Cancer & Me
Most people know Bernadine Healy, U.S. News health editor, as the former head of the National Institutes of Health and the American Red Cross. They might not recall that she was diagnosed with a brain tumor eight years ago. In a new book, Healy uses her unique perspective and personal struggle with the disease to explore the state of cancer research, care, and treatment today—and tomorrow.
I promptly came to life as the noise ceased and I was motored out of the narrow tunnel. There was my neurologist, Pat Sweeney, standing in the doorway right next to the computer console where the neuroradiologist was studying the scan. Sweeney flashed a big smile and held both thumbs up. I had won a reprieve. The drugs were working sooner than expected, and the second cycle looked like no big deal.
Speed bump. But things don't always turn your way in medical treatment. I hit a big speed bump early in my second cycle when I had a second and more serious run of bone marrow toxicity. Though I felt well, I popped an antibiotic to ward off infection, monitored my temperature, and gave in a bit more to the nagging fatigue of severe anemia. But I was buoyed by an even better MRI after cycle two, which showed that the tumor was seriously on the run.
My marrow, apparently, did not share my joy and refused to bounce back. Any more exposure to these drugs, and I ran the risk of doing to my marrow what I hoped to do to my cancer, turning marrow-filled bones into barren cavities. Here I was with a chemosensitive tumor that was melting away, and I could no longer take the miracle medicine that was doing the trick.
But by sheer luck something else was happening. Temodar (temozolomide), the new drug developed by Schering-Plough, had just gained Food and Drug Administration approval for use in brain tumors that had failed to respond to other treatments. It had a special knack for crossing the blood-brain barrier. And, crucially for me, Temodar delivered less bone marrow toxicity than PCV. I became one of its earliest users, and for the next year my scans steadily improved. Now this drug is recognized as a breakthrough in brain tumor treatment and is the first drug to be used routinely early in the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, the most severe and common of the malignant brain tumors. For other, less common gliomas, like my oligo version, it's now standard care.
To be sure, news of cancer close to home is wrapped in sadness and anxiety, both for the patient and for the family. But like birth and death, this is one of the few life experiences you fundamentally face on your own, for however many loved ones are around you, the cancer journey is essentially a solitary one.
Treasuring the moment at hand is what lifts the spirit. Dismiss it as clichÃÂÃÂÃÂéd talk if you will, but to those threatened by a grave illness, every day of just being takes on a new light. Surely you wonder how you could ever complain again-about a rainy day, a broken piece of china, or someone's unkind words. Though that feeling of equanimity salves the cancer shock, it can also linger in the consciousness and become a subtle yet permanent state of being. I catch myself when I get too caught up in some silly little thing; I remind myself, What am I doing? How lucky I am to be here.
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