Steve Lopez: A cancer survivor's advice: research, persistence and second opinions

In the fall of 2022, Robin Clough and Dr. Gene Dorio were going about their lives as they had for many years, serving older adults in the Santa Clarita Valley. Clough was busy with her work as an administrator at the local senior center while Dorio, a house-call geriatrician, crisscrossed the valley visiting his patients.

In November of that year, Clough saw a lump on her neck and had it checked out. The early indication was that she had papillary thyroid cancer.

"I was somewhat worried," said Clough, but not overly so, because she knew that type of cancer was treatable and highly survivable. "So in the back of my mind it was like, 'Oh, I'm so lucky. ... It's the easiest type of cancer to take care of.'"

Then things took a sharp