Monday, November 3, 1997
UCLA alumna walks to raise awareness of cancer’s reality
RUN Nina Duncan tells her story as one of 6,000 race
participants
By Rachel Munoz
Daily Bruin Contributor
Alongside her husband and son, she walks over three miles amidst
thousands of other participants, but that doesn’t stop her. The sun
is blinding and the temperature is climbing to a scorching 97
degrees, but that doesn’t stop her. Her thin, petite, almost
hairless body has been fighting the potentially deadly disease we
know as breast cancer, but still, that doesn’t stop her.
Her name is Nina Duncan and she participated in the second
annual Los Angeles Race For The Cure, which took place Sunday at
the Rose Bowl.
"The purpose of this walk is awareness," explained Duncan, a
UCLA alumna, cancer survivor and current cancer patient who
attended the race.
Awareness allowed Duncan to notice the lump in her breast after
accidentally hitting herself while gardening in March of 1993. She
gave a week for what merely seemed like swelling in her breast to
go away, but when it persisted, she decided to go to her
doctor.
Convinced it was only a cyst, the doctor scheduled tests and
told her it would be a week before the results were in. Meanwhile,
the lump had doubled in size. Duncan didn’t have a week to
wait.
During the next opportunity Duncan had to go to the doctor, the
visit required her to pick up sonogram pictures of her breast.
Casually attached to the envelope was a post-it note essentially
telling Duncan she had breast cancer. Alone, in the hallway of a
doctor’s office, Nina Duncan found out she had breast cancer.
Ironically, Duncan had just gone in for a routine physical about
six weeks prior to the discovery of the lump. Although she asked
for a mammogram, she was denied. Again she asked for a mammogram
when she discovered the lump in her breast, but was not given one
because her records showed that she had received the test only a
couple years earlier and had no family history of the disease.
According to Duncan, the cancer was incredibly aggressive and
the tumor was three inches in diameter when removed. With the aid
of massive amounts of chemotherapy – up to 10 times the normal
amount – and a mastectomy, Duncan survived and continued
cancer-free for three years.
But in May of 1996, at a championship volleyball game, while
swatting a fly off of her neck, Duncan felt a swollen lymph
node.
The lymph node was biopsied immediately and breast cancer was
diagnosed once again.
"When I was diagnosed, I was able to apply for the ‘her-2-neu’
program at the UCLA Medical Center," she said. The her-2-neu
program is currently taking place in a clinical trial at the
medical center. Dr. Dennis Slamon, an oncologist, has created an
oncogene to a gene found in approximately 30 percent of women with
breast cancer. This oncogene blocks the cancer’s communication with
other cells, thereby preventing it from progressing and growing.
Duncan adds that because it is very gene-specific, it does not have
any side effects.
She explains that for a lot of people, just using the her-2-neu
is enough, but she is using it in conjunction with
chemotherapy.
"The cancer is still growing but it has slowed down," she
said.
At this point, Duncan has many lymph nodes infected with the
disease as well as small areas of her lungs and liver. The cancer
has also metastasized in her brain, which forces her to receive
full brain radiation. She compares the cancer in her brain to
little tiny pebbles randomly tossed in her head.
"It’s disappointing when you are continually finding out it’s
growing," she explains.
But Duncan has accepted that cancer is no longer just an illness
for her, it has become a way of life.
"It’s a partnership, and because of that you have to learn how
to go on living," Duncan says of her cancer.
Yet outside of giving her a disease, cancer has provided a
deeper vision of life.
"It changes your perspective. The little things are much more
important," she says. "It’s changed how I look at life."
For Duncan, an important factor in surviving her first diagnosis
and fighting her second has been the incredible support team she
has gained between her family and the resources at the medical
center.
"It’s devastating; you can’t think of anything else. It’s a hard
emotional, social trauma," she said. But with diagnosis, Duncan
found out she had a lot more support than ever believed.
"It’s like you inherit 1,000 parents. Everyone is giving you
advice," she explains.
Her family also plays a key role, if not the most important.
"We still give each other lots of hugs," Duncan says of her
relationship with her 11-year-old son, Brian. "He’s very involved
and that is important. I don’t want him to feel that he has caused
this."
Brian seems to completely understand what is going on with his
mom. He admits that sometimes it is hard when she can’t help him
with homework because she isn’t feeling well and dad is out of
town, but that doesn’t stop him from having a good time with
her.
One can clearly see his affection when he removes her baseball
cap to show off her nearly bald head or when he brags that this is
the fourth 5K race he has participated in to support his mom.
Husband Scott, also a UCLA graduate, hasn’t taken Duncan’s
cancer quite as easily as his son.
"It’s been really stressful," he says. It is easiest to deal
with his wife’s life-altering illness by jumping into different
hobbies, he admits.
With the constant anxiety of the disease and endless doctors’
appointments, Scott prefers days when the focus of cancer shines
through in a different light.
"(The race) is a positive event with Nina’s disease," he said.
"There is a positive energy here."
Outside of her family, Duncan has found support in a newly
opened store found at the UCLA Medical Center.
"It is staffed by volunteers, many who are cancer survivors,
people who understand where you are coming from," Duncan explains
of Reflections, a store providing apparel for cancer patients. "It
offers an incredible amount of support."
Support has definitely contributed to Duncan’s fight against her
disease, but she stops to stress the importance of
self-examination.
"You have to know your body," she explains. "It’s hard when you
are younger because breasts still have a lot of fiber. But if you
are under 30 years old you’re going to find it with a self
exam."
Francie Larrieu Smith, an olympian and the National Honorary
Chair of the Race, strongly agrees with Duncan’s perspective.
"Women should start giving themselves self breast exams when
they are 20 years old," she suggests. "Early detection is the most
important thing."
Duncan mentions that she has known women in their twenties who
have been diagnosed with the disease. No longer is it assumed to
hit women over 40.
Men can also be victims of breast cancer. Smith explains that
there are about 1,400 men diagnosed with breast cancer each year,
and from that about 290 will die from the disease.
"Breast cancer does not discriminate … it’ll hit anybody,"
says Ellen Kipner, the coordinator and member of the Survivors
Program for the Race. "But we are showing the world there is life
after breast cancer."
During her speech to the crowd, Kipner explains that the biggest
risk factor for getting breast cancer is being a female with
breasts. Anything from 70 to 80 percent of breast cancer does not
originate from family history and an estimated 43,900 women will
die in 1997 from this disease alone.
"We have a long ways to go … in preventing and curing this
disease," Kipner emphasizes.
However, her speech ends on an uplifting note. "It’s really neat
to see this event come to fruition and have a great turn-out."
The Race for the Cure stems from the Susan G. Komen Breast
Cancer Foundation, an organization which seeks eradication of this
life-threatening disease through advancing research, education,
screening and treatment.
Seventy-five percent of the total proceeds from Sunday’s Race
for the Cure will be distributed to breast cancer education and
early-detection programs for the medically undeserved in Los
Angeles County, according to a press statement on the race. The
Komen Foundation’s National Grant Program for Breast Cancer
Research will receive the remaining 25 percent of the proceeds.