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Cancer Fighters

by Danette Wills

Research Realities
Modern medical science has pursued the elusive cure for cancer for generations. While the billions of dollars spent on research over that time have resulted in new forms of treatment, the disease remains a deadly foe with global implications.

In 2007, there were an estimated 12 million new cancer cases worldwide, a record high. If trends continue, World Health Organization (WHO) researchers predict that by 2030, 17 million people worldwide will die of cancer each year, making it the leading killer on the planet, claiming more lives than AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria combined. Another 75 million people will be living with the disease.

Those statistics were cited in a report by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which joined the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Lance Armstrong Foundation in releasing the comprehensive document. They proposed an action plan to help nations control the growth of the disease; it suggests lowering modifiable risk factors, such as alcohol consumption, overexposure to sunlight, lack of physical activity and obesity.

In better news, health authorities in the United States recently reported that cancer diagnosis rates are now dropping for the first time in both men and women and that previous declines in cancer death rates are accelerating. They attributed the progress to factors such as regular screening for breast and colorectal cancer, declining smoking rates and improved treatments.

Most studies, however, continue to show that overall cancer incidents and death rates are still highest for African Americans. Compared with the U.S. population as a whole, African Americans and other underserved minorities have higher incidence and mortality rates for many common cancers because of barriers to healthy lifestyles, early detection services and quality of medical care. Disparities in treatment compound the problem. In addition, many ethnic minority patients refuse appropriate diagnostic tests and treatment because of fear and cultural biases not grounded in fact, further adding to the differences in health outcomes.

As a cancer specialist and educator, William J. Hicks, MD, a professor of clinical medicine at the Ohio State University James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute in Columbus, is on the front lines in the fight to end the unequal burden of cancer carried by minorities.

“Awareness of cancer screening recommendations, which are triggered by age and family history, is important, and it allows early diagnosis and increases the chances of cure,” Hicks says. “Evaluating physicians and health care providers regarding their expertise in treating a particular type of cancer is important as cancer treatment is becoming more and more specialized. Many cancer specialists will work in concert with other physicians to provide a multi-disciplinary approach, many times within one health system to provide optimal care.”

Faith and Family
But doctors aren’t the only line of defense. “Family and spiritual support is important as one approaches diagnosis and treatment of cancer,” Hicks says. “Generally, the more support and faith [someone has], the more positive the attitude.”

A 2005 study by the University of North Texas in Denton examined how female African-American breast cancer survivors coped. All identified faith as their primary coping strategy. In contrast, only half of the white survivors claimed the same.

Recognizing the power of faith, particularly in the African-American community, cancer education with a spiritual focus seems to be gaining ground and appears to be one way to address health care disparities due to a lack of shared information.

Like Hicks, Arinde recognizes the singular strength that belief in a higher power imparts to cancer patients. But she also adds a common sense approach. “Get your mammograms and other checkups,” she advises. “Get several opinions; ask lots of questions; don’t skip your appointments; take people with you; don’t be bullied or rushed by doctors; don’t refuse help from family and friends; and offer prayers up to the creator and to the ancestors.”

Also echoing Arinde’s faith-focused methods, Brown is a believer too. “Faith was all we had to go on. We had to give our child to God and believe that he would allow her to survive,” she says. “Only God can bring you through a crisis like this.”
 
A Right and a Responsibility
In the 2008 presidential debate, reporter Tom Brokaw asked then-candidate Senator Barack Obama this question: “Is health care in America a privilege, a right or a responsibility?” The future president responded in part, “I think it should be a right for every American.”

But even if affordable health care were guaranteed to all Americans, the fight wouldn’t end. We must advocate for our individual health. We have to eat well, exercise, stop smoking, participate in clinical trials, establish support groups, share our stories and, perhaps most important, have a little faith.


BREAST CANCER CHANGED MY LIFE
Hope was the medicine most needed!

Tracey Stills
Breast Cancer Survivor
6 years cancer-free

My story began with finding a lump in my breast. After calling my doctor, I was told that it could be hormonal. Because I was younger than 40 at the time, the doctor didn’t think it could be breast cancer. I had no history of breast cancer in my family, and I didn’t immediately think cancer myself. After two weeks of constantly feeling the lump, however, I called my physician again and said I was coming in. He scheduled a mammogram and an ultrasound but kept telling me not to worry, that “80 percent of women your age mostly have benign lumps.” But in my mind I wondered about the other 20 percent. After the mammogram and ultrasound, I was instructed to see a surgeon who completed a surgical biopsy. I woke up one morning to hear him say, “Kiddo, you have breast cancer.” 

At the time, my daughter was only 7 and my husband and I had only been married eight years. What kept me going was hope. And my faith in God
told me, You will beat this.

After having a partial mastectomy, lumpectomy, eight rounds of chemotherapy, a year on Herceptin and 33 days of radiation, I’ve been cancer-free now for six years. I wouldn’t change anything about this journey. Why? Because breast cancer showed me the greatest of life’s possibilities.
 

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