Kathy Delaney-Smith
Harvard basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith rebounds after a memorable season with cancer
Almost a year after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, Kathy Delaney-Smith's hair is growing back.
It's short and curly where it used to be long and straight. But that's okay, the Harvard College women's basketball coach will tell you, just as long as she doesn't have to wear a wig.
With cold weather upon us, Delaney-Smith is back where she belongs, striding the sidelines of a basketball court instead of getting therapy at the Gillette Center for Women's Cancers at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center (DFBWCC). Though this season is off to a bumpy start, Delaney-Smith appreciates the talent of her young team and hopes this year will be a memorable one.
Even if they win an Ivy League championship, however, it will be difficult to top the drama of last season.
After her diagnosis, Delaney-Smith endured an unforgettable regimen of surgery to remove the lump, chemotherapy that weakened and sickened her, and radiation that sapped her strength.
That she coached her team into contention for the league title while undergoing treatment, missing no games and just a handful of practices along the way, is a measure of her dedication to the squad.
It's also a measure of her determination to teach others, through her own example, about the importance of cancer screening, positive thinking, and support for research into cancer treatments and cures.
Almost from the start, Delaney-Smith was open about her disease. She shared her experience with her players, even asking one - the unofficial "team hairdresser" - to cut her shoulder-length blonde hair before chemotherapy made it fall out. She also let the media report on her off-court battle, becoming the subject of numerous print and broadcast stories.
Her players' respect for their coach soared as they watched her lead despite the numbing fatigue and nausea. And although the squad fell short of clinching the Ivy title, her players and assistant coaches helped give Delaney-Smith something much more precious than a trophy: strength.
"There's a part of me that will always be attached to last year's team because of their efforts on my part," she says.
Telling her story
Today, Delaney-Smith is determined to give back some of that strength. Outspoken by nature and used to the limelight, she has kept up a steady stream of appearances and lectures. She has taped a public service announcement for television, participated in events such as the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life, and even appeared at a Cancer Society fashion show in October.
Whenever people ask, Delaney-Smith tells her story, encouraging cancer survivors and urging as many people as possible to work for cures. With so many advances in treatment, she speculates, it's just a matter of time before breast cancer is a memory. "A year ago, I don't think I knew anyone who had breast cancer. I didn't know that we had advanced as much as we had," Delaney-Smith says. "It leads me to believe that if we can continue that research aggressively, perhaps we are close to preventing or curing it." Despite that promise, breast cancer is the second most deadly cancer among women, after lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. An estimated 4,400 Massachusetts women will be diagnosed with it this year, and about 1,000 women in the state will die from the disease in 2000.
Delaney-Smith herself has benefited from innovative treatment. Diagnosed after a suspicious lump was found during a routine exam last December, she received a sentinel node dissection as part of her treatment. In this new procedure, the surgeon removes a single lymph node to ascertain the cancer's spread.
The technique offers an alternative to the more invasive axillary node dissection, which requires a larger incision to extract several under-arm nodes. Axillary node dissection has potential complications such as nerve injury and lymphedema - a persistent swelling of the arm from the build-up of lymph fluid.
"Only in the past few years has sentinel node dissection become available in a small number of institutions," says Lawrence Shulman, M.D., of Adult Oncology, Delaney-Smith's cancer specialist. "It is a technically difficult procedure requiring an experienced surgeon, but it greatly benefits our patients."
Though removal of Delaney-Smith's lump and her subsequent chemotherapy and radiation were more standard approaches, Shulman says less toxic drugs are being developed to fight breast and other cancers.
"There are many new treatments on the horizon," Shulman notes. "We're looking at better and less toxic chemotherapy than she received. We're also investigating new hormonal treatments and new biologic agents targeted specifically at cancer cells, which we hope will improve cure rates for our patients."
That Delaney-Smith was able to carry on coaching during her therapy is an indication of the increased emphasis on incorporating treatment into patients' lives, according to Shulman. Allowing patients to continue participating in meaningful activities is an important part of treatment planning today.
Out of the woodwork
After having no personal contact with breast cancer before her own diagnosis, Delaney-Smith now encounters the illness everywhere. Shortly after her radiation therapy ended, she found out her younger sister also had breast cancer. Anne's situation required more radical treatment than did Delaney-Smith's: six chemotherapy infusions instead of four, and a mastectomy.
The coach helped her sister in any way she could, sharing her own experiences, giving advice, and flying to Florida to visit. In some ways, Delaney-Smith says, Anne's cancer was more difficult to handle than her own - because the battle was in someone else's hands.
Make that several people's hands. Delaney-Smith's sister-in-law was recently diagnosed with the disease as well, and there are regular telephone calls from friends and acquaintances who either have breast cancer or know someone who has.
"I can ease their fears. That brings me satisfaction," Delaney-Smith reflects. "What is hard is that all these people I know are getting breast cancer."
Judy Garber, M.D., M.P.H., of Population Sciences and Adult Oncology, is director of the Friends of Dana-Farber Cancer Risk and Prevention Clinic. She says it's sometimes difficult to make sense of the cancer messages out there. Early detection and the right treatment are critical factors for cancer patients. Eating healthfully, exercising regularly, limiting weight gain, and having a positive attitude are all important for lowering cancer risk and maintaining overall health.
Although not every patient can take on the challenge of coaching a collegiate basketball team during treatment, Garber says, it's important that other people with cancer hear voices like Delaney-Smith's.
"She shows the public that it's possible to survive this and to triumph," Garber comments. "She's saying, in essence, 'Look what you can do, even with cancer.'"
Photos by Jon Chase
(Inside the Institute, Dec. 19 2000)
