U A B C O M P R E H E N S I V E C A N C E R C E N T E R

O N E PAT I E N T. O N E T E A M . O N E G O A L .

At the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, we believe in a highly specialized, personalized

approach to treatment. Through our innovative Integrated Multidisciplinar y Cancer

Care Program (IMCCP), we combine the various specialists involved in cancer care — surger y, chemotherapy, radiation — into one dynamic team. By doing so, we are able to

collaboratively offer each patient a treatment plan that is specifically tailored to his or

her individual needs. At the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, we are making progress in our

promise to eliminate cancer as a major public health problem.

Dianne Poe is a wife, a mother, a grandmother, Dianne soon had an appointment at the Cancer

a gardener, a teacher and—thanks to the UAB Center’s Breast Health Clinic, located in The Kirklin

Comprehensive Cancer Center’s innovative Clinic®, home to many of the Cancer Center’s

research—a cancer survivor. outpatient services. She knew she was in good hands

even on her first day. “Walking into The Kirklin Dianne was 61 in September 2006, when she was

Clinic can be overwhelming because there is so much diagnosed with an invasive ductal carcinoma in her

going on, but for me it was hopeful because I knew I left breast. She had felt a small lump in her breast

was in the best place I could be,” Dianne says. several times while showering, but doctors near

her hometown of Lanett, Alabama, either missed Cancer Center senior scientist and hematologist- seeing the abnormality on scans or did not consider

oncologist Andres Forero, M.D., examined Dianne it to be serious.

and described her options for treatment. She could

U have a mastectomy, she could go on an aggressive nsatisfied with those results, Dianne visited a new course of chemotherapy, or she could pursue a third

radiologist in nearby Opelika, Alabama, who confirmed

the worst—she had cancer option—a clinical trial.. “My husband and I were

in shock,” she says. “Like most people who hear the “I didn’t know what a clinical trial was,” Dianne says.

‘C-word,’ my whole world changed in an instant.” “But I knew how difficult the other options would be,

Dianne was told that surgery was her best option, and and I figured that the trial couldn’t be any worse.

even though a date was scheduled, she was hesitant. Dr. Forero explained that if I qualified, the side

“I talked to my daughter and said I wanted a second effects would be so minimal that I could keep

opinion—that I wanted to go to UAB,” Dianne recalls. working and stay in my normal routine. That was

“And she said, ‘Mom, that’s where you’re going.’” very important to me.”

UAB COMPREHENSIVE CANCER CENTER 5