Cancer patients laud Edwards

Plan to continue with campaign prompts approval

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 29, 2007 at midnight

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Colorado women with Stage 4 breast cancer are applauding Elizabeth Edwards' decision to get on with her life, saying a cancer diagnosis should not be treated like a death sentence.

"More power to her!" said Susan Garnand, 60, a retired schoolteacher, of Edwards' announcement late last week to continue her work with her husband, John Edwards', presidential campaign, despite learning that her cancer had returned and she's now at Stage 4. "Otherwise you're kind of saying, 'I'm done.' "

Garnand, who found out a year ago that her breast cancer was back and had reached her bones and liver, was in a wheelchair six months ago, her bones like honeycombs.

Then, Dr. Anthony Elias at the Anschutz Cancer Center in Aurora started her on a new regimen of medicine: Zometa to rebuild bones; Herceptin, to stop estrogen from feeding cancer cells; and Faslodex, to boost the power of the Herceptin.

"It's been almost miraculous," said Garnand's husband, John, a retired professor. "Six months ago, she was in a wheelchair. Now she's walking with no crutches, no canes. She walks all over. We're going to have to take down the ramp."

"In this country, we're still in this mind frame that once you get cancer, you're done," Susan Garnand said. "But new medicines are extending life expectancy and making you feel so much better."

Compared to the chemotherapy and radiation treatments when she was first diagnosed five years ago, the treatment for stage 4 breast cancer has been a snap, she said. That's why she thinks Elizabeth Edwards should be able to handle the regimen of a campaign, if she's smart about knowing when to rest.

"You want to keep your life going," Susan Garnand said. "If you were a diabetic, you wouldn't say, 'That's the end of my life.' You try to treat it like a chronic disease."

'Life doesn't stop'

To Deb Martin, a Colorado Springs mother of three, Elizabeth Edwards' choice was "absolutely the right decision.

"Just because we have breast cancer, life doesn't stop," said Martin, 44, who works as a software manager.

"You need to be as active in your life as you can.

"You have to take every day for all it's worth, because you don't know how many you are going to get. The campaign obviously is important to both of them. Of course, he (John Edwards) should be there to support her as well."

Martin was 38 when she first found that she had breast cancer. She felt fairly confident that the chemotherapy had gotten it all.

Four years later, the cancer was found again, this time in her liver, bones and brain. Radiation took care of the cancer in the brain, but the liver is the big problem.

"I first thought that I would have 18 months to two years," she said. But it's been two years already, and now she's thinking five years, maybe 10 or 15.

"It's something I'll fight all my life, but I look at it like a chronic disease like high blood pressure or diabetes that I'll take medicine for. If a medication doesn't work, I'll switch to something else."

She took time off last summer to be with her children.

"I found myself trying to create memories," she said. "I took my youngest daughter to the George Strait concert - I wanted to be the one to take her to her first concert. We took the Royal Gorge cog railroad, made some other trips that we typically wouldn't have done."

Edwards' example cited

Dr. Virginia Borges, a breast cancer specialist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, said many of her patients "have gained great strength" from Elizabeth Edwards' announcement that she plans to continue being as active as ever.

"If this is what the Edwards want, it's not OK for anyone else to say they shouldn't do it," she said, echoing many of her patients' sentiments.

Some women with Stage 4 look and feel as healthy as anyone else, she said. For others, the disease becomes a full-time job for them and, often, their spouses.

The past decade, Borges has seen tremendous improvement in the outlook for Stage 4 patients, she said.

"Ten years ago, the prognosis was 18 to 24 months. Now, if it only metastasized to the bones, you're looking at possibly five or more years."

She foresees a time when dying of breast cancer is a very rare event - provided all women get regular mammograms and undergo the best treatment.

"It can become like a chronic disease, with women living to a ripe old age.

"This is an exciting time."

Breast cancer stages

• Stage 1: Tumor is ¾ of an inch or smaller in diameter and hasn't spread to lymph nodes or other sites. Survival rate: 100 percent.

• Stage 2: The tumor may have grown and has moved to one to three lymph nodes. Survival rate: about 85 percent.

• Stage 3: The tumor may have grown and has moved to some mammary nodes or other nearby sites but not to distant sites. Survival rate: about 60 percent.

• Stage 4: The cancer has metastasized, that is, it has spread to distant organs such as bone, liver or lung, or to lymph nodes far from the breast. Survival rate: about 20 percent.Source: American Cancer Society

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-442-8729

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