Patient Voices: Marissa Chew
Patient Voices: Marissa Chew
Leaps of Faith
When she told her doctor she was delaying treatment for a few months she said he looked at her like she was crazy,
Chew laughed at the memory.
“He told me ‘You know this is cancer right? This is serious,’
“But I told him I cannot sacrifice this opportunity.”
Chew had already been treated for throat cancer. The stage one breast cancer diagnosis came after she felt a lump in the shower.
“If you ask anybody, I am naively confident,” Chew said. “I came in stage one and since I have done this before I knew what I was getting into. I could have waited until after the summer and not been diagnosed. I could have waited years and not been diagnosed and who knows where I would be as it but I was a diligent patient. I knew that I was not going to die from this.”
Her summer was successful.
Team USA swept the Thorpe Cup.
Her athletes won several first places in jumps in Costa Rica.
Victor won bronze at the world championships.
It was time to start treatment.
Chew was in high spirits. But the jumps team worried about losing her for a long period.
“She's definitely the glue that holds her team together,” said Quinn Calhoun, a sophomore nursing major, whose event is the pole vault.
“She really is like the mom of the team,” Calhoun said. “She's that coach that everyone goes to when they need something emotionally if they need help, or if they just need someone to talk to. She's just always there. She really just holds our team together.”
Chew is the only woman on the TCU track coaching staff. She has naturally accepted her role as the "mom" for her athletes.
“Being an actual mom myself, it's just in my nature,” Chew said. “I love it. I love it for a multitude of reasons. One being the very first one being, I'm glad that they feel that they're loved.”
Her treatment unified the track team. They made sure Chew knew how much she meant to them.
“There was definitely a huge support system,” said Jillian Johnson, who earned a master's in business analytics from the Neeley School of business in May.
“We had shirts made. We had bracelets made. We even made her a gift basket,” said Johnson, who was on the jumps team. “We wanted to bring awareness about her because we know that because she was already done so much for us. And we just wanted to return the favor.”
The players practiced in pink TCU track gear to honor Chew.
“The event group that I coach, they made me a get-well basket and they made it hilarious because that's who they are," Chew said. "They bought me an oversized bra, some fuzzy slippers, a mug, a candle and so much more.”
The support from the team was what made the recovery manageable. For the first couple weeks walking down her hallway was all the exercise she could handle.
“It was horrible,” Chew said. “Honestly, it was miserable, especially being who I am as active as I am every day. I mean, I'm moving a good 12 to 14 hours every day, and to be literally in bed for like 24 hours a day was miserable for me, but knowing I had my team caring for me helped me through it.”
Cancer research
Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer and makes up 15.5% of all cancer diagnoses in the U.S. Fortunately it is very treatable with a five-year survivability of 91.2%.
“For the average breast cancer,” said Dr. Chi Pham, oncologist at Texas Oncology. “We detect them very early because of screening. And so, because we detect them early, then of course, the cure ability is very high. We are more worried about making sure the cancer doesn’t come back because the survivability is so high.”
Cancer survivability rates from 1975 to 2020. Stats from Susan G. Komen Foundation.
For decades chemotherapy, radiation and surgery were the only treatment options. Now the ways doctors are treating cancer are different.
“Certain breast cancers rely on a pathway we call the HER2 pathway,” Pham said. “And in that instance, we develop an antibody, that will go after the HER2 pathway and destroy it.
“There is also immunotherapy which attempts to stimulate the immune system to fight cancer cells. With these developments of the antibody therapy and immunotherapy we have people Living 20-plus years that have stage four which we say is incurable. It would usually be a year to two years most.”
With these new treatments patients are less likely to be treated with chemotherapy and have higher survival rates. Studies have shown that immunotherapy through a vaccine is able to block tumor cells from forming.
“A lot of times you don't even know if people are taking treatment because they're functional," Pham said. "They still do whatever that they normally do such as working and exercising. We are even able to help patients keep prevent hair loss. With less chemotherapy there are fewer side effects. These treatments often have minimal side effects.”
Chew's first full day back at practice was emotional.
“I could see their relief knowing I was there for them again," she said. "It's going to make me tear up. It felt so right to be back. You could see the pressure valve get released when they saw me that was pretty awesome. They would run and want to embrace, but I’m cut in half so I had to remind them not too hard.”
This summer, Chew coached Victor at the Olympics in Paris. He won bronze in the Men's Decathlon.
“This next chapter is going to be a good one," said Chew, noting her daughter would be at TCU in the fall. "I am feeling incredible. We are not meant to know these things happen. We are meant to overcome them and come out of them.”
The information included in this testimonial is based on one patient’s unique experience and is not intended to represent all patient outcomes or expectations.
