THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260311
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf announced Monday that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, but will continue to serve and run for re-election in May.
Oberndorf, 55, has been mayor of Virginia Beach for eight years and a council member for 20. She said she was diagnosed 10 days ago and will undergo whatever treatment is necessary to bring her back to health.
``Roger and I have been told over and over again by the doctors that it's very treatable,'' she said Monday, referring to her husband.
``The reason I've decided to talk about it publicly,'' Oberndorf said, ``is to encourage every woman to remember to get her yearly mammogram, to go to her ob/gyn, and be very, very scrupulous about getting her evaluation, so that if, God forbid, any other woman has to get breast cancer, she, too, will find it in its very early stages when it's most treatable.''
Oberndorf had a biopsy earlier this month and said she will have to undergo another operation and perhaps radiation therapy in the coming months.
She said her mother died of the disease 30 years ago at the age of 57.
Breast cancer is most curable if it is caught before it spreads too far, several cancer experts said Monday.
The five-year rate of survival for localized breast cancer has increased from 78 percent in 1940 to 96 percent today. If the cancer has spread, survival rates drop to between 75 percent and 25 percent as the cancer spreads, said Phyllis Slade-Skinner, clinical manager for cancer services at the Sentara Cancer Institute in Norfolk.
Most cancers begin eight to 10 years before they are detectable on a mammogram, Norfolk breast expert Dr. Claire Carman said Monday.
``There's no such thing as early detection,'' she said. ``The benefit of screening is to try to catch it when it's small.''
Family history is the best predictor of a woman's likelihood of getting breast cancer, Carman said. The chances of survival depend on the speed in which the cancer spreads.
``You can get a non-aggressive (type of cancer), or you can get a Texas-chainsaw-massacre one that can just nail you dead,'' she said. ``Everybody thinks there's one kind of garden-variety breast cancer, but there's not. Everybody's different.''
Carman and Slade-Skinner emphasized that a patient with an upbeat attitude has a better time with treatment. Both say many of their patients live happier lives after recovery than before diagnosis.
``A lot of times people think I'm crazy when I say the worst thing in the world is not getting breast cancer,'' Carman said. ``I have really seen it turn a lot of women's priorities around. By the end, a lot of things positive have happened.''
Oberndorf said Monday that she's had a hard time getting over the shock - and scare - of her diagnosis.
``You have to unlearn all the scary things you learned when you nursed your own mother through it,'' Oberndorf said. ``When I was younger and my mother had it, people hardly even said the word. They called it the big C.
``(But) it's wrong to be afraid of it. It's better to face it and try to cure it.''
Oberndorf said she may have to scale back her involvement in city business - which occupies her from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. most days. She will continue her re-election campaign against political newcomer Robert F. Yurina.
Other council members have agreed to take over some of Oberndorf's city and campaign-related duties so she can focus on regaining her health.
``The key thing I'm concerned about is getting her health back,'' Vice Mayor W.D. Sessoms Jr. said. ``I'm very confident that with the way she's approaching this situation that she will be back in a very short while. I look forward to her getting back.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Meyera E. Oberndorf
KEYWORDS: BREAST CANCER by CNB