Patient’s Corner
A Diagnosis of Lymphoma Has Changed My Life
Ethan Zohn, as told to Jo Cavallo
I’m 50, just a year older than my father was when he died of colorectal cancer. I was 14 when my dad died, so to me, cancer has always been synonymous with death. From a young age, my brothers and I had a goal: to make sure we packed in enough life before age 50. It never occurred to us that death...
My Melanoma Could Have Been Prevented
Amanda Eilian, as told to Jo Cavallo
I have many of the risk factors for melanoma. I’m fair-skinned, blue-eyed, and have a family history of melanoma, as well as other skin cancers, so I’ve always been diligent about practicing sun safety and maintaining annual full-body skin exams to catch any suspicious moles or lesions that could ...
Coping With the Risk of Hereditary Cancer
Frances Merrill, as told to Jo Cavallo
Three years ago, it had become clear that I needed to be tested for the BRCA1/2 mutation. I knew my family history of cancer was not good. My paternal grandmother died of breast cancer when she was just 41, and her mother had likely died of cervical cancer when she was in her 50s. More r...
A Clinical Trial Has Halted Progression of Merkel Cell Carcinoma and Allowed Me to Pursue My Love of Music
VINCENT DiMARTINO, AS TOLD TO JO CAVALLO
At the age of 75, I’m just happy to still be here and be able to continue to contribute to my musical community. When I was diagnosed with Merkel cell carcinoma in 2021, I had never heard of the cancer and didn’t realize how aggressive and deadly it is. It was especially surprising to get such a l...
Cancer Has Robbed Me of My Fertility and My Olympic Dreams
Amanda Brunson, as told to Jo Cavallo
I was a track and field athlete throughout college, and my goal was to try out for the Olympics, but cancer had other plans for me. In 2010, while in my senior year in college, I began having sharp, shooting pains in my shoulders, which I initially attributed to overzealous training. But the pain so...
A Diagnosis of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Was Not on My Radar
Christine D'Addario, as told to Jo Cavallo
Despite the fact that there is no history of breast cancer in my family, I didn’t take that good fortune for granted and was diligent about getting my regularly scheduled mammograms and clinical breast exams, which never found any hint of disease. So, it was especially frightening when, while on a f...
Having Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Took Away My Fear of Death
Liliana Paez-Gallardo, as told to Jo Cavallo
On May 30, 2017, 9 days before I turned 19 and soon after I had completed my sophomore year at college, I was diagnosed with aggressive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. But getting to the diagnosis was a tortuous process. I had been feeling fatigued and losing weight for several weeks prior to the dia...
I Am Living With Recurring Stage IV Colorectal Cancer
Brian Beck, NP, as told to Jo Cavallo
Despite urgings from my primary care physician to get a colonoscopy screening after I turned 50, I resisted. As a health-care provider, and someone who is tuned into changes in my body, I thought I would instinctively know if I had a serious illness. I was wrong. Even after finally relenting to at l...
Partnering With Patients Is Integral for a Good Outcome
Paula Ngon as told to Jo Cavallo
About 3 years ago, I woke up from a sound sleep and was having a hard time breathing. It felt like someone was sitting on my neck, constricting my airways. I could feel prominent swelling in my lymph nodes along my neck and clavicle, and I was scared. A trip to the emergency room proved fruitless,...
A Delay in Diagnosis Led to Advanced Prostate Cancer
Colbert English, as told to Jo Cavallo
Cancer is not an unfamiliar disease to me. My mother died of cancer when I was 12. My oldest sister died of breast cancer, an aunt died of cancer (I don’t know which type), and my older brother is a prostate cancer survivor. So, when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in October 2021, the news was...
Breast Cancer Stalked My Family for Generations and Finally Came for Me
Dawn Yates as told to Jo Cavallo
My maternal grandmother, mother, and two of my mother’s sisters were all diagnosed with breast cancer when they were relatively young, so I figured one day, the disease would come for me. Breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among Alaska Native women,1 and at a very early age, my sister...
A Clinical Trial for Bladder Cancer Gave Me Back My Life
Lesa Kirkman, as told to Jo Cavallo
About 8 years ago, I was just a few years into menopause when I noticed blood in my urine. It wasn’t accompanied by pain, frequent urination, or any other troubling symptoms, so initially I wasn’t too concerned. But when I started passing pieces of tissue, I became alarmed and made an appointment wi...
