pc@hplabsb.UUCP (Patricia Collins) (02/21/84)
A friend of my mother's has breast cancer. This woman has been TOTALLY sheltered from the world for her adult life. She has never worked outside of her home and is fairly isolated. She has been told that she should have a mastectomy since radiation therapy destroys too much healthy tissue and leaves the physicians too little to work with for reconstruction. Also, radiation therapy has a 25% cancer recurrence rate, while mastectomies have a much better long-term remission rate. If you know of any support groups, national or local, which this woman could contact, I would be grateful if you could pass the names along. This woman is in the Philadelphia area (near Cherry Hill, NJ). I've submitted this to net.women.only, hoping that it would be responded to more quickly and less politically. I just want help for this woman, not a debate on sexual surgery. Obviously, a timely response would be appreciated. Patricia Collins hplabs