Jackie Young's Battle With Cancer
Looking
toward the light
Stricken with breast cancer,
By Helen Altonn
Jackie Young sets out
to help others
Star-Bulletin
Getting a mammogram wasn't high on her list of priorities, former House Vice Speaker Jackie Young admits.
She missed the last two years, saying she was "too busy."
She wasn't consistent about self-exams and was "a little lax" in seeing her gynecologist until last December, when she needed an estrogen refill, she said.
"I'm just lucky I went when I did."
Her doctor referred her for a mammogram, which she said was suspicious. She was sent for more mammograms, then an ultrasound examination and a needle biopsy.
"A few days later, I got a call that the surgeon wanted to see me."
That was Feb. 13. Three days later, a lemon-size section of her left breast was removed. She had a lumpectomy for first-stage cancer, about 1 centimeter, she said.
Young, who celebrated her 64th birthday May 20, is trying to dispel a myth that Asian and Pacific Island women don't get breast cancer because they eat soybeans. They have high death rates from cancer because they don't get screened, she said.
She also has offered herself for cancer studies and is speaking out, telling women, "Go get those mammograms."
Worries that she would lose her breast were alleviated when she looked at herself after the surgery. But what she didn't expect were lasting effects from removal of lymph nodes under her left arm, she said.
Young said she'll never be able to lift things with that arm, "and I can get infected xxx because the filter system is gone.
"Now I find out in some cancer centers they have new techniques where they can shoot dye in there to find out if it's infected."Young said she had to have chemotherapy because she didn't respond to the new anti-breast cancer drug tamoxifen. She chose an aggressive three-month treatment program despite "greater side effects."
She remained on the go with a busy schedule until last Tuesday, when she was hospitalized at Kaiser Hospital due to an infection.
The former state representative, who gave up the seat to run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1994, recently opened a campaign headquarters on Kapahulu Avenue and has been holding fund-raisers to fight a proposed constitutional amendment and constitutional convention. Even at the hospital last week, she wore a "Protect Your Constitution" button on her scarf.
A former university professor and TV producer, Young finished her memoirs last year with an advance from Korean Publishing Co. Since Korea's economy collapsed, American publishers are looking at the book, she said. The title: "Life as a Test of Character."
Her daughter, Laura Daniels, who had come here from New York to help her mother through her final treatments, said she had been nagging Young to rest.
"She wasn't going to have any of it," Daniels said, even with a fever of 102 degrees. "It was hard to get her to emergency."
Leaving the hospital Friday, Young said, "This whole thing is a very humbling experience." It reminded her that she has a life-threatening illness, but she also found it "life-affirming. I received so much love from my family and friends. It was overwhelming."
Young will soon start six weeks of radiation at The Queen's Medical Center -- part of the "slash, poison and burn" treatment of breast cancer, she said. "With new technology, hopefully it will be a lot more gentle and less scary."
She cut her hair before starting chemotherapy and again after the second treatment. The first time it came out in clumps, she had it all whacked off except her bangs, she said. "I have great empathy now for balding men," she said, laughing.
Young spent three hours every three weeks for three months getting an intravenous infusion of chemicals. "They tell you everything that could go wrong. 'You will probably gain weight.' I haven't. 'You will probably get sick.' I didn't.
"So this is the horror story you hear, but it's hospital talk, liability lingo, to cover themselves from possible side effects."
For a few days after every treatment, she felt "a little headachy, a little queasy. You don't want to eat or have people talk to you at that moment."
She's one of the fortunate 80 percent of patients who respond to a new drug called Zofran, which prevents nausea, she said.
Young recalled a colon cancer scare in 1989. "I thought I was going to die, and it made me think, if I had six months to live, what I would do."
She decided to get active politically and run against former Republican Rep. Cam Cavasso, she said. "I figured if I died in office, the governor could appoint a Democrat." She was elected to the House and served until 1994 when she made the run for lieutenant governor.
She didn't have colon cancer but continues to be examined every six months. Now, with breast cancer, Young said, "If I had six months to live, I would do exactly what I'm doing now."
Her biggest boost for leading a normal life came from a business executive diagnosed with cancer three months earlier than she was, Young said. Learning the woman had missed only eight days of work, she said, "Then I can do it."
"My one motto through the whole thing is: The only thing you really can control is your attitude, because everything else is out of control."
More money, people needed
By Helen Altonn
to win cancer fight
Star-BulletinResearchers looking for cancer-fighting drugs could make progress faster if bottlenecks were removed, says a Hawaii cancer specialist. "We can't get enough people to do clinical trials, and not enough money as well," says Dr. Brian F. Issell, Cancer Research Center of Hawaii director and University of Hawaii professor of medicine.
He noted a speech by Dr. Donald S. Coffee, Johns Hopkins University professor and president of the American Association for Cancer Research, who said the threat of cancer is greater for Americans than crimes and terrorism.
Yet research spending is meager, he said.
"For those of us fighting the deadly scourge of cancer, the 1,550 Americans killed each day by this disease are painful and enduring casualties," Coffee said. "Imagine five fully loaded jumbo jets crashing with no survivors on the same day."
Cancer could be prevented or cured if people would demand that Congress support research, Coffee said.
As a clinical oncologist for more than 20 years, Issell said he's seen "some miraculous things."
"Young children with leukemia, guaranteed to be dead in a few years, now 80 percent can be cured. Young men with testicular cancer and Hodgkins cancer, the same things. They were almost certain to live less than a year, then we find 80 percent can be cured."
Through clinical trials, doctors also have found a lumpectomy can be done for cancer instead of "mutilating breast removals," Issell said.
Advances are being made now in treatment of breast and other cancers, he pointed out. New drugs such as tamoxifen, raloxifene and Herceptin offer hope for breast cancer patients.
"The important thing is we're seeing new types of treatment," Issell said.
Tamoxifen was hailed a few months ago for its ability to lock up breast cancer cells and prevent them from growing, but critics said it could cause uterine cancer.
Raloxifene, used to prevent bone loss or osteoporosis, appeared as a better candidate to protect both the breast and uterus.
Herceptin, still in an experimental stage, attacks certain genes associated with cancer and doesn't have chemotherapy's usual side-effects. It's an antibody against one of the mechanisms by which a cell grows, Issell said.
The National Cancer Institute is planning a big clinical study on raloxifene, and the local institute is trying to make the public aware of its importance, Issell said.
It's not only an opportunity for women to get the best treatment available from specialists, but they can "participate in something that could be better and help all those who come after you," he said.
Issell said he believes the turnout for trials is low because "people are afraid to sort of question their doctors with a clinical trial or second opinion. They feel their doctors won't treat them as well.
"Some doctors are just superb," Issell said.
But clinical trials involve extra time and doctors have so many patients that the majority don't want to become involved, he said.
Issell encouraged patients not to simply accept things but try to find out more. "Technology is more complicated. We've got to have more informed people," he said. People should take an active role in their care and get further opinions, he said. "Any doctor worth his salt is going to want a patient fully informed."
