Suburban mother aiming to raise brain cancer awareness among working women

May is Brain Cancer Awareness Month, and a suburban mother is sharing her story in hopes of shining a light on a cancer population often overlooked.

Kathy Hammond Pittman knew something wasn't right in June 2024 when she felt a mysterious pain.

Hammond Pittman said she felt pain in her arm at work and experienced slight heart palpitations.

After a workout class with her daughter later that day, she also felt numbness in her lip.

A healthy and active mother of two, Hammond Pittman immediately went to urgent care, fearing she was having a heart attack.

"They do all the tests to see if I’m having a heart attack. [I was] not having a heart attack," Hammond Pittman said.

She was told to go home or to the emergency room. She chose the latter.

"I didn’t want to mess around any longer, so I went to the hospital," Hammond Pittman said.

An hour after a CT scan, she received a message she wasn't prepared for.

"[They] tell me that I have a brain tumor about the size of a walnut on the right hand side of my brain. I was in shock and disbelief," she said.

She underwent surgery the following day, and after further testing, was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a fast-growing brain cancer.

"I was trying to take it one day at a time. I kind of went into mom mode. We’re going to make a list and start checking things off," she said.

Hammond Pittman is participating in two clinical trials through Northwestern University: a therapeutic drug trial at the Warrenville Cancer Center, and another downtown to evaluate the use of topical cream to prevent a rash with a treatment called Optune.

The cap was studied at Northwestern and has been shown to slow progression of the cancer and reduce the symptoms associated with the disease.

It's now the standard of care for glioblastoma in conjunction with chemotherapy, according to Dr. Shawn Kothari, a neuro-oncologist at Northwestern Medicine.

"Optune is a cap in which electrodes are placed along the scalp, and a very faint electrical field is created, which is thought to help prevent the division of cancer cells," Dr. Kothari said.

"By wearing this cap, our hope is, in addition to the standard of care treatments patients are receiving, including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, we can further delay the recurrence of glioblastoma."

Hammond Pittman wears the cap up to 20 hours a day.

I sleep with it, if I go for a walk I walk with it, I go out to dinner with my friends," she said. "I’ve learned to embrace it. Colorful hats, fun earrings."

Hammond Pittman's cancer remains stable, and both she and her oncologist, Dr. Kothari, are optimistic about her progress and access to care in the suburbs.

"It’s challenging for patients to have to go downtown to receive state of the art care," said Dr. Kothari. "It shouldn’t be that way. We think they should be able to access these things at the local level, in a more accessible manner, and Ms. Pittman's case represents our ability to achieve that."

Hammond Pittman says she's sharing her story to advocate for other working, women to listen to their bodies.

"I feel optimistic, and I haven’t let myself go down the deep hole of looking at the numbers and percentages," said Hammond Pittman.

She plans to spend the upcoming Mother's Day holiday with her daughters playing mini-golf and going out to lunch, determined to continue living and making memories with her family and friends.

"If something doesn’t feel right, say something, take it to the next level, ask your doctor more questions, go to urgent care, go to the ER," she said. "I could have put this off, and I may have had a different outcome and not have been here today."