Butler: ‘We’re Going to Beat This Thing’ : Butler Talks About Return This Season

The Dodgers organized prayer meetings Wednesday. One player wrote Brett Butler’s uniform number on his shoes. Another announced that he no longer would chew tobacco.

Yet on a day when doctors talked about their hopes of the center fielder recovering from his cancer of the tonsils to live a normal life, Butler refused to rule out returning to baseball.

“Is there a chance that I could play this year?” Butler told KNBC-TV. “Talking to all the doctors and everything, I don’t know if there is a chance that I can come back. If it is, it would probably be late in the season. Then again, we’re not going to close any door right now.”

Butler realizes this might be farfetched. Dr. Bob Gadlage and his associates said Butler’s season is over. Even Butler had told his family Monday that he would not play again.

“I’m not giving up on this thing,” he said Wednesday. “We’re going to beat this thing. One of these days I’m going to be back out there tipping my hat and hopefully everything will be all right.”

The cause of the cancer is unknown, although Butler said people are jumping to conclusions if they believe it was caused by smokeless tobacco. Butler confirmed that he used smokeless tobacco for two or three years but stopped 15 years ago. If anything, Gadlage said, his exposure to secondhand smoke might have caused the cancer. Each of his parents, who died of cancer, were heavy smokers.

“We can see someone who smokes two packs a day, three packs a day for 50 years who never gets this,” Gadlage said. “Then there’s somebody with minimal exposure like Brett. . . . The biggest risk [for this type of cancer] is some exposure to nicotine products.”

Still, Cincinnati Red reliever Jeff Brantley, a former teammate of Butler’s in San Francisco, wasn’t taking any chances. Brantley cleared the cans of smokeless tobacco on the top shelf of his locker and threw them out.

“That’s it,” he said. “I’m finished.”

Brantley, who began chewing tobacco nearly 11 years ago, said he quit the habit simply because of Butler.

“He’s a very close friend of mine, and when I heard of the cancer, I decided to stop then and there,” Brantley said.

“I saw [former Detroit Tiger] Bill Tuttle this spring and half of his face was gone, but that didn’t have the effect on me.

“This brought it home.”

Butler, 38, who remains in considerable pain, will undergo further surgery May 21 to remove a cancerous lymph node in his neck. It is the only lymph node doctors know is cancerous, Gadlage said, although other lymph nodes will also be removed while determining whether the cancer has spread.

One difficulty of the operation, Gadlage said, is that the surgery might require the removal of a substantial amount of neck tissue. There also is the danger of severing a nerve that would cause muscular and neurological problems.

“Brett has just been through an emotional trauma,” Gadlage said. “He lost his mother last August to cancer, and he sees cancer as being the same kind of cancer his mother had. She had lung cancer from smoking, and the lung cancer was disseminated from her lung to her brain.

“The family watched her go down. He had to be assured this was not the same kind of cancer. . . .

“I wouldn’t hang onto any numbers [of survival rate] right now until after the surgery and pathology are performed, then, the numbers can be much more accurate. But those numbers are going to be more for the general population.

“Any figure you get nationally from a textbook, you’re going to add some percentage points to that because of who this guy is. He has never smoked, he’s not a drinker, he’s had minimal nicotine exposure 15 years ago and he’s not in his mid 50s or 60s. You’re talking about a world-class athlete.”

The cancer was discovered during a tonsillectomy Friday, an operation that at one point Butler had considered postponing. Dr. Michael Mellman, the Dodgers’ ear, nose and throat specialist, wonders whether Butler’s condition might have been diagnosed earlier.

“I don’t know what to say,” Mellman said, “other than that obviously there was something there that we didn’t notice. We don’t miss things very often. . . . When you have a distressing diagnosis like this, you have to go back and see whether there was an opportunity to make a difference.”

Mellman, who repeated that he is not a cancer specialist but talks daily with Gadlage, said he is optimistic Butler will recover fully simply because of the two-week delay between surgeries.