I Am Young and Fit—and Have Stage IV Alveolar Soft-Part Sarcoma
Alexis Browning as told to Jo Cavallo
Except for my right thigh being bigger than my left thigh, there was no hint that I was harboring advanced alveolar soft-part sarcoma when I was diagnosed with the cancer in 2019. I initially chocked up the discrepancy in my legs to the vigorous workouts I had received during my cheerleading days, b...
Preventing Cancer Should Not Mean Sacrificing Quality of Life
Kathleen M. Ruddy, as told to Jo Cavallo
My family first suspected we might have inherited the BRCA1/2 gene mutation after my father was diagnosed with his third cancer, colorectal cancer, following multiple bouts of squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma beginning in his 30s and later prostate cancer. But the high risk of cancer...
My Breast Cancer Experience Has Led Me to Leverage My Expertise in Human-Centered Design to Transform Patient Care
Sylvie Leotin as told to Jo Cavallo
The road to my breast cancer diagnosis in 2018 was long and tortuous. For 3 years leading up to the diagnosis, I had imaging scans and tissue biopsies every 3 months because of suspicious masses in my breasts. The uncertainty was so destabilizing that I was in a constant state of emotional unrest. D...
I Don’t Want Cancer to Define Me
Cindy Brown, as told to Jo Cavallo
Except for a series of unexplained multiple broken bones and inexplicable excruciating pain in my right hip and leg, I had no other hallmarks of multiple myeloma when I was diagnosed with the disease at age 48 in 2014. My blood test values were all normal, and I didn’t have anemia or kidney damage. ...
Having Colorectal Cancer at 32 Changed the Trajectory of My Life
Allison Rosen, MS, as told to Jo Cavallo
I’ve been contending with health issues since I was 12, when I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. As I began my early 30s, I was feeling the healthiest of my life. I was working out 5 days a week and attributed sudden weight loss and fatigue to weight training and high-intensity Zumba classes. Th...
A Cancer Diagnosis at 19 Taught Me That It Takes Constant Vigilance to Stay Mentally Healthy
Alec Kupelian as told to Jo Cavallo
A lot of my experience with cancer is hazy to me. I was taking narcotics for pain around the clock when I was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma in 2013, so there are some missing memories during those early days. I was 19 and a freshman in college when my symptoms started. I have always been active in...
Getting a Cancer Diagnosis at Age 16 Has Taught Me to Live in the Present
Nelson Peralta, as told to Jo Cavallo
I have been fascinated with death since I was 3 years old. I remember going to my great-grandfather’s funeral and asking my mother where my great-grandfather was. She said he is in heaven. I asked her if I were going to heaven, too, and she said, “Yes, but not for a long time.” Today, I don’t belie...
A Diagnosis of Ewing Sarcoma Altered the Trajectory of My Life
Mafalda Von Alvensleben as told to Jo Cavallo
In August 2014, just a few weeks after my 15th birthday, my body began sending me a lot of worrisome signals that life as I knew it would soon be over. The year before, I had developed a hematoma in my right femur, which was resolved with surgery. But now the pain I was experiencing in that leg was ...
Finding a New Life Purpose After Cancer
Carlos Rene Valdez, as told to Jo Cavallo
In the summer of 2012, I was living my dream. At 28 years old, I had gone from an impoverished childhood in South Central Los Angeles to the high life in the city of Los Angeles. Unable to afford to go to college, an after-school program helped launch me into a career in the hospitality industry. I ...
Instinct and Perseverance Helped Save Me From Two Cancers
Diana Heller as told to Jo Cavallo
My intuition about my health has served me well over the past 10 years, possibly even saving my life from two serious cancers. In 2013, I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. I believe that my awareness of changes in my body led to its early discovery. One evening, after exercising at the gym wi...
After Two Cancer Diagnoses, I’m Grateful for Another Day
Loriana Hernandez-Aldama, as told to Jo Cavallo
The start of January 2014 was filled with excitement. I was undergoing fertility treatments to have a second child and was living my professional dream. I was a network news anchor and medical news reporter for a national broadcast network. Although I was exhausted from my grueling early morning sch...
Overcoming Financial Toxicity From Cancer
Keneene Lewis, MEd, BSM, as told to Jo Cavallo
I knew the moment my fingers found a lump in my left breast, in 2018, that it was cancer, and I wondered if I was going to die. My maternal grandmother had been diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 39, the same age I was when I discovered the mass in my breast. She died 5 years later. Divorced...
Turning Fear Into Hope
Shirlee Simpson as told to Jo Cavallo
The first sign that pancreatic cancer was stalking my family was in 1982, when my mother was diagnosed with stage IV disease. She was just 54 years old and died several months later. After two more family members in their early 50s were also diagnosed with the cancer, I began to worry that I would b...
