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With a Little Help from Her DFCI Friends, Levine Proves There's Life After Cancer

From Inside the Institute, the staff newsletter of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

While hemmed into a magnetic resonance imaging machine about 14 years ago, Dana-Farber patient Margie Levine experienced the polarity-switching pounding of the machine in a slightly offbeat way.

“I pictured angels chipping away at my tumor with golden axes,” Levine says of the MRI’s deafening clanks, painting a peaceful portrait of an otherwise frightening experience. 

Fourteen years after her near-death experience with malignant pleural mesothelioma, an aggressive thoracic cancer most frequently associated with asbestos exposure, Levine is the longest-living survivor of this cancer, which typically carries a very bleak diagnosis. 

“For my own career, I would consider Margie to be the patient who demonstrated to me that what I was doing is worthwhile,” says Dr. David Sugarbaker, chief, Department of Surgical Services, who performed the groundbreaking surgery that has extended Levine’s life. “What Jimmy was to Sidney Farber, Margie Levine has been to me. Because of her, I’ve devoted the rest of my career to this disease.”

Margie Levine consults with Dr. Karen Marcus (left).

When she learned of her condition, at age 43, Levine prepared for death before engaging in an amazing fight for life that continues to this day. Although a pair of doctors recommended palliative care, assuring a death sentence, Levine continued to search for someone who might work with her to aggressively combat the vine-like cancer growing in her chest.

Working in tandem, Sugarbaker and Levine felt that the best chance to prolong her life was to combine a pleurectomy (surgical removal of the pleura, the lining of the lungs and inner chest wall) with an aggressive chemotherapy wash of her chest cavity during surgery. Ideally, this would scrub away the microscopic cancer cells that are “masters at hiding in normal tissues in the local area,” according to Sugarbaker.

“Fourteen years ago, this innovative therapy was akin to landing on the moon,” says Sugarbaker. “No one knew what was going to happen.”

While her top-notch medical treatment was the primary reason for her survival, the key to Levine’s ability to thrive after such a bleak diagnosis has been her indomitable spirit – and strong belief in spiritual healing.

“I encourage people to reach out, to take risks, and to take charge of their own healing,” says Levine, who has written “Surviving Cancer,” a self-help book that’s hit best-seller lists in Boston and beyond. “We can help ourselves so much through prayer, meditation, and visualization.”

The inimitable Margie Levine.

Technically, the book is a guide to surviving cancer, however, anyone can take the lessons learned in this somewhat slender volume and apply them to their own lives. There are 41 steps in Levine’s guide, but when pushed, she highlights just a few, including positive visualization (the angels with golden axes); forgiveness of others in order to lighten your emotional load; self-empowerment through learning about your affliction and taking an active role in your treatment; learning stress deflection; maintaining a journal; and create a tape of your own voice repeating healing thoughts and uplifting meditative reflections.

“Margie won’t like me saying this, but I believe that the biology of a patient, the biology of a tumor, and the medical treatment received are the most important factors in a positive outcome,” says Dr. Karen Marcus, who once treated Margie and is now the division chief, Radiation Oncology, at Children’s Hospital Boston. “I happen to be a religious person, and far be it from me to discount God in all this, but I’m also a strong believer in traditional medicine.

“But where I think complementary techniques help a person is giving him or her the will to live, the ability to get up in the morning,” adds Marcus. “Scientifically, complementary therapies don’t make a difference, but emotionally, they make a tremendous difference. Margie’s decisions say a lot about her faith in humanity, which is something that we can all learn from.”