The Patient Experience: How Breast Care Can Change Lives These first-hand accounts are from actual Loyola University Health System patients, who received care for breast cancer. Their stories offer a unique perspective on our patient experience. We hope you find them helpful. Tara's Story: Quieting the Mind May Enhance the Immune System Janet's Story: A Woman Who Chose to Fight Quieting the Mind May Enhance the Immune System Tara Cronin knows how quieting the mind to focus intently on a raisin or another everyday item can relieve stress and help her deal with the breast cancer she was diagnosed with in July 2003. Cronin was part of a Loyola study about the role mindfulness meditation might play in improving a cancer patient's outlook on life, thereby spurring the immune system to produce more cancer-fighting blood cells.	ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Our Services Learn more about our continuum of services Meet Our Team Read about our breast care medical experts Our Facilities Find out about our breast care facilities The Patient Experience Share our patients' journeys toward health
Meditation is used to quiet the mind.   Cronin, 43, lives in Glen Ellyn with her 13-year-old daughter and runs her own business as a geographic information specialist helping corporations create intelligent maps. Last summer she "buried a girlfriend who died from breast cancer" and for that reason Cronin decided to have a diagnostic exam herself. To her surprise, a small lump was found near her chest wall. Her cousin urged Tara to visit Loyola University Health System (Loyola) Breast Diagnostic Center, where she was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer.
Multidisciplinary specialists at Loyola's Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center (CBCC) took Tara from diagnosis through recovery. Following the biopsy, Cronin had two surgeries to remove the tumor and surrounding tissue. While she was undergoing drug and radiation treatments at the CBCC Breast Oncology Center in the fall, she was invited to participate in the mindfulness meditation study. Linda Janusek, RN, PhD, professor, Loyola's Niehoff School of Nursing, is the principal investigator of the project, and Herbert Matthews, PhD, professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Loyola's Stritch School of Medicine, is the co-investigator. Through collaboration with physicians from Loyola Breast Care -- Kathy Albain, MD, medical oncologist and director of the Breast Research Program; Sheryl Gabram, MD, surgeon and former director of the Breast Clinical Program (formerly with Loyola); and Kevin Albuquerque, MD, radiation oncologist - three groups comprised of 12 women have been enrolled. The goal is to enroll 70 women in the study, which continued through fall 2005. The women take part in eight weekly sessions conducted by specially trained clinical psychologists, in which they learn mindfulness meditation and gentle hatha yoga to control stress, depression and uncertainty about their future. They learn various meditation techniques and are asked to practice daily at home. Besides measuring changes in mood, perceived stress and quality of life, Janusek and Matthews also examine whether regular practice of mindfulness meditation can enhance immune system activity. Before, during and after their meditation training, the women give blood samples to be tested for markers of immune system activity and the quantity of natural killer cells - white blood cells that can recognize and kill tumor cells. The level of cytokines - chemicals that help regulate the immune system - also are measured. No other study of mindfulness meditation has focused specifically on breast cancer patients in treatment nor examined immune system response to cancer in this way.
Mindfulness is an ancient concept in many religious traditions, particularly Buddhism. The idea is to step back from the constant stream of thoughts that run through a person's mind - to stop giving energy to thoughts about the past, the future and interpretations of the present and to find the stillness that exists between thoughts. Instead of getting caught up in "what if" thinking, the study participants learn to be nonjudgmental and open to the present moment. On a biological level, mindfulness meditation can help people reduce the surge of stress hormones that usually is triggered by worry and fear. Cronin, now a breast cancer survivor, calls the mindfulness techniques she learned "wonderful, very beneficial" and finds them useful in dealing both with the everyday stress of running her own business and the fear of cancer. "When I feel stressed, I use the techniques, and it makes a big difference."   Cronin engages in meditation.
Cronin is very thankful to the Loyola staff for their coordinated team approach to her illness. "Talk about the best care I could have ever had - my doctor, the nurses, even the receptionists. Whatever their formula is for putting together a team, it works. I feel very lucky." Back to Top A Woman Who Chose To Fight When Janet Cunningham, 50, discovered a lump in her breast, it wasn't fully unexpected. Her mother, grandmother and aunt had all developed breast cancer during their lifetimes. "I knew this was going to happen," says Cunningham. "It wasn't a matter of if, but when."
Janet Cunningham and her dog Kedzie enjoy a day in the park. The lump was diagnosed as malignant. Perhaps because she'd had years to prepare for that moment - or perhaps because it's simply her nature - Cunningham faced the news with an earnest determination to take charge, a feisty refusal to be a victim. Something was broken, and she would find a way to fix it. She had seen her mother battle cancer in her 30s and go on to live another 40 years, so she knew the cancer could be beaten. But while this gave her hope, it didn't give her the answers to the flood of questions that tiny lump brought into her life. And Cunningham intended to ask them all.
First she called her gynecologist, who met with her the next day and provided the names of several surgeons and cancer centers. She spent the next two weeks investigating her options. After meeting with surgeons at several hospitals, she was convinced she knew the best place to go for treatment. She chose Loyola's Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center. "I was very comfortable with Loyola," she says. "There was a great rapport with the doctors there, and the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center is so impressive." She was especially pleased that she would benefit from the exceptional expertise of her surgeon, Sheryl Gabram, MD, former director of the Breast Care Center. Cunningham's awareness of her family history had given her time, through all her years of regular checkups and mammograms, to consider what she would do if and when breast cancer developed. Her children - two sons and a daughter - supported her decision to undergo a double mastectomy and reconstruction. She was grateful that her medical oncologist, Ellen Gaynor, MD, offered alternatives but supported her decision as well. "You ultimately have to make your final decision and be comfortable with it," Cunningham says. Determined to stick to a one-year timeline for her treatment and recovery, Cunningham arranged to make the most of Loyola's team approach. Literally moments after Dr. Gabram completed the mastectomy, her "outstanding" plastic surgeon, Juan Angelats, MD, stepped in to begin reconstruction with saline implants. "Everybody was so coordinated, and they were such a great team," she says.

After a few weeks, Cunningham and Dr. Gaynor met again to discuss chemotherapy. Listening to Dr. Gaynor's advice and doing her own homework led her to four treatments over three months, followed by a rest period and then six weeks of radiation. There were also regular visits to Dr. Angelats, who slowly inflated the implants with saline. "I'm very, very pleased with what he did," she says. Cunningham also undertook a somewhat different course of treatment - a daily dose of long, calm, meditative walking in the park with Kedzie, her American Eskimo dog. To this day, it is Cunningham's sincere belief that she survived cancer for two reasons: her doctors and those walks.

Sharon Williams, pharmacy technician fills I.V. bags for chemotherapy.

Knowing that her family history places her daughter at higher risk, Cunningham is investigating the genetic counseling service available at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center. It's just one more way that she exemplifies the cancer patient who chooses to fight - to know what to expect, how to prepare and what the patient can do to make a difference. "The bottom line is: Be your own advocate. Be knowledgeable. Don't be afraid to ask questions. And don't be afraid to ask for help." Exactly what Dr. Gaynor and the staff at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center were prepared to give her. "They were great," she says. "My family and I had so many questions. [The doctors] were very, very patient with me." Cunningham continues to make visits to her doctors at the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center and has had no recurrence of cancer. "I've had a nice past 50 years," she says, "and I'm going to have a great upcoming 50 years." Back to Top