Retired Nurse Battles Three Cancers at Once   

Retired Nurse Battles Three Cancers at Once

Judy Surko leans up against a glass balcony while smiling at the camera.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Judy Surko, RN, was the nurse manager of the intensive care unit (ICU) at Riverview Medical Center. She and other members of the health care team performed heroic work in the face of the devastating virus.

Judy has since retired from that fulfilling career as a health care provider. But she returned to Riverview as a patient earlier this year to receive treatment for an unusual triple cancer diagnosis.

Routine Screening Detects Cancer

In late 2023, Judy went for a routine screening mammogram at Bayshore Medical Center, which is close to her home in Hazlet, New Jersey. The radiologists noticed an area of concern in her right breast, and a biopsy showed that Judy had breast cancer.

As part of the diagnostic process, Judy was scheduled for a breast MRI two days later. That scan and subsequent PET scans revealed two more suspicious areas: Judy had a mass in her axilla (armpit) and a large mass in the lower right lobe of her lung, despite her not being a smoker. The results showed that in addition to breast cancer, Judy had lymphoma and lung cancer as well.

Collaborative and Comprehensive Care

The cancer care teams at Bayshore Medical Center and Riverview Medical Center collaborate closely to provide comprehensive care and treatment for patients, with many doctors seeing patients at both locations. Because Judy had direct experience working with the team at Riverview, she decided to have her surgical treatment there to take advantage of their expertise and her established relationships.

Judy’s team worked together seamlessly to determine the best course of treatment. The team included Catherine Campo, D.O., medical director of breast surgery at Bayshore, and Zaid Hanhan, M.D., medical director of thoracic surgery at Bayshore and Riverview Medical Centers. Riverview-based hematologists/oncologists Steve Windsor, M.D., and Raghu Kunamneni, M.D., were instrumental when it came time for her chemotherapy and continuing follow-up care.

Every doctor was involved every step of the way and communicated the care plan to Judy, from diagnostic screenings at Bayshore Medical Center Breast Imaging and the surgical specialists, radiation oncologists and infusion specialists at Riverview.

Dr. Campo says that Judy having cancer in multiple locations was not due to one cancer metastasizing, or spreading, from one organ to another. Instead, “We knew that Judy had two different kinds of cancer [in the breast and lung]. We also always look at the axillary lymph nodes because breast cancer can spread there. The lymph node biopsy showed she had a lymphoma, so she ultimately was diagnosed with three cancers at the same time.”

“I have to stress that Drs. Campo, Hanhan, Kunamneni and Windsor all coordinated this care beautifully,” says Judy. “Their communication with one another was fabulous. When I would go into an office, they all knew my history. They all had looked at my records. They knew exactly what the course of treatment was going to be.”

Customized Approach to Treatment

Judy’s lymphoma was determined to be nonaggressive, so her treatment focused on the lung and breast cancers. Surgery was recommended to remove the tumors from the breast and lung, but the surgical plan was unique.

Judy wanted to recover as fast as possible to help a family member who was facing their own surgery. Because she would have needed to wait for two weeks or longer to heal from one surgery before having the second—and this would also have delayed the start of her chemotherapy—the doctors decided on a different, unique solution.

“We did a combined lung resection,” says Dr. Hanhan, “and Dr. Campo simultaneously began the operation with the resection of the breast tumor.”

Dr. Hanhan performed the video-assisted thoracotomy, or VATS, procedure using a robotic surgical platform available at Riverview. The procedure was minimally invasive and required only relatively small incisions to remove the lung tumor.

The dual-surgical procedure was intricate and challenging, but the surgical expertise of Drs. Campo and Dr. Hanhan meant that Judy would not need to go under anesthesia multiple times and the cancers would be removed quickly and safely.

Exceptional Care Close to Home

After a brief stay in the hospital, Judy was able to go home. “I was given the OK by Dr. Campo to start with chemotherapy,” Judy says.

She adds: “I went to Riverview for radiation treatments and their infusion center for chemotherapy, where I received great care. The breast nurse navigator communicated with me as soon as she found out that I was positive, wanting to know if I needed anything.”

Judy has completed her course of infused chemotherapy and is now on oral hormone-blocking medication to decrease the recurrence risk ofthe breast cancer.

Many people in New Jersey who face a cancer diagnosis might seek care out of state. But Judy knew she could get the best quality care closer to home.

“When I go through MyChart, I see the dates for my next appointments prior to leaving the office,” says Judy. “There's a plan of care, and you just follow it. And if you need anything, you call, and they get back to you right away. That's so reassuring when you're facing something that’s so serious,”

“A senior nurse who retired from Riverview and was in charge of the ICU trusted the excellence of the doctors in her own institution,” says Dr. Hanhan. “I think that speaks volumes about the quality of our care.”

Next Steps & Resources


The material provided through HealthU is intended to be used as general information only and should not replace the advice of your physician. Always consult your physician for individual care.

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