Stand Up to Cancer: My Story

At 7 o'clock Central tonight, I'll be glued to the television as though my life depended on it - because it just might.

When I was 27 years old, four words changed my life: "Positive for a deleterious mutation." Translated into English, that meant I was carrying the mutated gene that triggered the breast and ovarian cancer suffered by my mother, grandmother and great aunts.

What came next was just as scary: The only reliable way to avoid cancer was to remove my healthy breasts and reproductive organs.

It was a horrible choice: Sacrifice part of my body and give up my hopes of bearing children, or live with the knowledge that my body contained a ticking time bomb that might cause cancer today, tomorrow - or 20 years from now.

It is hard to believe that, in this day and age, medical science offers so few options, so few answers, to countless women who have inherited genes that can cause breast and ovarian cancer. It is painful to think of the many lives that have been lost because we have not invested enough in cancer research, education, testing and treatment.

So I am deeply, deeply thankful that ABC, CBS and NBC are joining together in a simultaneous - and potentially life-saving - broadcast: Stand Up to Cancer, an informational and fund-raising special.

I am so proud of brave women like Christina Applegate, who are speaking out about their inherited cancer risk and the medical choices they have made to save their lives. When I received those grim genetic test results seven years ago, I never talked about "It." That isolation led me on a five-year exploration of what it means to live in the shadow of cancer, a journey which resulted in my new documentary film, In the Family.

As I tried to figure out how to live with this crazy information, I looked to other women for answers. In the Family tells their stories: Linda, dying of cancer, yet teaching me not to mess with life; Martha, working tirelessly to keep African-American women included in the fight against breast cancer even as she battled her own disease, without health insurance; Olga, a young mother so paralyzed by her terror of cancer that she could hardly bring herself to undergo a genetic test that might relieve her fears.

Over the past few months, In the Family has premiered to small audiences across the country, thanks in part to our co-sponsor, the Chicago-based Playboy Foundation. (There will also be a special New York premiere of the film on September 15, co-presented by the Playboy Foundation, Kartemquin Films, P.O.V. and the Paley Center for Media.) In The Family will premiere on television nationwide on PBS on P.O.V. on Oct. 1, the first day of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I hope that In the Family, like SU2C, will educate people about their own cancer risks, and will let people know how much more still needs to be done to end cancer in our lifetimes.

On the night of the historic SU2C broadcast, I shout out, with my fellow "pre-vivors" and survivors of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer, for increased funding - not only for a cure, but for early detection, better cancer-prevention options, and increased access to affordable genetic testing.

We must forever change the paradigm of Cancer=Death.

Comments

[evelitts]

joanna, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
your story parallels mine in more ways than you can imagine.
like you, i found out that i'm brca1+ at the age of 27. i've chosen surveillance for now--but it's a decision i struggle with daily.
as a single woman, i've kept my brca diagnosis silent to most, because i have a hard time talking about it.
thank you for making this documentary to show everyone just what we struggle with.
thank you, thank you.
erin

[flamenco]

Dear Joanna,
I saw In The Family last night. Wow, what a great, though harrowing, story. My eyes filled with tears as I watched you and the other people dealing with such a dangerous threat to your lives.

It was very brave of you to reveal so many personal details of your struggle. You've done a wonderful thing by making a film that can help so many women and their families with potentially life-saving information, and by showing how it's possible to cope with cancer and the threat of getting it.

Thank you, and may your future be bright!

[doc martin]

Joanna, have you heard of the research of physician Dean Ornish? His studies, published in peer-reviewed medical journals, have shown that a combination of lifestyle changes including diet, exercise, and meditation can effectively shut off cancer-promoting genes. That is, he has demonstrated that one's genes are not "set in stone" in that their behavior can be manipulated. Here are a few references that you might like to read, before proceeding further down the road toward mutilating your body in an effort to avoid cancer:

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470204508702341/abstract?iseop=true
http://www.jurology.com/article/S0022-5347(01)68518-5/abstract
http://www.pnas.org/content/105/24/8369.full.pdf

Best wishes.

[LRM216]

All I can say is, God bless. Your story touched me greatly.

[wolfgangmo]

The sad fact is that we KNOW how to prevent cancer reliably. The sadder fact is that we are often not given this information and some choose not to act on it.

Cancer is preventable. It is only sort of curable. And I have always wondered why chemo agents have never been studied in double blind studies with a control neutral.

There are ways to make things better and even improve your odds. For me that involves seeing a Naturopathic Doctor who attended one of the schools in the Princeton Review.

Good luck everyone.

[mamacat]

Wow, what an amazing story!

Thanks for the info, will be looking for the documentary.

[Joanna Rudnick - Huffpost Blogger]

If you're in the New York area, join me at this screening at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 15 at the Paley Center for Media, 25 West 52 Street. Admission is complimentary. Please Rsvp by Sept. 8 to http://www.amdoc.org/rsvp/2008/itf/invite.html

[wolfgangmo]

I'm a little confused. Do you have cancer? Or are you just concerned that you have the genetic propensity to develop it [which, to be fair you must have suspected given your family history]?

[captainruss]

Hi Joanna,
What an awesome program! It brought tears to my eyes. What wonderful work you are doing for the women of the world. i wish i could help more in some way.

[HLS GC]

I have already seen the "In the Family" documentary at one of the previews. I have one word: AMAZING!

I highly recommend that anyone concerned about their personal or family history of cancer to tune in to PBS on October 1st. Check your local listings for details. Until then, you can view the trailer here: http://inthefamily.kartemquin.com/

A big thank you to Joanna who courageously shares her personal struggle (as well as the stories of several other men, women, and children facing hereditary cancer) with us. This is what I call MUST SEE TV!!!