Liberal MP, former cabinet minister and auto-parts executive Belinda Stronach decided this spring to have a breast removed in an effort to stave off a future battle with cancer.

Stronach, 41, was still in an undisclosed Toronto hospital Saturday recovering from a mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery. She has been surrounded by family and friends since the operation Tuesday.

Belinda Stronach appears on Parliament Hill in September 2006.
(Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

"She's in good hands, she's in good spirits. She's supported by lots of family and friends," said Greg MacEachern, Stronach's right-hand-man on Parliament Hill, said Saturday.

"I spoke with her [Friday] and she was very upbeat and very positive with me on the phone."

Stronach discovered a lump on her breast in April after a self-examination.

In May, she posed in a T-shirt designed to raise awareness about breast cancer. Asked at the time who else she would like to see wearing the shirt, she named Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President George W. Bush.

"They control access to money and support for cancer research and prevention," she said.

Mammograms, ultrasounds

After the discovery, Stronach quickly went through the medical procedures that hundreds of thousands of women in Canada are sadly familiar with, including followup mammograms and ultrasounds.

The diagnosis was DCIS, or ductal carcinoma in situ. The condition is a precursor to breast cancer, and generally confined to the milk ducts of the breast. Left untreated, it can turn into a full-blown invasive cancer that travels to the lymph nodes and possibly elsewhere in the body. Twenty per cent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer actually have DCIS.

Dr. Eileen Rakovitch, an expert in DCIS at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, said women usually find out they have the pre-cancer cells through a routine mammogram. Still, some detect a lump as Stronach did or experience bleeding from the breast.

The most common treatment is removal of the malignant cells, followed by radiation. Stronach did have a lumpectomy, but ultimately went through with the more radical mastectomy. Like her, roughly 20 to 30 per cent of women are recommended for mastectomy when the malignant cells are more widespread throughout the breast.

"It is difficult because most women don't want a mastectomy, but on the other hand when I see women with DCIS and I believe mastectomy is the best treatment, I explain to them that they're very fortunate not to have invasive breast cancer, that they're going to be fine, it's very curable, and they really need to lower their risk to the best that they can of getting breast cancer," said Rakovitch, a radiation oncologist.

Rakovitch emphasized that the recurrence rate for women who have mastectomies is one per cent at 10 years, a number that must have weighed heavily in Stronach's decision.

Requests privacy

MacEachern said Stronach wants people to know in particular about her story of early detection, but at the same time she is also asking for privacy for herself and her family.

"Belinda knows there are many families in Canada that are living with cancer and her family just happens to be one of them," MacEachern said. "She realizes that as a member of Parliament there's some interest, but it is a health matter, it's a personal matter."

Stronach told only a handful of her Liberal colleagues about her struggle, including Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and party whip Karen Redman, before she went into surgery.

Dion said on behalf of the Liberal caucus on Saturday that he was encouraged by Stronach's good prognosis.

"The discretion, determination and dignity with which she has led her fight against breast cancer are an inspiration to all of us, and will undoubtedly serve her and her family well as they continue to overcome this challenge," Dion said via e-mail.
    
Stronach made sure Liberal MP Susan Kadis knew just days before she went into surgery. Kadis was about the same age as Stronach when she began to battle breast cancer in the early 1990s.

Just recently, Stronach had attended an event in Kadis's Toronto-area riding. No one, including Kadis, knew at the time that she was struggling with the disease.

"She was just wonderful and gracious with everybody and very generous with her time," said Kadis. "Now looking back at that, and realizing she was already battling it is very meaningful, but it doesn't surprise me because I've seen her strength of character and I know she'll come out of this even stronger."

Children have big role

Kadis noted that Stronach has two children, Frank and Nikki, who will also be going through a lot.

"The process with the children is very important, not only to help them understand and cope with it, but also their support and love, together with the rest of the family. I know it played a big role for me and I know it's a big role for her."

Stronach found out about the cancer shortly after making the decision not to seek re-election in her Newmarket-Aurora riding north of Toronto. She has rejoined the executive team of her family's Magna auto parts empire as vice-chairwoman.

MacEachern said Stronach is not in the mindset right now to decide whether to resign early, as two of her Liberal colleagues did last week.

In 2007, approximately 22,300 Canadian women will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 5,300 will die from it, according to the Canadian Cancer Society.