I found this article about Elizabeth Edwards. I thought
I posted it but looks like I forgot to do it.
Invasive Breast Cancer Is Diagnosed in Elizabeth Edwards
The New York Times
November 5, 2004
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD and DENISE GRADY
BOSTON, Nov. 4 - Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of John Edwards, the former Democratic vice-presidential candidate, received a diagnosis of breast cancer on the day his running mate, Senator John Kerry, conceded the election, a spokesman announced Thursday.
The spokesman, David Ginsberg, said Mr. Edwards and his wife went directly to Massachusetts General Hospital from Mr. Kerry's and Mr. Edwards's concession speeches at Faneuil Hall to see a specialist who confirmed the diagnosis through a biopsy.
The test showed that the cancer was "invasive," but that means only that the tumor is no longer confined within the duct but has broken through the duct wall and begun to invade surrounding breast tissue. Sixty-five percent to 80 percent of all breast cancers are invasive ductal carcinomas.
Mrs. Edwards has returned to Washington and will probably be treated at a hospital there, Mr. Ginsberg said. Further tests are being done to determine how advanced the cancer is. The results will help doctors to plan a course of treatment.
Campaign aides described Mrs. Edwards discovery of a problem as recent. Mr. Ginsberg said Mrs. Edwards, 55, first noticed a lump in her right breast last week on a campaign trip but decided to wait until last Friday to see her doctor in Raleigh, N.C., because she and Mr. Edwards would both be there to vote and to appear at a homecoming rally.
Mr. Edwards in a statement said: "Elizabeth is as strong a person as I've ever known. Together, our family will beat this."
Much speculation has centered on Mr. Edwards's future after he leaves the Senate in January, but Mr. Ginsberg, a longtime aide, said Mrs. Edwards's health would be his first priority.
"They are entirely focused on this," he said.
Mr. and Mrs. Edwards left the stage quickly after Mr. Kerry's concession speech, shaking only a few hands, and flew home to Washington that evening after Mrs. Edwards's appointment.
Mr. Kerry, aides said, was told last Friday of Mrs. Edwards's health problem after she visited her doctor in Raleigh, who suspected that the lump could be cancerous and recommended she see a specialist. She decided to see the specialist on Wednesday, after the election, in order not to interfere with the campaign, aides said.
Mrs. Edwards kept up campaigning, visiting 12 cities in the last few days of the race before arriving in Boston on Tuesday.
Associates have described Mrs. Edwards, a former bankruptcy lawyer, as Mr. Edwards' closest confidante and a top adviser. She first made numerous campaign appearances with him during his race for the Democratic presidential nomination and then, after Mr. Kerry named Mr. Edwards to the ticket, hit the campaign trail hard, usually on her own.
In an interview earlier this year, when Mr. Edwards was still seeking the nomination, she said that as a first lady, she would promote issues like breast cancer awareness and pressing insurance companies to pay for more frequent exams.
"I care about preventive medicine, I care very deeply about it," Mrs. Edwards said then. "I think if a hypothetical insurance company can say we can only pay for mammograms for women over 50 every three years I would want to use my role to complain to them that this is irresponsible behavior. Women over 50 need an annual mammogram."
Mr. Ginsberg said he could not immediately determine whether she had heeded that counsel. He said Mrs. Edwards put off seeing a specialist sooner because her doctor had said a few more days would probably not make a difference.
"It was her strong, strong wish to keep campaigning," another aide said.
The last weekend of the campaign, Mr. Edwards seemed to be shortening his campaign appearances, limiting his speeches to sometimes fewer than 10 minutes and for the first time in months running ahead of schedule. Aides at the time said it was to keep pace with an intensive travel schedule, but an adviser on Thursday said it was also to allow Mr. Edwards more time to keep in touch with his wife.
The Friday when Mrs. Edwards first learned of the possibility of cancer was already an emotional day for the Edwardses and their supporters, thousands of whom gathered at the North Carolina state fairgrounds for Mr. Edwards's last home-state appearance before Election Day.
Mrs. Edwards voted with her husband at a community center and then, at the rally, delivered an unusually long and lacerating speech against President Bush before Mr. Edwards took the stage.
Ed Turlington, Mr. Edwards's campaign chairman in the Democratic primaries, said that he had seen Mrs. Edwards after the speech and that she appeared tired, though he said he chalked it up to the grind of the campaign.
The Edwardses have been married since 1977. They have three children, Cate, 22; Emma Claire, 6; and Jack, 4. Their first child, Wade, died in a car accident in 1996 when he was 16. Mrs. Edwards then underwent fertility treatments to have more children, giving birth to Emma Claire at age 48 and Jack at 50.
About 216,000 women in the United States are expected to develop breast cancer this year, and about 90 percent of them will have the same type that Mrs. Edwards has.
A breast surgeon not connected with Mrs. Edwards's treatment, Dr. Eleni Tousimis of New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said there was no data about whether fertility treatment or pregnancies late in life could affect a woman's risk for breast cancer.
Dr. Tousimis said the size of the tumor and the likelihood of its having spread would determine the course of action. Depending on the size of a tumor and how advanced it is, surgeons would remove just the lump - a lumpectomy - or remove the breast. Lumpectomies are followed by radiation treatment.
If the tumor is larger than a centimeter or has spread to lymph nodes, or is an aggressive type of cancer, the patient also has chemotherapy.
Randal C. Archibold reported from Boston for this article, and Denise Grady from New York.
nytimes.com
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
