Dr. Susan Love, Breast Cancer Advocate, Oncologist, Died at 75

Dr. Susan M. Love, founder of the Dr. Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research, died of recurrent leukemia at the age of 75.

Love, who was a breast surgeon, was an early advocate for breast-conserving therapy, spoke out on the risk of hormone-replacement therapy for menopausal women with breast cancer. Love also helped establish the National Breast Cancer Coalition — for which she later served on the board — as well as the Young Survival Coalition. In 2008, she launched The Love Research Army, which now has more than 390,000 supporters around the globe, according to a press release about Love’s death.

“Dr. Susan Love was "an early champion of cancer treatments that were less invasive than traditional methods, which she described as “slash, burn and poison,” Dr. Elaine Schattner, former oncologist and author of “From Whispers to Shouts: The Ways We Talk About Cancer,” said on Twitter.

She also penned “Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book,” which The New York Times considered the “bible” for patients with cancer.

"The light that Susan shared with the world has touched so many, and the world will mourn her loss. As an advocate, a researcher, a doctor, a surgeon, a friend, an author, and so much more, her legacy will live on forever in the love she showed the world,” Christopher Clinton Conway, the CEO of the Dr. Susan Love Foundation for Breast Cancer Research said in the press release.

In her personal life, Love and her partner, Dr Helen Cooksey, were the first gay couple to receive the OK from the Supreme Court of Massachusetts — which did not recognize gay marriage at the time — to adopt a child.

Love is survived by her wife, Cooksey, their daughter, Katie Patton-LoveCooksey and her wife, Diana Patton-LoveCooksey.

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