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Sue Duyser was leading a busy life in Grand Rapids, Mich., running a pharmacy with her husband. Then she found a lump in her breast. Her doctors initially thought the lump was a cyst. "I was so busy, I let it go," says Ms. Duyser. Six months later, a friend who is a breast cancer survivor urged her to follow up with her doctors, and Ms. Duyser was found to have a late-stage cancer.
While extended family knew oncologists at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, travel was not an option. Ms. Duyser is the primary caregiver for her husband, who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair.
Networking through her community, she found the Grand Rapids Clinical Oncology Program, a CCOP site. The National Cancer Institute's Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) brings together community hospitals, community oncologists, and other local health care providers into a nationwide network to conduct cancer clinical trials.
At the Grand Rapids facility, Ms. Duyser met Dr. Marianne Lange, a dedicated physician willing to go the "extra mile" to get patients the best possible care. Ms. Duyser joined an NCI-sponsored clinical trial, and though the treatment took many long and difficult months, she knew she "was in good hands with the CCOP doctors" and was thankful to be able to be home with her husband, family, and friends. She is, today, a disease-free, 10-year breast cancer survivor.
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