[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/life-lessons-from-3-time-cancer-survivor\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/life-lessons-from-3-time-cancer-survivor\/","headline":"Life Lessons from 3-Time Cancer Survivor","name":"Life Lessons from 3-Time Cancer Survivor","description":"Life Lessons from 3-Time Cancer Survivor June 16, 2025 The imaging tests were negative, but Elizabeth Whalen knew something was wrong.Having survived pancreatic cancer\u00a0and breast cancer, the Cape May Court House resident was certain the pains she was experiencing represented more than indigestion, a pulled muscle, or some other minor complaint.Still, the physicians at the […]","datePublished":"2025-06-16","dateModified":"2025-07-08","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/author\/seo-user\/#Person","name":"Advance SEO","url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/author\/seo-user\/","identifier":7,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25d521bea98e4070937950c92cd06d2b99615947d3d29e3682593c48f0372431?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/25d521bea98e4070937950c92cd06d2b99615947d3d29e3682593c48f0372431?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Regional Cancer Care Associates","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/logo.svg","url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/logo.svg","width":506,"height":228}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Elizabeth-Whalen.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Elizabeth-Whalen.jpg","height":2043,"width":1870},"url":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/life-lessons-from-3-time-cancer-survivor\/","about":["All Cancers"],"wordCount":1834,"articleBody":"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLife Lessons from 3-Time Cancer Survivor\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJune 16, 2025\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe imaging tests were negative, but Elizabeth Whalen knew something was wrong.Having survived pancreatic cancer\u00a0and breast cancer, the Cape May Court House resident was certain the pains she was experiencing represented more than indigestion, a pulled muscle, or some other minor complaint.Still, the physicians at the urgent care center, her local hospital, and an academic medical center had not found anything amiss, nor had the computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans that those doctors ordered found signs of recurrent cancer.Then came what, in retrospect, proved to be her lucky break \u2013 literally.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cI went to get out of the car, and I stepped on a stick, and I just twisted a little bit, but that twisting caused me to fracture a rib,\u201d Ms. Whalen explains. Breaking a bone in such an unusual manner prompted her insurer to finally approve the positron emission tomography (PET) scan that it had refused to cover during earlier investigations of Ms. Whalen\u2019s pain. The sophisticated imaging study revealed the bone had broken because it had been invaded and weakened by cancer cells \u2013 metastases from her breast cancer, which had returned and spread.\u201cAll of the CT scans and MRIs they had done previously were just a few centimeters away from showing one of the tumors,\u201d says Ms. Whalen.The PET scan findings and resultant diagnosis of Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer came in 2022, just seven years after Ms. Whalen had undergone extensive surgery to treat her pancreatic cancer and four years after she had a mastectomy and subsequent treatment for her Stage 2 breast cancer.Facing Cancer for the Third TimeSo, what do you do when you\u2019ve been diagnosed with cancer for the third time in seven years?Well, if you\u2019re an action-oriented, solutions-focused, tough-minded, life-loving woman from South Jersey, you get an exercise bike, pick a fight song, and make a plan.Ms. Whalen explains, \u201cThe first thing I did after this last diagnosis was buy a Peloton and sign up for a 150-mile ride on the Peloton to support St. Jude\u2019s Children\u2019s Research Hospital. Unfortunately, I was only able to do 100 miles because I was on chemo, but I was still able to raise some money for St. Jude\u2019s, which was important to me.\u201d She adds that Carrie Underwood\u2019s \u201cSomething in the Water\u201d was one of the \u201cfight songs\u201d that kept her going on the bike and on her cancer journey.\u201cYou have to have faith, and you also have to turn to family and friends. There are dark days, very dark days, and the nights can be even worse because you lay in bed and it\u2019s quiet, and you don\u2019t want your family to know how scared you are, and that\u2019s when it comes crashing in,\u201d Ms. Whalen says. She adds that while those feelings are natural, \u201cYou have to try to get that doubt, that negativity, out, and you have to try to have that positive attitude, that faith, that you’re going to be OK. You have to know it inside and out, and then you just have to make a plan and work it.\u201dMaking a plan and seeing it through to fruition is nothing new for Ms. Whalen, who serves as Vice President of Learning and Development for an international construction consulting firm. A human resources executive by profession, Ms. Whalen was only a few months on the job with her employer in 2007 when she noted that there were \u201cpockets of learning\u201d at company offices all over the world. What was lacking, however, was an overarching structure to make ongoing professional education available to the firm\u2019s engineers, project managers, and other key staffers no matter where they were located. Seeing a need, and an opportunity, Ms. Whalen created a \u201ccorporate university\u201d offering a variety of courses designed to enhance the skills of employees in different roles and locations. The initiative has been so successful that the company\u2019s courses have enabled numerous employees to obtain professional certifications from independent accrediting organizations that set rigorous standards for awarding credentials. In April 2025, OnConferences \u2013 a global membership organization of corporate executives \u2013 honored Ms. Whalen\u2019s achievements by naming her one of the top 10 Learning and Development professionals in the world.Receiving Treatment at RCCA\u2019s Hope Community Cancer CenterMaking a plan for her breast cancer treatment included finding an alternative to traveling to the Philadelphia area to receive care at an academic medical center, as she had done for her pancreatic cancer and initial breast cancer. \u201cThere was no way that I was going to be able to do the chemotherapy\u00a0regimen they wanted me to do and make that trip back and forth each day,\u201d says Ms. Whalen, who grew up in the Cherry Hill area and raised her children there before she and her husband moved to Cape May County \u2013 their longtime vacation spot \u2013 in 2001.When Ms. Whalen asked about obtaining treatment near her home, her Philadelphia-area oncologist recommended Hope Community Cancer Center and Dr. Julianne Childs. Shortly after she contacted RCCA\u2019s Cape May Court House office, \u201cDr. Childs was on the phone with me, asking questions, providing encouragement, and making the arrangements to get my treatment started,\u201d Ms. Whalen says. That treatment began with a grueling 12 rounds of chemotherapy per week. Today, almost three years later, it entails receiving a targeted treatment every 21 days at Hope Community Cancer Center and taking pills at home each day.Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA) delivers cancer screening and testing at over 20 locations\u00a0in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the Washington, D.C., area.\u201cI\u2019m so blessed that Hope Community Cancer Center is here, near my home, and I believe that I probably wouldn\u2019t be here if it weren\u2019t for Dr. Childs and her nurses and other staff. My cancer is Stage 4, meaning that it is incurable, but there has been no progression, and I attribute that to Dr. Childs. She’s a brilliant person, but what makes her different from other brilliant doctors is her empathy. She truly listens. Not all doctors pay close attention to what the patient is saying or accept that a patient knows his or her own body and should be believed when the patient says that something is wrong. Dr. Childs has that respect for the patient\u2019s insights and situation. If I mention that I have sores in my mouth from the treatment, she gets me a prescription right away. At one point just after I finished my chemo, I was away, and I was bit by a tick. I texted her a photo showing a bullseye around the site of the bite and I had a prescription waiting for me before I got home. Her knowledge and her empathy are off the charts.\u201dAdvice from a Cancer SurvivorThe same instinct that drove her to respond to her own cancer diagnosis by raising funds for children with cancer prompted Ms. Whalen to draw on her experience to help others in her 4,100-strong company face their own battles with the disease. She developed and launched an enterprise-wide initiative that enables colleagues with cancer to support one another and share tips and best practices.And what tips and best practices does the advocate of life-long learning have for other people dealing with cancer?Ms. Whalen\u2019s advice includes:Trust yourself \u2013 and find physicians you trust and who, in turn, trust youand what you tell them.Be a smart consumer of web-based information, sticking to sites run by well-known non-profit organizations like the American Cancer Society, healthcare institutions, and other reputable sources.Talk with your doctor about genetic testing \u2013 and talk with your children and other family members about it, too. Ms. Whalen explains that as a child she did not know her father or anything about him. As an adult, five years after her treatment for pancreatic cancer, she learned that her father, two of his brothers, one of his sisters, and her own half-brother all had died of pancreatic cancer.Draw support from family, friends, and faith.Be in touch with other people in a similar situation, whether through in-person support groups or apps that facilitate communication with fellow cancer survivors all over the country or the world.\u201cPick one hell of a fight song!\u201d++++++++Ms. Whalen\u2019s doctor, Julianne W. Childs, DO, is a board-certified medical oncologist and hematologist who has practiced at Hope Community Cancer Center in Cape May Court House and Marmora, NJ, for more than 20 years. After receiving her medical degree from the University of Health Sciences in Kansas City, MO, Dr. Childs completed her internal medicine residency and hematology\/oncology fellowship at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Along with her Hope Community Cancer Center colleagues Kaleem Ahmad, MD; Hemang Dave, MD; and Fatima Fayyaz, MD, Dr. Childs is among 100+ medical oncologists and hematologists\u00a0who practice with Regional Cancer Care Associates (RCCA), one of the nation\u2019s largest networks of oncology specialists. RCCA has more than 20\u00a0locations\u00a0across New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and the Washington, D.C.,\u00a0area. RCCA\u2019s cancer specialists see more than 30,000 new patients each year and provide care to more than 265,000 established patients, collaborating closely with those patients\u2019 other physicians. RCCA physicians offer patients innovative therapies, including immunotherapies\u00a0and targeted therapy, as well as access to approximately 300\u00a0clinical trials. In addition to serving patients who have solid tumors, blood-based cancers, and benign blood disorders, RCCA care centers also provide\u00a0infusion services to people with a number of non-oncologic conditions\u2014including\u00a0multiple sclerosis,\u00a0Crohn\u2019s disease,\u00a0asthma, iron-deficiency anemia, and\u00a0rheumatoid arthritis\u2014who take intravenously-administered medications.To learn more about our comprehensive cancer care, call 844-346-7222\u00a0or contact RCCA\u00a0today.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twe are here for you\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor more information or to schedule an appointment, call 844-346-7222. You can also schedule an appointment by calling the\u00a0RCCA location\u00a0nearest you.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trequest an appointment\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRELATED ARTICLES\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDeciding Where to Receive Cancer Care: RCCA Oncologists Outline Key 5 Considerations\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cMy uncle\u2019s neighbor was diagnosed with the exact same cancer, I think, last year and his specialist has been wonderful. I\u2019m going to get you\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn More\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhen You Diagnose (or Suspect) Cancer: 3 Reasons to Refer Your Patients to RCCA\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cWhat happens next?\u201d \u201cWhere should I go for treatment?\u201d They are questions physicians often hear after informing a patient that they have identified confirmed or\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn More\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Blood Work\u2019 and Cancer Detection: 2 RCCA Oncologists Explain What Doctors Look for in Your CBC\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cYou\u2019re going to feel a little pinch.\u201d Each year, tens of millions of Americans hear that phrase, or words to the same effect, just before\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLearn More\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRegional Cancer Care Associates is one of fewer than 200 medical practices in the country selected to participate in the Oncology Care Model (OCM); a recent Medicare initiative aimed at improving care coordination and access to and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries undergoing chemotherapy treatment.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t"},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Life Lessons from 3-Time Cancer Survivor","item":"https:\/\/www.regionalcancercare.org\/news\/life-lessons-from-3-time-cancer-survivor\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]