Listening is key to Deb's early cancer diagnosis

By Connie Wirta

DebMitchell says the lesson of her cancer journey is the importance of listening. First, she listened to her body and then she found physicians who listened to her and to one another.

In 2014, Deb was struggling with heavy periods, migraines, anemia and fatigue. “I knew it wasn’t normal for me, that it wasn’t right,” the Duluth woman recalls.

Her primary care physician, Dr. Debrah LaBarre, listened carefully to her symptoms and decided not to try standard treatments, opting instead for a biopsy of the lining of her uterus. Dr. LeBarre also suggested she follow up with her longtime obstetrician/ gynecologist, Dr. James Sebastian. When the pathologist’s report suggested the possibility of endometrial cancer, Dr. Sebastian recommended Deb see the Northland’s only gynecological cancer specialist, Dr. Colleen Evans at the Essentia Health-Duluth Clinic.

“He knew me well enough, and he knew the pathologist well enough to know this was borderline and he wanted me to see Dr. Evans,” Deb recalls. “He trusted her so that let me trust her, too.”

Deb was nervous about her first appointment with Dr. Evans. “You hear that word ‘cancer,’ and you know it’s serious,” says Deb, who works as clinic manager for UMD Health Services. “I sank to the floor when my doctor called me with the biopsy report. I may or may not have cancer? What does that mean?”

Deb says she found herself in the office of “a warm and welcoming doctor who was very focused on me.” Dr. Evans explained Deb had a very early stage of cancer and outlined a treatment plan that included a complete hysterectomy. She answered questions and made sure Deb understood the plan.

“Dr. Evans made me feel good about what the outcome would be because we caught it very, very early,” Deb recalls.

After her appointment, Deb and her husband, Michael, shared her diagnosis and treatment plan with their family. “My 13-year-old son, Omri, asked me, ‘Are you going to die?’ and I said, ‘No, I’m not,’’’ Deb remembers. “I wasn’t just giving him lip service, because I believed it, and knew Dr. Evans believed it. She made me believe that because of my confidence in her and what she would do.”

Dr. Evans used a robotic surgical system to make five small incisions for Deb’s hysterectomy on Sept. 9, 2014. Doing the minimally invasive procedure helped Deb heal and recover more quickly. She and her family were relieved to hear that she had only a tiny area of cancerous cells that had not spread. Her cancer was diagnosed as the earliest possible stage, Stage 1A. She didn’t need chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

Dr. Evans credits the early diagnosis to Deb recognizing symptoms and seeking advice from her physicians, who considered endometrial cancer as a possible cause and didn’t simply opt to treat her bleeding with a hormonal regimen.

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecological cancer in the United States, Dr. Evans explains. It is most common in postmenopausal women over age 60 so Deb’s diagnosis at age 42 was unusual.

Any change in menstrual bleeding or bleeding between periods warrants a checkup with your physician, Dr. Evans advises, and any bleeding after menopause also needs to be checked out.

There is no screening test for endometrial cancer. Pap smears are a screening test for cancer of the cervix, another part of the uterus.

Deb will continue to see Dr. Evans for regular checkups until five years after her diagnosis. “I form long-term relationships with patients like Deb,” Dr. Evans says. “It’s one of the reasons that I love my work”

Dr. Evans works with medical oncologists at the Essentia Health Cancer Center and regional cancer centers to coordinate treatments even closer to home for her patients. She also collaborates with her patients’ family medicine physicians and gynecologists. “We work to keep cancer care close to home,” she says.

“If my doctors hadn’t listened to me and to one another, I could have had a completely different story,” says Deb, who has six children in her blended family and two grandchildren. “I could no longer be here to enjoy my kids and now my grandkids. I’m so grateful.” D

Connie Wirta is an editor for Essentia Health marketing. She wrote this for The Woman Today.

Cancer Specialist

Dr. Colleen Evans is the only gynecologic oncologist in the Northland. She’s part of the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at the Essentia Health-Duluth Clinic.

Dr. Evans treats women diagnosed with cancers in their reproductive organs. Patients need a physician’s referral to see her.

A graduate of William Kelley High School in Silver Bay, Dr. Evans graduated from the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine in Biddeford, Maine. She did her residency in obstetrics and gynecology as well as a three-year fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the University of Minnesota Medical School.