World Cancer Day: Cancer is one of the most hated, dreaded, and complex words, but the churn set in motion by the deadly disease often throws up stories of hope. On World Cancer Day (February 4), here’s a real life story about a young woman who beat cancer and started on a journey to help others score similar victories.
World Cancer Day is an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), an international organisation dedicated to taking action on cancer. World Cancer Day was born on 4 February 2000 at the ‘World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millennium’ in Paris that aimed to promote research, prevent cancer, improve patient services, raise awareness, and mobilise the global community to make progress against cancer. The adoption of World Cancer Day was part of that endeavour.
The theme for World Cancer Day 2025 is ‘United by Unique’. This theme emphasises a people-centred approach to cancer care, placing individuals and their stories at the heart of the conversation.
One such story has been shared on social media by the Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital (MSK), located in New York, US. The story is of a feisty American woman who battled a devastating cervical cancer diagnosis and extensive surgery, and then set out to address what she saw as gaps in existing treatment options for gynaecologic cancers like hers.
A Tough Journey
Anh Le was diagnosed with glassy cell carcinoma, a rare, deadly form of cervical cancer, in 2018, at the start of her second year of medical school in Chicago. At first, Anh’s doctors in Chicago deployed various methods to stop the march of the invasive disease – such as hysterectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation. It seemed to work initially, but a year later, the cancer returned in multiple spots in her pelvis. The outlook was dire — the five-year survival rate for someone with a recurrence of this cancer was less than 50%, the MSK write-up noted.
Anh was advised to undergo total pelvic exenteration — a major surgery that removes all organs in the pelvis, including the ovaries, bladder, rectum, anus, urethra, and vagina. It would remove the cancer, but it also meant that Anh would be strapped to external tubes for eliminating solid waste and urine for her entire life. Anh, then 30, was not ready for this.
“I had also known, as assumed, that if there was another recurrence of my cancer, it would just mean longer chemotherapy,” Dr Anh Le is quoted as saying in the write-up. “I was in shock that I needed surgery that would be so extensive and life-changing.”
She began researching more on her options and any hospitals that had breakthrough treatments. That is when a mentor in her home state of Arizona suggested she seek a second opinion at MSK. Anh subsequently visited New York City and met with MSK gynaecologic medical oncologist Angela Green and gynaecologic surgeon Mario M. Leitao, Jr.
Anh hoped they would tell her she didn’t need the exenteration, but they were in firm agreement: It was by far the best option for saving her life. The fact that Dr Leitao had done an exenteration multiple times gave her confidence. MSK was also the very first hospital to perform this surgery back in the 1940s (it was performed by the facility’s first Chief of Gynecology, Dr Alexander Brunschwig).
“Looking back, I don’t think I could have been where I am today with any doctor but him,” she said of Leitao. “Everyone at MSK has been amazing, but Dr Leitao holds a very special place for me.”
At the hospital, her care team included a range of specialists to handle different parts of the complex surgery. The procedure would require not only removing the cancer but also constructing new ways to divert urine and solid waste, as well as reconstructing part of the vagina.
In November 2019, she underwent the operation.
Eliminating The Threat Of Lingering Cancer Cells
The doctors kept her on the regular follow-up list even while Anh was recovering in New York over the next two months. That is when a routine follow-up CT scan showed an enlarged lymph node in her right groin. Dr Leitao removed that node and a few surrounding ones. Tests showed the node did indeed contain cancer cells.
Anh conferred with Dr Leitao, who recommended she have immunotherapy with a drug called pembrolizumab (commercial name Keytruda). After returning to Chicago, Anh received this treatment under the care of a local physician once every three weeks for two years.
Remarkably, through her entire experience, Anh never took a leave of absence from medical school, just sporadic days off every now and then. As she recovered from her surgery at MSK, she took online courses that most medical students save for their fourth year.
Helping Cervical Cancer Patients Like Her
Anh first became interested in gynaecologic oncology when she was diagnosed. The recurrence convinced her this path was her destiny.
“Having experienced all that I did, I was sure these were the people I wanted to care for,” she said. “It made me realise how many gaps in healthcare exist for gynaecologic oncology patients, particularly from an emotional perspective. I want to be able to give back to those patients.”
Despite cervical cancer being widely viewed as preventable due to the HPV vaccine, not enough women are receiving it. A 2025 report from the American Cancer Society showed an increase in new cases of cervical cancer among women aged 30 to 44. (The incidence has declined in younger women.)
Dr Le is now in her third year as an OB/GYN resident at Banner-University Medical Center in Phoenix.
“In a full-circle moment, Dr. Le came back to MSK in July 2024 for a month of intensive training as part of the Gynecological Brunschwig Rotating Resident Program — named after the very doctor who developed the lifesaving procedure. She ended up training alongside two people who had assisted in her surgery five years earlier — Dr Broach, and gynecologic surgeon Evan Smith, MD, who is now an assistant attending surgeon,” the MSK write-up noted.
Nearly five years after her surgery, Dr Le has no evidence of cancer and is remarkably active. She likes to hike, run half-marathons, and forage for mushrooms. Her mantra for life? “You can’t wait until life isn’t hard anymore before you decide to be happy!”
The writer is a senior independent journalist.
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