Cancer patient finds hope
Franklin woman benefits from precision therapies
Franklin resident Susan Rosen sat slumped on her couch in a quiet house — her two children were at school — and let the news sink in: She had stage 4 metastatic breast cancer.
“I’m never going to be a grandmother,” she told her husband through sobs.
But that was four years ago. Susan, now 52, no longer views incurable cancer as a death sentence. The local wife and mother is one of a growing number of people managing the disease as a chronic illness, thanks to new, less toxic treatments that are tailored to each patient’s needs.
“Things are getting better every day in regards to treatments,” Susan said. “This is the best I’ve felt in years.”
Susan first faced the disease in 2010, when she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. She was declared cancer-free in 2011 until her stage 4 diagnosis in September 2013.
Susan’s daughter, Michaela, was only 15 when her mom received the initial diagnosis, and had just started college in Washington, D.C., when Susan learned that the cancer was back. During parents weekend, Michaela went home to help her mother through chemotherapy.
“When you hear cancer you think death and dying, but now I know that’s not necessarily the case,” said Michaela, now 22. “You have all these tools and treatments at your disposal. Cancer is no longer a death sentence and shouldn’t be taboo.”
Susan tries to spread that message of hope in a recent WebMD video series, “Advanced Breast Cancer: Courage, Comfort and Care,” which launched Aug. 16.
“With precision therapy now we’re not just saying, ‘You have breast cancer,’” said WebMD Senior Medical Director Dr. Arefa Cassoobhoy. “We can go in and figure out the nuances of each person’s breast cancer and treat it.”
Precision medicine refers to therapies that target each cancer based on its specific weakness. About 20 percent of women with breast cancer, for example, have a protein on the disease cells called HER2 that causes it to spread. The medications that target those cells cause milder side effects than chemotherapy, said Dr. Erica Mayer, senior physician at the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who treats Susan.
Mayer said Susan tested positive for the BRCA-2, a hereditary cancer-causing gene mutation. A combination of chemo and targeted drugs for BRCA-2 breast cancer has led to “dramatic responses,” Mayer said.
“We have made many advances in the past several years against this disease,” Mayer said. “But we have more work to do to help people like Susan and the many other people who fight breast cancer every day.”
For the most part, Susan is able to live her life without cancer looming over her passions. She travels, hosts cookouts, gardens and collects art.
“I don’t let the cancer define me,” she said. “Cancer is a big part of my life. However, it’s not the only part of my life.”
She added, “If you have diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus — any chronic disease — you can go on living. You can’t keep dwelling. Because then you can’t live.”