I Didn’t Want My Past to Become My Future
Yoli Origel, as told to Jo Cavallo
When I felt a large mass in my left breast as I was drying off from a shower on Thanksgiving Day, in 2007, I instinctively knew it was cancer. My mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 38, just 7 years older than I was at the time, and died 4 years later. I was 6 when she was diag...
Becoming Acquainted With Cancer
Patrick Beauregard as told to Jo Cavallo
Editor’s Note: The ASCO Post learned of the death of Patrick Beauregard due to colorectal cancer on September 6, 2020. Just weeks after my wedding in late summer of 2017, I had a sudden bout of abdominal pain so severe that it sent me to the emergency room. I was just 29 years old and in great phy...
Becoming Acquainted With Cancer
Patrick Beauregard as told to Jo Cavallo
Just weeks after my wedding in late summer of 2017, I had a sudden bout of abdominal pain so severe that it sent me to the emergency room. I was just 29 years old and in great physical shape. In the emergency room, a physician examined me and was about to release me with a prescription for a laxativ...
Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer Saved My Life
IVY DUNEIER, AS TOLD TO JO CAVALLO
When my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer 25 years ago, her medical team suggested we undergo genetic testing for the BRCA gene mutation. I knew that being a BRCA carrier put me at greater risk for breast and ovarian cancers, but I had no idea it also increased my risk for pancreatic cancer. I...
I Was Unprepared for a Diagnosis of Mantle Cell Lymphoma
Jeff Dunn, PhD, AO
The irony is not missed on me. In August 2022, 2 months before I was to start my tenure as President of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), I was diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma. My entire career over the past 30 years has been in the pursuit of improving global cancer control and...
An Incidental Finding of Cancer Likely Saved My Life
Debra Bowler, as told to Jo Cavallo
Except for a ganglion cyst that had mysteriously popped up on the palm of my right hand in the winter of 2016, I appeared to be in excellent health. I had never had any serious illnesses in my then 55 years and rarely even got colds. If the annoying cyst hadn’t interfered with my normal daily routin...
I’m BRCA-Positive and Survived Both Breast and Pancreatic Cancers
BETTY DICKER, RN, MSN, AS TOLD TO JO CAVALLO
Cancer has stalked my family for generations. My mother, brother, and maternal uncle were diagnosed with melanoma. Fortunately, all survived. When my sister was diagnosed with early-stage invasive ductal carcinoma in 2010, she underwent genetic testing, which showed she was positive for the BRCA2 ...
Genetics Likely Caused My Small Cell Lung Cancer
REBECCA GLOMMEN, AS TOLD TO JO CAVALLO
When I was diagnosed with lung cancer, in 2007, I asked the physician not to tell me the type, stage, or prognosis. I was about to start nursing school and was aware enough about the disease to know that not many people survived. I’ve since discovered that I had stage 3B small cell lung cancer, wh...
I Haven’t Known a Life Without von Hippel-Lindau Disease
Alexandra Vitale, as told to Jo Cavallo
Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease has been with me since I was 5 years old, when a benign tumor was found on the optic nerve of my left eye, leaving me blind in that eye. But I didn’t get an official diagnosis of the disease until 2011, when I was 20. By then, it was like a light switch had turned on,...
I’m Doing My Part to Erase the Stigma Surrounding Lung Cancer
Lindi Campbell, as told to Jo Cavallo
Ironically, I received a diagnosis of lung cancer when I was feeling my healthiest. In December 2015, when I was just 51 years old, a routine chest x-ray found a small shadow on the lower lobe of my right lung. Despite being a never-smoker, a regular exerciser, and a healthy eater, my primary care p...
Grateful to Be Alive
JOHNNY BORGSTROM, AS TOLD TO JO CAVALLO
Although there is no history of cancer in my family, I guess it isn’t surprising that I would develop an aggressive form of melanoma on my scalp after years of ultraviolet radiation from sun exposure. Still, getting the diagnosis was devastating. I first noticed a small lump on the top of my head...
The Beauty and the Beast of Cancer
Ann Graham, as told to Jo Cavallo
The most humbling—and fortunate—experience I’ve had since I was diagnosed with osteosarcoma 13 years ago at the age of 43 was being treated in the pediatric wing of a major cancer center in New York City. It is pretty difficult to feel sorry for yourself when you are sitting next to a 14-year-old ad...
