Inside Duke Medicine

For patients, a brighter world of cancer care

Doris Ann Price relishes the option to receive her treatment outside on the new garden terrace or even inside by a window overlooking the healing garden.

Doris Ann Price of Raleigh has battled breast cancer on and off since 1993 under the care of the Duke oncology team.

In 2006, after 13 cancer-free years, her cancer returned as stage four and metastasized, meaning she would be on treatment indefinitely and spend much of her time at Duke.

Price comes to Duke because she feels the medical team and researchers are unmatched in their expertise and she “wouldn’t think of being treated elsewhere locally.” She also is excited about what the new Cancer Center facility will bring to her weekly treatment time and overall patient experience.

“To create an environment with some living things, plants, openness and light, is incredible,” said Price, who loves the outdoors, especially hiking, kayaking and the North Carolina mountains. “All those things are important because as a cancer patient you can feel closed in and your world can feel darker.”

Price relishes the option to receive her treatment outside on the new garden terrace or even inside by a window overlooking the healing garden.

“I’m excited to know that the new facility is going to expand consciousness about the whole cancer experience, not just provide a new house for the services,” she said.

In 2006, Price was told she might live another 18 months to two years.

“I felt like I had been punched in the gut,” she said. “The truth is, no one knows how much time they have left, so all we can do is embrace life and embrace people and try to make our lives as full as we can. As a cancer patient, I don’t want to live every day of my life feeling like I have been labeled with a big ‘cancer’ sticker, but rather want to continue living my life being embraced as the same human being that I was prior to my diagnosis. After all, the word ‘cancer’ only draws power when we speak of it in dreaded or fearful tones instead of using it to simply reference a medical condition."

The new building will provide space to develop and integrate supportive care services, including support groups, nutrition counseling, financial counseling, survivorship services, and recreational therapies.

James Hines of Raleigh knows his support group is an essential part of his care. In June 2006, while Hines was still in the hospital recovering from a radical prostatectomy, counselor Patrick Plumeri, MS, LMFT, told him about the prostate cancer support group. Hines started going and found the support he wanted in better understanding the challenges and frustrations of living with prostate cancer.

“The nice thing about the support session is that you find your experience is usually very similar to what others are experiencing, and it made me feel I am not alone in this fight with cancer,” he said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to learn about the aspects and different type treatments and nutrition, and to network with other patients or potential patients.”

For Price, Hines and others, the state-of-the-art Cancer Center facility represents Duke Medicine’s abiding commitment to providing the best in compassionate, patient-focused care now in and in the future.

Read other articles from the special issue of Inside Duke Medicine on the Cancer Center facility.