CINCINNATI — A life-saving collaboration at Christ Hospital has changed the course of recovery for some cancer patients.
According to health experts, it's normal and suggested to get a second opinion when it comes to a cancer diagnosis because different doctors have different approaches to treatment. And that's exactly what one local woman did.
Heather Britt’s decision to get a second opinion may just have saved her life.
“I just put my hand on my breast in the shower and did a self-exam and found the lump,” Britt said.
Britt is a young, active dancer. She said she’s healthy, has no family history of breast cancer and really didn’t think she was at high-risk. But her specific breast cancer diagnosis stopped her in her tracks.
“It was scary because there wasn’t a routine plan,” Britt said.
“They said this is a rare cancer that’s in less than 0.1% of people and there’s not enough case studies that you can even find that say, here’s how you treat this.”
Heather began treatment with her doctor but wasn’t getting the results she had hoped for.
So, she went to an appointment she originally made with The Christ Hospital.
“Heather came to me as a second opinion,” Dr. Irfan Firdaus said.
Dr. Firdaus is a medical oncologist with The Christ Hospital. And Dr. Firdaus took Britt’s rare case to the oncologists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
“We were able to present Heather’s case at a virtual tumor board conference with Dana-Farber’s physicians and get a great evaluation for her without her having to travel to Boston,” Dr. Firdaus said.
It’s that collaboration with Dana-Farber oncologists that changed it all for Heather.
“They had seen many cases of this type of breast cancer and were able to tailor her treatment and tweak her treatment a bit so that she was getting the most appropriate and aggressive care that she can,” Dr. Firdaus said.
According to Dr. Firdaus, her scans show she’s had a great response to the new treatment.
Christ Hospital oncologists said typically people who want a second opinion from these world-renowned doctors at Dana-Farber have to travel to the hospital in Boston, but not anymore.
“They don’t have to leave Cincinnati in order to get the opinions of these world famous and genius oncologists and radiologist oncologists and pretty soon they’ll be able to do a virtual second opinion so they can actually, as though they were in Boston, but they can do it from here and get a full evaluation,” Christ Hospital breast surgeon Dr. Jennifer Manders said.
According to Dr. Manders, patients can also get access to clinical trials through Dana-Farber, all from Cincinnati.
Since the collaboration began in July, Christ Hospital oncologists estimate they’ve been able to present about 30 cases to the tumor boards with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. That’s 30 lives that received potentially life-saving second opinions.
Britt is still receiving treatment, but there is beautiful news.
“Now the tumor has essentially disappeared,” Dr. Manders said.
This gives Heather the energy to embrace what and who she loves. She said she feels hopeful.
“I show up and I still dance, and I still teach and I’m still part of the community,” Britt says.
“I’m not energetically what I was able to do before, but the community has really been holding me up, just taking care of me through the journey.”
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