When a study released in October announced that California's teachers have a significantly higher-than-expected rate of breast cancer and other forms of the dreaded disease, no one was less surprised than Diane Cadei, a math and social studies teacher at Fairview Middle School in Gonzales.
"In my district, which has only three schools, there are three of us with breast cancer - two kindergarten teachers and myself, plus another teacher who has a sarcoma on her leg," says Cadei, a member of the Gonzales Teachers Association. "Every time you turn around, it seems like you hear that so-and-so at school has cancer. The results of the study did not surprise me at all. No cancer survivor who is a teacher would be surprised by this study."
The study of nearly 133,500 female teachers in California began in 1995, and concluded that these teachers experienced a 51 percent higher rate of breast cancer than comparable California women.
They also had a 72 percent greater risk of endometrial cancer, a 59 percent greater risk of melanoma, a 47 percent greater risk of lymphoma, a 28 percent greater risk of ovarian cancer and a 28 percent greater risk of leukemia, according to researchers from the Kreck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, UC Irvine, the Northern California Cancer Center and the state Department of Health Services.
Cadei serves as the only teacher representative on the study's advisory group, called the Scientific Review Task Force. "We meet with the researchers about once a year, and my specific role is to represent teachers. If they talk about doing something, I tell them that it might not work, and I might suggest doing it another way. The study is not finished; it's going to continue for over 10 years."
The cancer findings may have something to do with teachers' reproductive status. Teachers in the study tended to delay having children until they were older or did not have any children. A high percentage used hormone replacement therapy.
On the other hand, some teachers think it might be related to asbestos that school districts haven't removed either for fear of releasing it into the air or because of the expense.
"I fit the profile of being a well-educated woman with health insurance who took care of herself and regularly saw her doctor," says Cadei. "I have no children and was 50 years old when I was diagnosed."
She recalls the exact day - July 28, 1996 - when she discovered a lump in her breast. "I went to the doctor and was told it was cancer. When I got the diagnosis, I had an out-of-body experience. Then I got mad."
"I was fortunate," says Cadei. "I was still in stage 1 - close to stage 2. But the cancer had not spread and there was no lymph node involvement. I had a lumpectomy, radiation and chemo. I went through nine months of treatment, but only took a six-week medical leave from work."
"The chemo was horrible on the body," she recalls. "I felt like I was going to break, but I managed - with the help of my fellow teachers, who served as my support system."
Her colleagues brought food, took over for her on yard duty, went with her to the doctor, straightened up her house and drove her to meetings. "I have one friend who would call me after I had chemo to see how I was doing. Sometimes I would have just finished throwing up. I live by myself, so it was very important to me. It made me feel less alone."
Last year Cadei's doctor gave her a clean bill of health for being cancer-free for five years. "The doctor said I had 'graduated,' and that I only had to be examined every year from now on. It was a good feeling."
Cadei believes that monthly breast self-exams saved her life. She went for her annual mammogram a week after finding the lump, and was shocked to find that her tumor did not show up on the mammogram.
"It's vital to do your own exam, because not everything shows up on a mammogram," she says. "You can save yourself. I did."
She hopes that the study will make teachers more health conscious instead of more frightened. "The hardest part for cancer patients is not seeing the 'why.' If we can find the why, maybe we can find a cure.
"Teachers need to take charge of their own health and know what's going on with their bodies," she adds. "Don't ignore anything. You can make a difference."
