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Can You Beat Cancer?Awake!—1986 | October 8
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Surgery involves the surgical removal of the tumorous growth and perhaps some surrounding tissue.
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Can You Beat Cancer?Awake!—1986 | October 8
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In the past, surgery for breast cancer often involved radical mastectomy—a disfiguring removal of the breast and surrounding muscle tissue and the lymph nodes. Is that still viewed as essential? Dr. Bernard Fisher, an expert in the breast cancer field, concluded that not only was radical mastectomy not usually justified but “simple mastectomy, the removal of all breast tissue, did not appear to improve survival over mere lumpectomies [removal of a lump only] with and without radiation treatment.”
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“Cancer—I Am Beating It”Awake!—1986 | October 8
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“Cancer—I Am Beating It”
ROSE MARIE is a very happy, outgoing Texan in her 60’s. She first discovered that she had a tumor in 1964, about the time of her menopause. Here she tells her encouraging story:
When I first noticed that I had a lump in my breast, I was concerned as to what it might be. So my husband took me to the hospital for a checkup. That was the scary part—sitting and waiting for the verdict. When I was eventually told that I might have cancer of the breast, I remember feeling as if someone had kicked me in the stomach. Then started a period of indecision—which course should we take? Some doctors were urging surgery, and others recommended alternative treatment. How did we decide?
My husband talked with a doctor friend who said that while most lumps in the breast were benign, there was the possibility that it might be malignant. So the option was, should we take our chances and delay surgery or should we immediately have the offending lump removed? We decided together that I would accept the surgery. The lump was removed and declared nonmalignant. I breathed a sigh of relief.
In 1965 I discovered another lump in the same breast. This was a setback but not a defeat. I had surgery once more, and that lump was also benign. Figuratively, I held my breath as everything went well for two years. Then, in 1967, a third lump appeared in the same breast. The doctors ordered a careful biopsy and came up with malignancy. The breast would have to be removed. Thus, a month later I had a “simple” mastectomy.
Eight years passed without any further problems. I began to feel I had beaten the cancer. But in 1975 I found a lump in my other breast. In view of my past history, the doctors opted for a mastectomy of that breast. To be sure that the cancer did not spread, they also ordered a series of radiation treatments. I must admit that this procedure scared me. Why was that?
Each time, I had to wait with other people who were also having radiation treatment. They had their faces and bodies marked up with red dye as targets for the radiation gun. That was an unsettling sight. Then I had to go into this special radiation room on my own. It all seemed so eerie because I knew there was this invisible force destroying my tissue, malignant and good at the same time. Anyway, I had 30 radiation treatments in the course of about 15 weeks. Since then, I have only needed two minor surgery interventions for benign tumors on my back and head.
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