Smolen v. Chater

OPINION SCHWARZER, Senior District Judge.

Catherine Smolen appeals the decision of the district court affirming the denial by the Commissioner of Health and Human Services (“Commissioner”) of her application for disabled child’s benefits pursuant to Title II of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 416, 423 (1988 & Supp. Ill 1991).

FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY In April 1966, when Smolen was five years old, she was diagnosed as having a Wilms tumor of the left kidney and a metastatic lesion in her lower right lung. On April 30, 1966, Smolen underwent surgery to have the Wilms tumor and her left kidney removed. Throughout the next four years, Smolen received extensive chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Although this therapy reduced the metastatic lesion in her lower right lung, Smolen developed a new metastatic lesion in her upper left lung. Because the chemotherapy and radiation treatment did not reduce this lesion, Smolen had to undergo a left upper lobectomy on April 4, 1968. After the lobectomy, Smolen continued to receive chemotherapy through July 1970. Thereafter, Smolen was apparently free of carcinoma until February 1987, when she was diagnosed as having invasive grade III ductal adenocar-cinoma of the left breast. As treatment for her breast cancer, Smolen underwent a modified radical mastectomy and another yearlong course of chemotherapy.