Jeanne had no symptoms of kidney cancer. In fact, at age 34, she had given birth to her third child a year earlier. Except for faint back pain, something many new mothers experience, Jeanne felt fine. However, a visit to the National Cancer Institute earlier that year now caused her to be on edge. Jeanne's mother and grandmother had both suffered from von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) syndrome, a genetic disease that often causes cancer. This family history led her to seek more information, bringing her to NCI where Dr. Marston Linehan was leading a team of researchers who were working at the cutting edge of VHL - both in the laboratory and in the clinic. Through examining her and taking some blood tests, he confirmed that Jeanne also carried the VHL gene mutation.
Because Jeanne was at high risk for cancer due to having the VHL mutation, she consulted a local oncologist about her back pain. He sent her for an ultrasound and CT-scan in a hospital near her home in Greenville, S.C. Within hours, she learned that both her kidneys were covered with cysts and tumors that, if untreated, would eventually kill her.
Within two weeks, Jeanne was headed for Bethesda, Md., for more tests, consultation, and then treatment at the NCI. While hospitalized for her second surgery, just before Christmas 2003, Jeanne met with Dr. Linehan. He came to see her in the surgical intensive care unit at the NIH Clinical Center, the world's largest hospital dedicated to clinical research. "He sat down and talked to my husband and me," she recalls. "And suddenly he put a real and personal face on all this research. We realized that it's not all about being a scientist lost in a lab. It's about people, about early diagnosis and detection, and about finding a cure."
Although not cured, Jeanne McCoy is doing well. All of us owe a huge debt of gratitude to her and the many other cancer patients who participate in clinical research and trials. Their generosity, courage, and willingness to join us in defeating this devastating disease can never be taken for granted. For the sake of Jeanne and her family, as well as the countless others like them, NCI needs to keep making this kind of progress, more quickly than ever. |
