Vim & Vigor - Summer 2019 - CH - 5

Left: Leslie Darrow
celebrates a healthy start to
2019 with family members.

The diagnosis

Darrow's journey began in May 2018
when she had an inexplicable nagging
feeling to perform a breast self-exam.
"I had actually never done one on
myself before, but one morning while I
was getting dressed for work, I decided I
had to do it," she says. "I had my routine
breast mammogram that past December
and it was negative, but I went ahead
and did the breast self-exam and
felt something."
She thought what she was feeling was
probably nothing but went to see her
OB-GYN, Howard Marcus, MD. He told
her it was something that needed to be
checked out.
A mammogram led to an ultrasound,
then a biopsy. The biopsy was completed
the same day as the mammogram and
the results came within 24 hours. On
June 30, at the Women's Diagnostic
Center in Munster, Darrow received her
diagnosis: invasive stage 2 breast cancer.
"Regardless of how we do a biopsy
at the Women's Diagnostic Center, we
get the majority of the results the next
day," says Mary Nicholson, MD, medical director of breast imaging services
for Community Healthcare System, who
performs breast MRI, ultrasound and
stereotactic core biopsies. "The sooner
we get the results, the sooner our
patients get to treatment."
"Pinpointing breast cancer swiftly
and sooner is part of our commitment to early detection and accurate

WEBSITE

Comprehensive
Cancer Care
For more about oncology care
and services offered at the hospitals of Community Healthcare
System, visit COMHS.org/
cancer.

Below: Darrow tells
participants at the Lights of
Life tree-lighting ceremony
that her treatment was
available because of a
clinical trial offered through
the Community Cancer
Research Foundation.

diagnosis," Nicholson says. "Everything
we do is designed to decrease waiting
and decrease anxiety."

The treatment

By Monday morning, July 2, Darrow's
nurse navigator was already setting
up appointments.
Darrow has a family history of
cancer-an aunt and great aunt died of
breast cancer on her mother's side-
so she opted for genetic testing at the
High Risk Breast Clinic in Munster with
geneticist Janice Zunich, MD.
"I chose to have genetic testing
because I have three daughters (18, 14
and 5 years of age) and that was important to me," she says. "I found that there
was absolutely no genetic mutation to
my kind of cancer. I was relieved that my
girls were not going to be at an increased
genetic risk."
Before treatment, Darrow's case was
reviewed by the Tumor Board, a multidisciplinary team of Community Healthcare
System medical professionals. At these
meetings, surgeons, oncologists, radiation
oncologists, pathologists, radiologists,
pulmonologists, nurses, respiratory therapists and other specialists come together
to ensure the best care plan possible for
each patient.
Just three weeks after diagnosis,
Darrow's treatment began with a bilateral mastectomy. Chemotherapy followed
shortly after. She says her treatment
came full circle when she realized that it
was rooted in local cancer research.

Clinical trial access

Darrow's chemotherapy regimen
included drugs that weren't available
some 15 years ago.
The Community Cancer Research
Foundation in Munster offered access to
one of those drugs as part of a national
clinical trial. The trial was stopped early
due to positive results, leading to FDA
approval of those drugs that are now
routine targeted therapy for HER2 positive breast cancer.
"The fact that my local healthcare
system was a part of this study that
made this drug available to me 10 to
12 years later is amazing," Darrow says.
Through the Community Cancer
Research Foundation's efforts, patients
have access to clinical research trials sponsored by the National Cancer
Institute and major research cooperatives worldwide. The three hospitals of
Community Healthcare System offer
patient access to research for prevention and/or treatment of not only breast
cancer, but also lung, ovarian, and colon
cancers, lymphoma, adult leukemia, and
multiple myeloma as well. ■
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http://www.COMHS.org/cancer http://www.COMHS.org/cancer
Vim & Vigor - Summer 2019 - CH

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