Fall 1999 Newsletter: Connections with Friends

Writing this column allows me to share information about exciting breakthroughs in cancer research and the doctors who make them; to thank individuals and groups who are important to our continuity; to tell you what we've been doing since the last newsletter; to impose upon you when a subject that cannot be ignored weighs on my mind.

I'd like to address the subject of the "second opinion." This is a topic that is just too important to dismiss, especially in light of a recent comment made to me by a doctor: He said that, when confronted with a serious medical problem, we midwesterners are not as likely as east-and-west-coast patients to do massive independent research, to dig up articles about every treatment, to question every statistic, to investigate every specialist, and then, of course, ask for a lay-language distillation of all this material from our doctor.

Even if we midwesterners trust our doctors more, and just might have a corner on the best doctors, we each bear responsibility for our own well-being. It is a fact that people who know more about their health conditions and their medicines, about what is going on during a test or a treatment, just do better than patients who don't react or participate fully.

If your doctor diagnoses cancer, you cannot afford to panic. You must immediately focus on yourself and your disease. Before you leave your doctor's office, ask your doctor why tests led to this diagnosis, what treatments he would recommend and what he anticipates the outcome to be.

Then find out how and where to get a second opinion.

If your diagnosis is cancer, the second opinion should come from a cancer specialist, an oncologist. Obtaining a second opinion in no way implies that the initial diagnosis is incorrect, or that treatment is inappropriate. It is another point of view from a highly qualified professional. Sam Donaldson, the ABC television reporter, was diagnosed and successfully treated for cancer several years ago. Last month, Sam was interviewed about his cancer by Tim Russert. Sam said that he knew, at the time he was diagnosed, that he absolutely had to get a very good second opinion soon from a very well-respected cancer doctor, an oncologist. Sam said the second opinion probably saved his life, because it gave him faith that modem medicine did have the tools to make him well, and confidence to believe that he would live.

One of the best places to get a second opinion is from a National Cancer Institute designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, such as the University of Chicago Medical Center. Comprehensive Cancer Centers house the laboratories where decades of research on tumor genetics and biology has led to the latest and most effective treatments, ready to be delivered to you by oncologists. If I'm sick, I want the best doctors and the best hospital I can find; so do you.

Merle Goldblatt Cohen
President