Exclusive Report in Glamour Magazine Investigates How One Young Woman Received a Double Mastectomy and Later Found Out She Never Had Breast Cancer.

Health, Feature &Women's Editors

NEW YORK--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 10, 2000

The March issue of GLAMOUR magazine examines the shocking story of Denise Freeman, an Oklahoma woman who was just 25 and newly married when her doctors, suspecting she had cancer, performed a bilateral mastectomy. Weeks after her surgery, Denise was told that she had been misdiagnosed and that the painful and disfiguring surgery had been a mistake. In an exclusive GLAMOUR report, Denise talks about her ordeal and why she believes it could happen to other women.

Denise's original pathologist's report identified an aggressive type of breast cancer (&uot;moderately differentiated infiltrating ductal carcinoma with adjacent in situ ductal component&uot;), a potentially lethal form of the disease. However, when one of the nation's foremost breast cancer researchers examined Denise's biopsy, he discovered that the sample didn't reveal cancer but sclerosing adenosis, a benign but unusual and complicated pattern of cell growth that mimics cancer.

Because three different pathologists at her hospital had confirmed the malignant diagnosis, Denise never imagined that it could be wrong. She and her husband had put their plans to have a baby on hold; they prepared for Denise to lose her breasts--and maybe her life, if they hadn't caught the cancer early enough.

After learning of the mistaken diagnosis, Denise's emotions went wild.

&uot;I went from one extreme to another,&uot; she says. &uot;When I thought the tissue was bad, it didn't bother me that it had been thrown out, but when I found out it was healthy, I thought, My breasts are in a trash can somewhere!&uot;

She believes that what happened to her could easily happen to other women.

&uot;Just because you go to a reputable facility, that doesn't change the fact that it's being run by humans,&uot; she tells GLAMOUR. &uot;Always take the time to get a second opinion. Ask questions. And don't be afraid to piss somebody off. I always was; I didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings.&uot;

&uot;Something like this causes you to question everything out there,&uot; Denise says. &uot;I see everything as life and death now.&uot;

The March issue of GLAMOUR hits newsstands on February 15.