“My guess is if they thought time was a critical issue, that Brett would be harmed by the two weeks,” Mellman said, “they would have operated a lot quicker.”

The Butler family has been inundated with support and prayer from family and neighbors, said Eveline Butler, Brett’s wife. Diane Smoltz and Cathryn Pendleton, wives of the major league players who live nearby, have cooked meals and taken the kids to school, Eveline Butler said.

“It hit us broadside,” said Diane Smoltz, wife of Atlanta Brave pitcher John Smoltz. “But they are very strong in their faith, and that’s what they’re drawing upon right now. They are very lucky to have a lot of very good friends in Atlanta.

“Brett’s in good spirits. He said, ‘I can’t believe I’m going to be home this summer. I’m going to be home for the Olympics.’ ”

Then, there is 10-year-old Cullen Robinson. He is the 10-year-old son of former minor league player Lowery Robinson, who accompanied Butler to the hospital Tuesday morning for his CT scan.

Cullen remembers the day that he stuck his hand in an electrical fan in 1988, severing three of his fingers. Butler played his first game with the San Francisco Giants that day and gave Cullen the game ball.

Cullen played in a Little League game last weekend. He struck out 19 batters and hit three home runs. He went to Butler’s home and presented him with his game ball.

“I think Brett has faced up to the situation,” said Lowery Robinson, a former roommate of Darryl Strawberry’s. “He just wants to get through this pain that he’s in right now and keep his strength up. You can only have so much pea soup and Jell-O.”

Dodger pitcher Todd Worrell organized a plan in which the entire team will get together and write personal messages to Butler. And outfielder Milt Thompson wrote Butler’s number, 22, on his baseball spikes.

“We all plan to remember Brett in our special way,” Thompson said. “Believe me, he will never be forgotten.”

Said Mellman: “When something like this happens in situations like this, you pray for two things. One, that they have personal strength, and two, that they have people around that are strong.

“If you ask for a model of that, Brett and Eveline are it.”

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What’s Ahead for Butler

Malignant cells have already spread to at least one lymph node in Brett Butler’s neck, requiring additional surgery. Here is what is planned:

STEP ONE

May 21 surgery to remove all lymph nodes in the neck and about a quarter inch of tissue around the tumor site. The tumor and tonsils were removed Friday.

STEP TWO

Radiation therapy for six weeks to eliminate any cancerous cells the surgery does not get. Radiation will knock out parotid glands in the neck that produce saliva.

STEP THREE

Since loss of saliva raises risk of bacterial infection, fluorides and careful dental care will have to be administered.

WHAT LYMPH NODES DO

The lymphatic system manufactures fluids that defend the body against disease. It also drains lymph fluid from tissue.

PROGNOSIS

Doctors say Butler has about a 70% chance of survival. Radiation therapy will be painful and require a liquid diet, which will probably lead to weight loss. Experts say that since the tumor developed quickly, it will likely respond well to radiation. Most head cancers stay isolated above neck

* Sources: American Cancer Society, American Medical Assn., USC School of Dentistry

* The Color Atlas of Human Anatomy

Second-Hand Smoke

The ear, nose and throat specialist who removed Brett Butler’s oral tumor said second-hand smoke was the most likely culprit. Although second-hand smoke is less concentrated than that inhaled by smokers, research has found that the health risk from inhaling second-hand smoke is significant.

The amount: When a cigarette is smoked, about half the smoke generated becomes “sidestream” smoke than can be inhaled by someone nearby.

The cancer link: An Environmental Protection Agency report has labeled second-hand smoke a Group A carcinogen--a category reserved only for the most dangerous cancer-causing agents.

*

What’s In It:

Tar

Carbon monoxide

Ammonia

Formaldehyde

Nicotine

Benzene

Phenols

* Sources: National Cancer Institute, Environmental Protection Agency