Sabrina Lewandowski woke up one morning 23 years ago with a headache that should have killed her.
The cause was a stage four glioblastoma multiforme - a particularly insidious brain tumor that most people don't survive. Many hospitals would have advised her to go home and get her affairs in order.
But instead of a death sentence, a care team at the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke presented her with options.
And hope.
"They said, 'This is a really serious thing you have going on. Most people wouldn't give you six months to 18 months, but you're here at Duke, and we have Plan A, Plan B and Plan C,'" she recounted recently. "I knew I was in the right place."
At that low moment, Lewandowski needed some hope. She was 30, a new transplant to the area from Buffalo, N.Y., teaching fourth grade at a local elementary school in Cary. Her life was just getting started.
So she embraced the Duke plan, which eschewed the standard of care in favor of a more complicated, aggressive therapy that would attempt to outwit the tumor through unconventional means. The approach, led by neuro-oncologist Henry Friedman, would employ a rotation of chemotherapy treatments rather than a single one.
"They couldn't just give me the same thing over and over," Lewandowski said. "They had to break it up and go with different chemotherapies. Duke is aggressive with what they do. They think outside the box, and they don't do what everyone else is doing."
"I never really knew what a scientist was. I never valued them until it meant something to me. These people are really paving the way. Medicine evolves, and it evolves because of these people."
Sabrina Lewandowski
The experience opened Lewandowski's eyes to a world of science, research and health care she was largely unfamiliar with. She realizes now the power of a research-intensive medical center like Duke is its ability to transfer cutting-edge science into live-saving treatment.
"I never really knew what a scientist was. I never valued them until it meant something to me," she said. "These people are really paving the way. Medicine evolves, and it evolves because of these people."
In all, Lewandowski underwent 33 days of radiation and more than a year of chemotherapy.
Did it work?
She's still here to talk about it more than two decades later. She and her husband, Greg, live in Raleigh with their 13-year-old daughter, Layla. Lewandowski volunteers with Angels Among Us, the organization that raises money for the Duke brain tumor center.
But she has never declared victory over cancer.
"I'm not arrogant like that," she said. I'm very blessed every day but I don't want to think like I beat it, because I don't know that I did. But having a baby, getting married, being able to work, I'm very blessed and every day I appreciate it. Every single day."
Angels Among Us 5K Run
Angels Among Us will be held on Duke's Medical Center Campus April 26. Funds raised benefit the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center and may be endowed for ongoing support. The 5K run is a certified course professionally timed by Precision Race. In addition, we host a Walk for HOPE, Li'l Angels Dash, KidZone, food trucks and vendors, Silent Auction & so much more!
