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Do IT this week: Layering
A holiday message wishing good health
By Tracy Wheeler
Beacon Journal medical writer
Published on Saturday, Dec 08, 2007
When you're only 28 years old, when you've just given birth to your second child, you never consider the possibility that a breast-feeding problem could be caused by cancer.
Jenny Sugg certainly never figured it was anything more than an infection or a blocked duct until her doctor delivered the bad news in June — stage IV, or advanced, breast cancer, with an initial prognosis of just two to five years.
Her thoughts turned immediately to 5-year-old Jonathon and now-7-month-old Samantha.
''I didn't have any thought except, 'I have two kids.' That was my thought process,'' said Sugg, a Toledo native who lives in Copley Township with her husband, Mike. ''All I could think is, 'We've got to figure out some way to beat this because I have two little kids.'''
As reality set in and as further testing offered a more hopeful prognosis, Sugg thought of her younger sister, Amy.
Just nine months earlier, their 51-year-old mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Was a genetic mutation making the family more susceptible to breast cancer? Could Amy be next? What about their 17 aunts and uncles? What about their five dozen cousins?
Sugg, her sister, mother, father and brother were all tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which make women more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer, and men more susceptible to breast and prostate cancer.
Sugg tested positive for a mutation in the BRCA1 gene, as did her father and brother. Her sister showed no genetic
mutations. And their mother had a ''genetic variation of unknown significance.''
What that all means is that Sugg's sister and mother carry no greater cancer risk than the general population. But her father and brother are at an elevated risk of breast and prostate cancer, while also carrying a 50/50 chance of passing the mutation on to their children.
In a broader sense, the results also mean that Sugg's aunts, uncles and cousins on her father's side also may be carrying an elevated risk without knowing it.
And Sugg has made it her goal to make sure they find out.
The family has arranged an after-Christmas testing get-together at Akron Children's Hospital's Genetic Center for her father's seven brothers and sisters. Sugg couldn't change her fate. But her hope is that she can change the fate of others.
''I don't want any other young moms to hear those words, 'You have stage IV cancer. We can't cure you,''' she said. ''So I wondered: What can we do so that another family member isn't sitting in our spot?''
Message for all families
Her message isn't directed just at her own family, though. Sugg wants every family to investigate and understand its medical history.
And the holidays — when families typically get together — are an effective time to do that.
The U.S. surgeon general encourages families to chart their health histories, with guidance at http://familyhistory.hhs.gov/.
''Health care professionals have known for a long time that common diseases — heart disease, cancer and diabetes — and even rare diseases — like hemophilia, cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia — can run in families,'' the Web site says. ''If one generation of a family has high blood pressure, it is not unusual for the next generation to have similarly high blood pressure. Tracing the illnesses suffered by your parents, grandparents and other blood relatives can help your doctor predict the disorders to which you may be at risk and take action to keep you and your family healthy.''
Dr. Mohamed M. Khalifa, director of medical genetics and metabolism at Children's, said while it's important for families to share health information, it's even more important for family doctors to better identify the red flags in a patient's family history.
''What we're trying to do is reach people who are healthy, the people who haven't gotten cancer,'' Khalifa said. ''Not just cancer patients but every patient. . . .
''It's the responsibility of the primary-care physician to identify these families among their patients and then refer them.''
Sugg hopes that people will be empowered to take control of their health.
''We always fill out the family histories, but how many times have you or I or even doctors stopped to think about our family history?'' she wrote in a posting on http://www.carepages.com, which offers free personal Web pages to people battling illness or injury. ''We didn't, and that is no one's fault because no one has taught us to look at these as a way to help prevent or watch for things.
''We did the testing so that people realize they can use their family history as a tool to their benefit and not wait until it is a point where faith, medicine, and miracles is your treatment plan. . . .
''I wish I didn't have cancer, but I do. I wish it was curable, but have hope it still will be. . . . Maybe if people know more about their family history, people can stop this earlier.''
Concentrating on fight
Since Sugg was first diagnosed in June — with cancer that also found its way to her liver and bones — her prognosis has grown somewhat more hopeful following treatment with hormones and chemotherapy drugs. But she doesn't want to ask the how-long-have-I-got question, so she hasn't.
Instead, she's focusing on the fight.
Recent tests showed tumors in her liver were gone, though the cancer in her bones was still there. Doctors decided to add the chemotherapy drug Taxol to her treatment, with the hope that it will shrink the breast cancer tumor enough to allow surgery.
Sugg, an elementary school teacher at a charter school in Cleveland, and her husband are hoping to return to the Toledo area to be closer to family. In the meantime, her focus has shifted from her teaching career to her family.
''We do special things,'' she said. ''If we want to do something, we do it. I guess you could say we have the attitude of 'seize the day.' That's the one thing I'm glad about through all this: Our family has learned to appreciate each day.''
Tracy Wheeler can be reached at 330-996-3721 or tawheeler@thebeaconjournal.com.
When you're only 28 years old, when you've just given birth to your second child, you never consider the possibility that a breast-feeding problem could be caused by cancer.
Get the full article here.
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