Below are stories, based on actual cases, which illustrate the importance of early detection.
Daily bouts of heartburn were more than a nuisance for a 73-year-old Washington man. His chronic stomach-acid reflux had brought on a condition known as Barrett's esophagus that put him at high risk for developing esophageal cancer, a disease with very poor odds for survival.
Eventually, he developed cancer, but thanks to a leading-edge cancer-screening study led by Fred Hutchinson scientists, his disease was detected so early that it couldn't yet be seen by the naked eye. He had surgery to remove part of his esophagus and has been cancer-free for 15 years.
Other patients in the study who developed esophageal cancer have an 80 percent chance of long-term survival, compared with a 5 percent survival rate for patients who do not have this kind of surveillance.
While most women have only a 1 percent or 2 percent chance of developing ovarian cancer, a New Jersey woman's family history put her at much greater risk. With an aunt who survived breast cancer and a mother who survived advanced ovarian cancer, the woman's risk of developing ovarian cancer increased to as high as 40 percent.
Often called a silent killer because its vague symptoms typically escape detection until it reaches an advanced stage, ovarian cancer causes more deaths than any other reproductive cancer.
But thanks to research by Fred Hutchinson scientists and colleagues, women may increase their odds that this potentially deadly cancer is detected early, when it is more treatable. The New Jersey woman takes part in a study that monitors her blood for suspicious increases in a molecule that may signify the presence of cancer. This and other studies to identify cancer's early warning signals could significantly improve the survival odds for ovarian and other cancers.
A 45-year-old mother of two knew that her vague symptoms — from bloating to fatigue — weren't normal, and yet her doctors didn't seem to be alarmed. They chalked up the symptoms to middle age and pre-menopause. Determined to get a handle on her health, she joined a gym and hired a personal trainer. After a year, she never looked more fit, and yet she still knew something wasn't right.
She went back to her doctor, who again found nothing wrong. A series of second and third opinions finally led her to a physician who, upon learning that her mother had died of colon cancer, recommended that she undergo a colonoscopy, a colon-cancer screening test.
Unfortunately, by the time the woman's colon cancer was diagnosed, it was too late. Although she fought the cancer for five years, she ultimately succumbed to the disease at age 50, the same age her mother died.
Tragically, if the cancer had been caught earlier, her chance of survival could have been as high as 90 percent. While doctors typically recommend that Americans begin colorectal cancer screening at age 50, people who have a family history of the disease may benefit from earlier, rigorous screening.
When Seattle-area woman turned 40, her physician recommended that she begin getting annual mammograms to screen for breast cancer. She was glad she did: Her first mammogram identified a small growth in her right breast that had gone undetected by her doctor during regular clinical examinations and by her own monthly self-examinations.
A biopsy revealed that the growth was ductal carcinoma in situ, abnormal cells confined to the milk duct that in some cases develop into invasive cancer. Thanks to early detection by mammography, the woman's growth was surgically removed at a stage when survival rates are 90 percent or greater.
 | |
| |
