Cancer's Return Shouldn't Limit Elizabeth Edwards, Doctors Say

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"Yes, it is scary, and it raises the flag that this really needs attention, and we really need to deal with it," Greene said. "But it doesn't really mean that just because it's stage 4 that her life is over."

Elizabeth Edwards struck a similar upbeat note during Thursday's press conference as she stood beside her husband, a former U.S. senator for North Carolina who is considered a top contender for the Democratic nomination. Early reports had suggested he might bow out of the race should his wife's cancer return, but the couple appears determined to move forward with the campaign.

"I don't look sickly, I don't feel sickly," Mrs. Edwards told reporters. "I am as ready as any person can be for that."

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Elizabeth Edwards, a lawyer and mother of four (one son, Wade, died in a 1996 car crash) was first diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, the most common form of breast cancer, in the final days of her husband's 2004 vice-presidential campaign. After surgery and months of chemotherapy, her doctors could find no further signs of recurrence. She wrote of her life, and her struggle against breast cancer, in her 2006 memoir Saving Grace.

Speaking with reporters, John Edwards said his wife noticed a pain in her left side on Monday -- later diagnosed as a broken rib. Further bone study and a biopsy on Wednesday uncovered the malignant tumor in a rib on the opposite side.

CT scans have not shown evidence of further spread, although Carey, Elizabeth Edwards' doctor, did tell reporters that spread to a lung was a possibility, and more tests will be needed to rule that out.

According to Greene, simply removing the affected rib is not an option. "We have to treat patients like Mrs. Edwards with metastatic disease as if they have the potential of having the cancer be everywhere," the surgeon explained. "We have to treat them systemically, not just locally. Removing the rib would not really then take care of the whole body. And we know that we can treat the rib without her undergoing surgical intervention."

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