Kim Fiorentino Beats Breast Cancer With Determination and Team of ‘Smart Women’

It’s often said that women tend to take care of others first and themselves last. This was true for attorney Kim Fiorentino. She relocated five years ago with her husband, Lou, from Washington D.C., to her hometown of Allentown, Pa. She wanted to spend more time with, and help, her aging parents. She also took on a leadership position with the Diocese of Allentown.

Fiorentino spent many loving moments with her mom and dad, married 64 years. Then she helped her mother during and after her father’s battle with a rare form of cancer that claimed his life in 2023. What Fiorentino didn’t know was, as she lovingly attended to her parents, her white blood cells were waging a battle inside her own body.

She needed to schedule her mammogram, so Fiorentino, 64, finally made an appointment at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) in April, right before she and her husband were setting off on a trip to Florida. “I’d been so busy taking care of Dad, then helping Mom adjust to her new life, my own care took a back seat,” she says. When she received the results, it was a shock.

“I was scared when I got the results of the screening mammogram that said I needed further testing and then the diagnostic mammogram revealing I had bilateral ‘masses’ that needed to be biopsied,” Fiorentino says. “In those moments, fear of the unknown felt very surreal and unsettling.”

She sought out care at Lehigh Valley Topper Cancer Institute, where her father had been treated, because she says, “the doctors and medical professionals there are top-notch.” She met with surgical oncologist Lori Alfonse, DO, Deputy Physician in Chief of the Cancer Institute, who is fellowship-trained and specializes in breast surgery.

“Kim had two slightly different stage 1 cancers, one in each breast,” Dr. Alfonse says, who recommended a lumpectomy, which is removing just a portion of breast tissue. “If appropriate for the patient, the lumpectomy is a smaller surgery, with less time under anesthesia, less risk for complications, quicker recovery and provides the same survival rate as a mastectomy – removal of the entire breast.”

Following breast cancer surgery in June, Fiorentino underwent 21 days of radiation therapy.  

“Risk for the cancer spreading elsewhere in the body is very low in a situation like this,” says radiation oncologist Jeanette Blauth, MD, with the Cancer Institute. “Chemotherapy is not always indicated if that risk can be mitigated just as effectively with a pill that reduces or ceases estrogen production. Surgery plus radiation therapy plus the hormone-blocking medicine together provide the best chance of cure.”

The care her father received was one reason Fiorentino chose LVHN for her treatment. Another was that, at other hospital systems, she and her husband didn’t receive the same levels of care and thoughtful attention they experienced at LVHN. “My family members and I are consumers of health care who have been to other top-rated hospitals,” Fiorentino says. “The level of professionalism and expertise at LVHN is outstanding. It’s been a highly positive experience.” 

She goes on to say she felt comforted being around “so many smart women,” and that her care team was “a gift.”

“Dr. Alfonse and Dr. Blauth both made time for us,” Fiorentino says. “They talked with me privately and with my husband and our goddaughter, Sarah. They went through a lot of detail – the science, the analysis, why the lumpectomy, if I had lymph node involvement, if I would need chemotherapy or radiation – all of it. They also said that they would treat my cancer, emphasizing the individualized nature of each person’s journey with this tenacious disease.”

“A resource with the level of professional expertise LVHN has – from the diagnostic professionals, caring staff (including Kelly and Beverly) and the outstanding radiology therapists– is an incredible treasure, and it’s right here.”