When Lynne Miller describes Johns Hopkins as “our go-to place for anything other than the common cold,” she is only half-joking. Although she no longer lives in Baltimore, she considers Johns Hopkins the best choice for expert care. Perhaps this is unsurprising for the wife of Dr. Edward Miller, former dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. For years, Lynne supported his work, which advanced the campus and operations of one of the world’s premier medical institutions. She and her husband were truly part of the Johns Hopkins “family,” and although her loyalty to Johns Hopkins was inspired by this work, it recently became more personal.
In 2016, Lynne discovered a mass in her thigh that seemed to appear overnight. Her local internist diagnosed a lipoma—a benign fat deposit. Several months later, though, while seeing another doctor, she asked for a second opinion. “He did not like the way it felt,” Lynne says. He ordered an MRI, and Lynne asked to have results sent to Carol Morris, division chief of orthopaedic oncology at Johns Hopkins.
On Dec. 22, while Lynne was preparing a holiday dinner for her family, she received a call from Morris. “She had reviewed the MRI, and she was concerned,” says Lynne. “She thought it might be a sarcoma and said the mass needed to be evaluated right away.” There was one obstacle to that, however. In a few days, Lynne and her husband were taking 13 family members on a long-anticipated vacation to the Virgin Islands. Morris felt this was reasonable but urged her to seek care immediately after the trip. Soon, Lynne was in Morris’s clinic for an exam. The next day, Morris performed a biopsy, and the results confirmed a sarcoma. The mass was leiomyosarcoma. “Of course, I was terrified,” says Lynne.
Fortunately, a CT scan showed that Lynne’s lungs were clear. She was quickly scheduled for surgery so Morris could remove the mass. A biopsy of the surrounding tissues showed no remaining cancer, and after several days in the hospital, Lynne returned home. However, Morris had cautioned her that healing can be difficult, and indeed, several weeks later Lynne had to return to Johns Hopkins for an additional surgery to treat the wound.
Eventually, she healed well enough to undergo the recommended course of radiation therapy. “Dr. Morris explained that, without radiation, there was a 23 percent chance the cancer would recur. But with it, there was only a 3 percent chance,” Lynne says.
Today, Lynne is cancer-free and has resumed her normal activities. She returns to Baltimore several times a year to participate in a study—continuing to give to Johns Hopkins by contributing data and financially supporting the research of Morris and the Sarcoma Program. Her loyalty, borne of her husband’s leadership, is now also rooted in her own experience as a patient. “The service from orthopaedics has been above and beyond,” she says. “Dr. Morris and her staff have been wonderful. I can’t say it’s something I’d choose to go through, but they quelled my fears throughout the process. It’s very reassuring to have that kind of care.”