Cancer Patients Feel Better In Control : Medicine: Experts say the best thing to do is start asking questions and know what you want.
After finding a lump in her right breast in December 1988, Mary Tullie Critcher, a 44-year-old Dallas homemaker, had a difficult time finding out if it was malignant.
Her surgeon ordered a sonogram and a mammogram, but the radiologist who performed the tests said they weren’t conclusive, and her surgeon suggested that Critcher monitor the lump and return for further examination in six months. Two months later, however, the lump was “the size of a lemon,” Critcher recalls.
Critcher’s surgeon finally performed a biopsy that revealed she had advanced breast cancer. He recommended an immediate mastectomy, but Critcher, who felt mistakes had already been made in her care, consulted two other doctors and chose one as her surgeon.
They told her that the latest treatment for fighting large tumors like hers was different: immediate chemotherapy followed by mastectomy.
In fact, the cancer specialist recommended by Critcher’s new surgeon stuck a chemotherapy needle in her arm 10 minutes after she walked into his office--with almost no discussion.
The doctor’s abrupt methods angered Critcher, and she did not return for further treatment.
“Too many doctors treat patients like file folders--not like they’d treat their wives, mothers or daughters,” she says. “But when you take over, you demand the best treatment.”
Critcher’s take-charge program included talking to other breast-cancer patients over a two-week period. From them she got the name of Dr. George Blumenschein of Arlington, Tex., known for his aggressive breast-cancer treatments.
Unlike other doctors she’d seen, Blumenschein believed she would survive. That--and the fact that he treated her as an equal--convinced Critcher that he was the right doctor for her.
What followed was a lengthy ordeal that included two months of chemotherapy, followed by a mastectomy, more chemotherapy, 6 1/2 weeks of radiation and still more chemotherapy. Her last chemotherapy session was in January, 1990.
The following month, tests showed no trace of cancer. Last summer she underwent breast reconstruction, and every three months she is tested to be sure she is still healthy.
“If I’d been more aggressive (from the start), I would not have let the cancer progress to the stage it did.”
As Critcher’s story shows, doctors often disagree about how to treat breast cancer. That’s not surprising, since there is a wide variety of treatments for the disease, including drugs, surgery and radiation, used either alone or in combination.
When faced with a breast-cancer diagnosis, the best thing to do is start asking questions, stresses Dr. Anne Moore of New York Hospital’s department of hematology and oncology.
Experts also say that a woman’s emotional state helps determine how she chooses to treat her disease. Women who know what they want--or don’t want--are more likely to feel they have control over their treatment.
Where to go for help:
* Hysterectomy: Hysterectomy Education Resources and Services (HERS), 422 Bryn Mawr Ave., Bala Cynwyd, Pa. 19004, (215) 667-7757.
* Hormone-replacement therapy: North American Menopause Society, c/o Department of Ob/Gyn, University of Cleveland, 2074 Abington Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44106.
* Breast cancer: The Susan G. Komen Foundation, 6820 LBJ Freeway, Suite 130, Dallas, Tex. 75240; (800) 462-9237. National Cancer Institute, Public Inquiries, Building 31, Room 10A24, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md. 20892; (800) 4-CANCER.
