Southeastern NEWS
Southeastern Louisiana University
Public Information Office
SLU 10880, Hammond, LA 70402
504-549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
Date: October 27, 2000
Contact: Rene Abadie 127
Editors: Photo accompanies release
CANCER SURVIVORS RELATE MESSAGES OF HOPE
AT SOUTHEASTERN FORUM
HAMMOND The words "you have cancer" can be the most frightening words someone can
hear, but the options available in modern medicine carry a message of hope, said speakers at a
special cancer forum held at Southeastern Louisiana University on Thursday (Oct. 26).
"Cancer can be a teacher; it taught me how lucky I am, how precious life is, and how to put
things into perspective," said Sandy Patterson, a two-time breast cancer survivor and registered
nurse at North Oaks Health System in Hammond.
"And don't call me a 'victim,' because I'm a survivor who is here to tell you that cancer is not a
dead end; it's just a road some of us have to travel in life," added Patterson, who is vice president
of the Tangipahoa Chapter of the American Cancer Society.
She was joined in the forum by U.S. District Judge Morey L. Sear of New Orleans; Dr. A.
Oliver Sartor, director of the LSU Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center; and Dr. Mary Ella Sanders,
clinical associate professor of radiation oncology at Tulane School of Medicine and director of
radiation oncology at Touro Infirmary in New Orleans. The forum was sponsored by the
American Cancer Society, the Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center and Southeastern. Prior to the
panel discussion, free prostate cancer screening blood tests PSA tests were provided for men.
Sear retold his story of first being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1986, his subsequent
surgery, and his exhaustive chemotherapy treatments that included clinical trials with
experimental medications at the National Cancer Institute. The results of his PSA tests continued
to rise dramatically, reaching a staggering count above 1,000, when a scale of 1-4 is considered
normal. A new experimental treatment regimen was started and his PSA counts gradually
returned to normal.
"My doctors called it a case of divine intervention, and I've come to believe that it was," he
said.
Sear said the experience taught him lessons that he tries to spread to other patients diagnosed
with cancer. "You've got to have a strong faith in God and a good mental attitude; you have to be
occupied, working at something; you have to exercise and follow a strict diet. But at the end of
the line, there's hope."
Dr. Sartor emphasized the dramatic role that research has played in developing new diagnostic
methods and treatments for cancer.
"Cancer isn't being treated the same way it was 10 or 20 years ago, and 10 or 20 years from
now treatments will be considerably different from what we have today," he said. "And it's
research that's making those advances possible."
He emphasized that treatment alone isn't enough, noting that while lung cancer is the number
one form of the disease it is also the most preventable. "It's quite simple; don't smoke," he said.
"The other major cancers breast, prostate, and colon can now be diagnosed fairly early with
readily available screening exams," he said. "And early diagnosis saves lives."
And while Louisiana has the second lowest rate in the nation of mammography to help
identify breast cancer, self-examination remains a mainstay in detecting suspicious lumps,
Sanders said. In addition, newer developments in high technology such as PET scans are very
exciting and hold a great deal of promise in cancer diagnosis, she said.
Both physicians praised cooperative work being performed by Tulane and LSU medical
centers on gene therapy.
"Cancer is primarily a genetic defect," Sartor said, "and the dream is that one day we'll be able
to fix those defective genes and convert them into normal cells. That's no longer a 'pie in-the-sky'
dream, but a real possibility."
-SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu./NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsf00.htm