Colon Cancer Survivor Stories
Summaries from: Anita Mitchell - colon cancer survivor
Anita Mitchell is a busy mother to three children. "Late in 2004, I wasn't feeling great," Mitchell said. Mitchell attributed her GI trouble to drinking coffee, even though she drank it decaffeinated. Thanksgiving brought continued discomfort for Mitchell. "I looked in my medical dictionary and saw that I could have diverticulitis, Crohn's disease or colon cancer," Mitchell says, "so I called my mom to confirm what type of cancer my father had died of when I was 16 and he was 45. She said it was colon cancer."
Mitchell had just turned 41 when she was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer in February 2005. The cancer in her colon had already metastasized — that is, spread to other parts of her body — and she had seven tumors on her liver that were too large and diffuse to remove surgically.
In mid-February, Dr. Mika Sinanan, professor of surgery at UW Medical Center, removed a foot and a half of Mitchell's colon, 14 lymph nodes — six of which had cancer — and one of Mitchell's ovaries. A month later, Mitchell saw her medical oncologist, Dr. Sam Whiting, at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. They discussed how best to approach Mitchell's metastatic cancer, focusing on the option for sequencing several therapies to possibly cure her typically incurable cancer.
Her treatment began in late March, with chemotherapy every other week to attack her liver tumors and any other cancer cells that could have been in her body.
"My cancer responded very well to the chemotherapy," Mitchell says. Dr. Raymond Yeung, professor of surgery at UW Medical Center, performed this procedure. Mitchell received two months of this aggressive treatment before side effects and fatigue became limiting to her quality of life.
Whiting cut back on treatment to a single drug with minimal side effects, hoping to prevent the regrowth of any residual cancer cells. "Anita is now off of all cancer-directed therapy," Whiting says, "and is being followed carefully for cancer recurrence. She remains free of detectable disease."
In 2007, Mitchell's photo was featured alongside another colon-cancer survivor in a calendar used to raise money for colon-cancer awareness. Mitchell and Whiting were also featured in a program on HealthTalk.com about her diagnosis and the treatment that brought her cancer into remission.
Category Article colon cancer
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