From WCAU-TVBreakthrough breast cancer research is giving one Delaware woman another chance at life. Doctors say the treatment brought amazing results in just a matter of months.
Margaret Williams marks the end of her breast cancer battle with the ringing of a survivor's bell at Christiana Care Breast Center. She didn't think this day would come as fast as it did.
"I was shocked when Dr. Dickson-Witmer told me that it was gone and this breakthrough had been made," said Williams.
Margaret came under the care of Dr. Diana Dickson-Witmer after she discovered her breast cancer by accident.
A mammogram detected a 3 ½-inch cancerous lump in her breast. She decided a clinical trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute was her best bet.
It's the first of its kind in the U.S., where postmenopausal patients take a daily estrogen-blocking pill to shrink their breast cancer before surgery. Doctors say unlike chemotherapy, the drug called aromatase inhibitors have little to no side-effects.
"People stage 4 do better if they have their treatment in an NCI sponsored clinical trial, just because probably of the intense scrutiny with the way the test is administered," Dickson-Witmer said.
