A woman who reportedly had "no symptoms" had to push to be screened for cancer, and it resulted in her having seven organs removed.
Louise Altese-Isidori, a lifelong New Yorker who had recently relocated to Florida with her family, was at a celebratory opening party for her husband’s popular Manhattan Italian restaurant.
“Everyone was complimenting me, telling me I looked so great,” Altese-Isidori recalled, talking to the New York Post. However, little did she know, her body was silently fighting a deadly threat: ovarian cancer.
With no symptoms and feeling perfectly fine, she was unaware that ovarian cancer had already begun to spread inside her.
It wasn’t until she pushed for a test that doctors dismissed as “unnecessary” that her life was changed forever.
Altese-Isidori had never thought to keep track of her ovarian health until her fertility doctor suggested she undergo a transvaginal sonogram every six months.
While another doctor brushed off the recommendation, she decided to go ahead and make it an annual habit. That decision may have very well saved her life.
In October, during a routine gynecological visit, her doctor noticed a large cyst on her ovary, but she hadn’t experienced any symptoms.
To be cautious, the doctor ordered an Ova1 blood test to check for cancer. The results came back negative, as did a second test a month later.
But the cyst remained, prompting her to follow her doctor’s advice and schedule an ovary removal since she wasn’t planning on having more children.
However, when her surgeon reviewed her ultrasound, his reaction gave her pause. "I don’t want to scare you because your test came back negative, but I don’t like the way things are looking,” the surgeon said. "I need to get you in as soon as possible to have your ovaries removed."
What she thought would be a routine procedure would soon become a fight for her life.
On December 20, Altese-Isidori underwent surgery, expecting a straightforward procedure.
But what the surgeon discovered inside her body was anything but routine. "When he went in, he was able to see that I was filled with cancer,” she shared. The biopsy confirmed her worst fears: Stage 4B ovarian cancer, meaning the disease had spread to distant organs.
Stage 4B ovarian cancer has a grim prognosis, with only 31% of people diagnosed at this stage surviving for five years, according to the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance.
"I was in complete shock. I kept waiting for someone to say they made a mistake,” Altese-Isidori said. She and her husband, celebrity chef Joe Isidori, quickly sought the best treatment available.
Altese-Isidori was admitted to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where she was placed under the care of Dr. Dennis Chi, a leading expert in ovarian cancer surgery.
“I feel very lucky in an extremely unlucky situation, because all of my stars aligned,” she said, feeling fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.
On January 15, Altese-Isidori underwent another surgery. As she prepared for the procedure, she expressed her fear to her husband: “I feel like I’m signing my life away,” she said, initialing every worst-case scenario on the pre-op forms.
Her surgeon reassured her, saying, “No you’re not, you’re giving me permission to save your life.” His words sparked something in her. “It was like something clicked in my mind,” Altese-Isidori said, feeling an overwhelming sense of strength from his reassurance.
The surgery was extensive. When Dr. Chi opened her up, he found that cancer had spread to her colon, liver, and even her chest.
“When he went in, there was cancer in my colon, my liver, it was already in my chest — and I had felt completely fine,” she said.
He removed her spleen, appendix, gallbladder, uterus, ovaries, fallopian tubes, and the lining of her stomach, all of which were riddled with cancer.
Altese-Isidori remarked: “That’s going to give me five pounds,” but was disappointed to find that she had only lost 10 ounces after the surgeries.
Despite the immense loss of organs, Chi managed to spare part of her liver and colon, but she would need a colostomy bag for waste removal.
Altese-Isidori remained in the hospital for 18 days, finding strength in "mirror talks," where she motivated herself with positive affirmations.
Altese-Isidori began chemotherapy a week after surgery, describing the process as “mental warfare.”
However, she was pleasantly surprised by how manageable the experience turned out to be.
“There wasn’t anything really major compared to what I thought it would be,” she said, crediting regular IV hydration for helping her through the process.
Aside from fatigue, body aches, and losing all her hair, the chemotherapy wasn’t as difficult as she had anticipated.
Slowly but surely, she adjusted to life with the colostomy bag, and soon enough, glimpses of her old self began to return.
“I was wearing sweatpants in the beginning, but eventually, I was like, you know what? Screw this. I’m getting dressed up,” she said. She started attending doctor’s appointments in her favorite dress and heels.
Altese-Isidori’s perseverance paid off. After a recent surgery to remove the colostomy bag, she received the best news yet: her CA 125 test, a marker for ovarian cancer, had returned to normal levels.
“I’m technically in remission,” she said, celebrating her progress with a "remission cake" alongside loved ones, including her eight-year-old son, Roman, and her 94-year-old mother.
Though she remains in remission, Altese-Isidori is mindful of the challenges ahead. "To think that at seven months I won and I beat it for life is silly. But today I’m OK," she said, noting that she continues taking a daily PARP inhibitor pill, a type of targeted therapy that can help prevent cancer recurrence.
“I want to redefine the face of stage four cancer,” she added. “I want people to know that you could still have a full life — even with a colostomy bag."