned that Dr. Susan Love, a breast surgeon and professor at UCLA, and leader of an Army of Women, has leukemia. Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book is a reference my friends and patients turned to in the 1990s, before the Internet was so loaded with cancer info, and many still do. She has, through that book and through her Foundation, besides through her work as a surgeon, helped an army of women to heal, and more.
My thoughts are with each of these remarkable women, and their loved ones, now.
ES
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