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Mary Golias is 96, and knows what she wants and doesn’t want. When she was told that she might need a potentially disfiguring surgery to remove skin cancer on her forehead that hadn’t responded to chemotherapy, she refused. But over time, the cancer – a basal cell carcinoma – grew to the point where she was always wearing a bandage to cover it up. Finally, her daughters, Georgeann DiGiovanni and Mary Wozniak, both nurses, convinced her to see Hasan Danish, MD, a radiation oncologist with Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute.
“There was something about Dr. Danish that I liked,” Golias says. It may have been his calm, non-pushy manner, or the fact that he told her that he could treat her with radiation therapy alone. Still, it took some convincing after she learned that she’d need 20 consecutive treatments over the course of a month. “That was a little scary, but I figured I’d take it one day at a time,” she says.
“I had some concerns that my mother wouldn’t be able to withstand the treatment,” says DiGiovanni. “But Dr. Danish was confident and optimistic that he could help her, and I knew something had to be done.”
An effective alternative
Danish notes that many patients and even physicians aren’t aware that radiation treatment is an option for basal and squamous cell carcinomas, the most common types of skin cancers. “Particularly in visible areas like the face and neck, radiation is as effective as surgery in terms of removing the cancer, and it offers better cosmetic results,” he says.
In June 2018, Golias began receiving daily treatments for her forehead cancer, as well as three other lesions on her body. Although she did experience some side effects, including some pain, poor appetite and “no pep,” she notes that “the radiation oncology staff was wonderful, and once I got used to the routine, the treatments weren’t so bad.”
Resuming her life
Over time, the forehead lesion gradually scabbed over and fell away. It’s now healed completely, allowing Golias to more fully enjoy visits with her daughters and her daily routine at Holy Family Manor in Bethlehem.
“I feel good now,” she says. “I came through it all beautifully.”
–YASMINE IQBAL
