Darlene Pettis

When Darlene Pettis entered college she wanted to be a doctor and find a cure for cancer, and although she is not a doctor, she still may have helped someone else fight cancer. In 1996, during Darlene’s second trimester of pregnancy, she noticed a persistent discharge was coming from her breast but no other signs of anything unusual. After seeing a high-risk obstetrics doctor, who was determined to figure out the problem, she was diagnosed at age 37 with inflammatory breast cancer. Doctors urged her to start chemotherapy and to deliver her son Richard early so she could continue the treatments and have a mastectomy because of the aggressive nature of the cancer. Soon they realized the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes, and she urged doctors to do everything that they could.

Doctors performed a bone marrow transplant and radiation therapy, and in the fall of 1997 she had reconstruction surgery performed. After the surgery Darlene was hospitalized, and during that time the doctor performed scans that showed the cancer had returned, but this time in one of her lungs. They did a right lung resection and tried many different kinds of chemotherapy, but she never went into remission. In 2000 doctors were able to keep the cancer from growing any more but it had already spread into her other lung. Around that same time a clinical trial had opened up for a new drug and Darlene was eager to try it. Amazingly, the chemotherapy used in the new treatment was not debilitating like many treatments, and she was able to live a fairly normal life for the next six years

In 2006 the situation took a turn, when Darlene found that the cancer had spread to one of her vital organs, her liver. At this time she was sent to a breast cancer specialist who had actually authored the clinical trial that she had been a part of six years earlier. She had a liver resection performed to remove the cancerous tissue at the time, but in 2008 her cancer had returned, this time to her brain. Doctors performed another resection, which went well, but in 2009 the cancer returned once again and doctors recommended a "radiosurgery." In this procedure, doctors shot an intense beam of radiation directly at the 2 lesions on her brain, and in January of 2010 Darlene passed the 14-year mark of living with cancer.

Since her diagnosis, Darlene feels that her journey has made her a better person. Her cancer caused her to slow down, eventually leaving her job as a chemical engineer in 2000. This gave her the opportunity to spend more time with her family, which was a blessing. Throughout her journey her husband John, and son Richard, now 14, have provided her with all of their love and support. Her brother, Richard (whom Darlene’s son is named after) and her sister-in-law, Brenda have also been an extraordinary support system during her 14 years of fighting. They took care of Richard when she was in the hospital for her bone marrow transplant and sacrificed so much to assist Darlene every step of the way in her fight.

In 2002, Darlene started to participate in Race for the Cure and in researching her condition, she has found that the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Web site provided an invaluable resource with the latest news on breast cancer research and educational materials. Darlene appreciates the work, effort and money that the Susan G. Komen Tarrant County affiliate puts forth in their grassroots research for breast cancer. She knows that some of the money raised by the affiliate has funded the research that she has participated in over her 14 year battle with the disease, as every major advance in breast cancer treatment has been touched by Komen dollars.

Darlene urges anyone fighting breast cancer to not give up, rely on their faith, and to be their own advocate. Her journey has been tumultuous and she still goes in for chemotherapy every three weeks. She and her family are trying to be as normal as they can be, and her primary goal currently is to raise her son to be a good person. Darlene hopes that although she may not have become a doctor, that her 14 years of fighting breast cancer will someday help someone else in his or her fight against cancer.