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Patty Lowndes never misses a doctor's appointment. And that habit of a lifetime saved the life of the 58-year-old mother of three from Winthrop, Mass. In March 2001, at her annual check-up, her primary care physician, Gary Pransky, MD, detected a mass in one breast, which had not shown up in a mammogram taken a week earlier.
Because the mass was difficult to view through mammography, Dr. Pransky, a Hallmark Health physician, immediately referred Lowndes to Melrose- Wakefield Hospital's Cancer Care Center for an ultrasound and biopsy.
Both tests indicated breast cancer. After a multidisciplinary cancer conference to discuss her case, the "cancer team" including medical oncologist Nasima Khatoon, MD, surgeon P.C. Shah, MD, Lowndes' primary care physician Dr. Pransky, a radiation oncologist and pathologist all agreed that surgery was the best option.
Dr. Shah carried out two surgeries - the first a lumpectomy to remove the tumor, which turned out to be invasive cancer, and the second to take out 13 lymph nodes, three of which were cancerous.
After the surgeries, Dr. Khatoon met with Lowndes to discuss her "after surgery" treatment options. Since the cancer had spread to the lymph nodes, a course of chemotherapy was Lowndes' best hope for recovery. The Cancer
Care Centers at both hospitals are affiliated with the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG), so Dr. Khatoon enrolled Lowndes in an advanced clinical trial of a new combination of chemotherapy drugs.
From the beginning, Lowndes appreciated the center's supportive approach. "I felt very much at ease there, I felt like family," she said. "I didn't feel like a number. I felt that everyone was taking care of me, not just my cancer."
"She responded well to the state-of-the-art chemotherapy," said Dr. Khatoon, stressing the advantages of the multi-disciplinary meetings at which all breast cancer patients can explore traditional treatment options, as well as new clinical trials, with the professionals involved in their cases.
LMH and MWH also offer stereotactic breast biopsy and sentinel lymph node biopsy which are the new "standard of care" for breast surgery. Dr. Khatoon remembers Lowndes' final chemotherapy treatment, which coincided with Halloween. "Patty was so friendly with all of us, she came as Raggedy Ann. She still was getting chemotherapy, yet she was laughing through it. Everybody should learn from that!"
Over a year after completing treatment, Lowndes' three monthly check-ups with Dr. Khatoon show no recurrence of her breast cancer. "You just take one day at a time, and never give up hope," said Lowndes. "I still have some
living to do. I want to see my grandchildren grow up."
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