Determined to cross the finish line, Zion oncologist helps her patients do the same

ZION – As a gynecological oncologist at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion, Dr. Barbara Buttin tells her patients to never give up.

It’s a message she’s had to tell herself many times.

Nearly five years after she first attempted to run the Chicago Marathon, Buttin finally crossed the finish line Oct. 10. Doing so required her to overcome numerous challenges and setbacks. She wants to help her patients do the same.

“I always tell my patients you have to be an endurance athlete to fight cancer and be successful,” she said. “In that struggle, I feel like I’m qualified to lead you in that fight from a professional and a personal standpoint.”

Having faced several physical challenges through the years, Buttin not only ran to overcome adversity, she raised money for the American Cancer Society. She also served as the featured speaker at the society’s Oct. 8 team dinner.

Buttin has her own personal experiences with cancer. Her mother died of metastatic breast cancer during Buttin’s residency, and her grandmother died of bladder cancer.

This fueled her desire to achieve such a high degree of specialty as a gynecological oncologist. She transferred last month to Cancer Treatment Centers of America from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where she held an academic appointment as a health system clinician.

Buttin was an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology for six years at Northwestern University and serves as a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society of Gynecologic Oncology. Chicago Magazine named her as a top cancer doctor for gynecologic oncology in 2016.

Gynecologic cancers develop in a woman’s reproductive tract and include ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, vaginal cancer and vulvar cancer, among others. The American Cancer Society reports an estimated 110,000 U.S. women will be diagnosed with some form of gynecologic cancer this year.

According to a news release from Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Zion, awareness of the disease is a pressing issue because many women feel the stigma of discussing these types of medical issues.

Buttin combines a passion to raise awareness of the disease with a determination to overcome any struggles in life.

When she first attempted to run the Chicago Marathon in 2017, she broke her shoulder in a bicycle accident. A triathlete, she suffered a stroke in 2018 while competing during the swim portion of a triathlon.

She didn’t realize it was a stroke at the time, thinking her headache and blurred vision were due to dehydration and the demands of the race. The next few days, she thought she simply had a migraine.

It took three days before the stroke was diagnosed. She then learned she had a congenital heart defect, requiring heart surgery in 2019. Still, she ran three half-marathons that year.

But she had yet to run the elusive Chicago Marathon. By 2020, she felt ready to conquer it. Then the race was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although she ran it virtually with fellow runners, she wanted to do more. So she became involved with a group of runners who travel across the country running marathons.

“I thought, ‘It might not be the one I want, but at least I can run a marathon,’ " she said. “I ended up doing a whole bunch of races starting in September of 2020.”

This month’s Chicago marathon ended up being her 11th marathon.

“It was so surreal I finally got to do that,” she said. “There weren’t any races of that size in 2020.”

Always holding herself to high standards, she said, her personal determination overflows into her exam room.

“That’s what I like to tell my survivors, ‘You just don’t give up. It doesn’t matter what stands in your way. If you’re having a bad day, you get back up and you do it,’ ‘’ she said.

“I think that’s the message I like to live and exemplify for my patients, too. I think that’s why I like to combine that message. It just so happens to be the motto I live in my life translates into the cancer fighting arena.”