“We can treat you here,” Lori Leach’s physician told her. “But MD Anderson is right down the street.”

A few weeks earlier, Lori had noticed a small lump in her armpit. She didn’t wait long before she showed the lump to her doctor, who recommended keeping an eye on it.

The lump kept getting bigger. Lori decided to go to her local hospital in Austin for an ultrasound. It showed that the lump was 4 cm.

A biopsy revealed...