Cancer Patients Choose Lifestyle Over More Aggressive Treatment

Mary Ellen Boyd plays pickleball, hikes and goes line-dancing once a week. When the 81-year-old retiree in Connecticut was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, she decided to have just part of her breast removed and skipped some treatment to keep her dance card full. 

“Once I got my arms around it and really understood it wasn’t a death sentence, then next thing I wanted to do was say, OK, how do I maintain my lifestyle?” she said.