Undaunted
Donna Chen, as told to Jo Cavallo
Soon after my marriage, in 2003, I noticed swelling in the glands around my throat. Although I otherwise felt fine, I went to see my primary care physician for a checkup and a blood test. The results of the test showed that I had an abnormally high number of lymphocytes circulating in my bloodstream...
A Serendipitous Ride Along a Highway May Have Saved My Life
Denise Lee, as told to Jo Cavallo
In 2017, I noticed a roadside billboard touting the benefits of low-dose computed tomography (CT) imaging for lung cancer screening. The message probably saved my life. The public service campaign, called Saved by the Scan from the American Lung Association, included an Internet address where I coul...
I Have the BRCA2 Gene Mutation: Here’s What I’m Doing to Prevent Cancer
Steven Kalister, as told to Jo Cavallo
My father was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1994, when he was just 55 years old. He died 6 years later. The cancer was so aggressive, it took only a few weeks from the time he was diagnosed for the cancer to grow to the size of a softball, and even a radical prostatectomy couldn’t save his life....
A Laryngectomy Altered How I See Myself in the World
Bill Brummel, as told to Jo Cavallo
There is a 2-decades-long separation between the time I was diagnosed with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma in 1996 and my laryngectomy in 2016. The surgery was necessary because of the long-term damage to my larynx from the radiation therapy I received. In 1996, I had a low-grade sore throat ...
I’ve Had Two Primary Lung Cancers, and They Haven’t Defeated Me
Dorothy Turner, as told to Jo Cavallo
I don’t know why I am so susceptible to developing lung cancer. Since 2014, I have been diagnosed with both non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer, each occurring in my right lung. I have also been diagnosed with precancerous colon polyps, which necessitated invasive surgery. ...
Living With Metastatic Breast Cancer
Pam Kohl, as told to Jo Cavallo
After my first breast cancer diagnosis, in 2010, the odds for a cure were seemingly all weighted in my favor. A routine mammogram screening had picked up a small—less than 1 cm—mass in my right breast, and a tissue biopsy confirmed it was stage I estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer. I had no fa...
An Aggressive Type of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Threatened My Life
Devorah Aschendorf as told to Jo Cavallo
I was just 31 and about to give birth to my fourth child, Yitzchok, when I received a diagnosis of primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma. The news was terrifying and crippling. For months, I had been experiencing shortness of breath, coughing, and a pain in my left shoulder, all of which were ex...
Surviving Advanced Prostate Cancer Has Made Me a More Empathetic Physician
Gary M. Onik, MD, as told to Jo Cavallo
My diagnosis of terminal prostate cancer 3 years ago was filled with irony. As an interventional radiologist, I have treated hundreds of patients with advanced prostate cancer, and I knew my prognosis wasn’t good. After experiencing some of the common symptoms of the cancer, including voiding proble...
Thriving After a Diagnosis of Stage II Anal Cancer
Daniel G. Garza, as told to Jo Cavallo
About 7 years ago, I had emergency hernia surgery and soon after began experiencing severe constipation and abdominal bloating. I had started to have minor symptoms leading up to the surgery, but now the pain and exhaustion of trying to have a bowel movement became unbearable. I met with a gastroent...
CAR T-Cell Therapy Gave Me Back a High-Quality Life
David Wellenstein, MD, as told to Jo Cavallo
A radiologist by training, I knew the minute I saw the results from my chest x-ray that I had multiple myeloma. In 2015, I was semiretired and had just taken up the game of golf. After making a big swing at the ball, I instantly felt pain in my ribs and thought I had either pulled an intercostal mus...
Immunotherapy Has Given Me Back My Life
Susan Falbo as told to Jo Cavallo
Hearing the words “You have cancer” is a devastating blow, especially when the biggest health issues you’ve had to contend with over more than 6 decades are common colds and knee and hip replacements. But in 2017, the symptoms I thought were from a lingering summer cold drove me to seek medical atte...
Finding a New Normal After Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma
Aram Demirjian as told to Jo Cavallo
As every patient diagnosed with cancer knows, the disease affects not just your physical well-being, but your emotional well-being, too. I was just 35 years old when I was diagnosed with early-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma this past summer, and the news came at a time when I was feeling in top ph...
Why Are Black Women Still Dying at Higher Rates Than White Women From Breast Cancer?
Rev. Tammie Denyse, MDiv, MCL, as told to Jo Cavallo
What is so dismaying to me is that the statistic on survival for Black women with breast cancer has not changed since I was diagnosed with breast cancer 17 years ago. In 2005, Black women were 41% more likely to die of the disease than White women, even though Black women are less likely to be diagn...
