MY BOUT WITH CANCER

Cancer is a frightening diagnosis for most of us. Through the years I had several skin cancers removed but never the dreaded malignant melanoma. In 2009, when I was 79 years old, I discovered a huge, ugly, growth on the top of my head. It was diagnosed as an Atypical Fibroxanthoma. Like other skin cancer, this too, was thought to be caused by sun exposure or therapeutic radiation. And it especially occurs on the head and neck of elderly people. I did spend a lot time on the golf course, in the sun, with nothing but my visor to protect my graying head from the sun’s rays. I had my inner panic about this when the dermatologist did not get all the cancer cells and I was sent to the plastic surgeon. There seemed to be a lack of urgency in getting the surgery done, and when I finally discussed it with him, he told me that my Atypical Fibroxanthoma was not an aggressive cancer.

My 80th birthday went by when I learned that I had breast cancer. As in the scalp cancer, I first had a lumpectomy, and then a mastectomy. That was when I learned another term for cancer – invasive - it describes the serious ones. After the surgery, my surgeon and the doctor at the Cancer Center explained to me that they did not propose to treat my cancer with medication, radiation or chemotherapy. It was not that I wanted to suffer with hair loss, pain, loss of resistance to infection and all that goes with breast cancer therapy, I just wanted to make every effort to avoid the spread of my cancer. My panic was back, and I concluded that because I was elderly there was less interest in my recovery than occurred in the cases of most of my younger friends. Finally one of the nurses told me that I had a tubular carcinoma. I “Googled” tubular carcinoma and I was much relieved about the care I received or lack thereof. I quote this from Breast Cancer Network of Strength, “Tubular carcinoma is a type of invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC). Its distinguishing feature is the visual appearance of the cells under a microscope. In this case, the cancer cells resemble tiny tubes that are well differentiated, meaning the cells are more like normal cells than poorly-defined ones.  This type of breast cancer accounts for no more than 2% of all breast cancer diagnoses and occurs most frequently in women who are in their 50’s.  Tubular breast carcinoma tends to be small, highly estrogen-dependent and HER2/neu negative. Women with this type of breast cancer are less likely to metastasize, and have an excellent survival rate.” Evidently it was the prescribed estrogen therapy I had taken in the past that caused by tubular cancer. “Tubal carcinomas are very small (1-2 cm diameter) and do not spread far beyond the original tumor site. It is possible, but unusual for tubular carcinomas to travel to your lymph nodes – and unaffected lymph nodes mean less chance of metastasis. Your chance of recovery and survival after treatment of tubular carcinomas is very good.” I recalled that my surgeon said he had removed 17 lymph nodes from by underarm, and that neither he nor the pathologist could find any trace of cancer cells in the lymph nodes. So now at age 81 I feel very fortunate that I did not have the very aggressive kind of cancer that has befallen younger women. And I don’t feel handicapped in any way. Spring came and I was out once again swinging a golf club!