Windsor Locks Teen Who Was Forced To Take Chemo Treatments Announces New Setback

WINDSOR LOCKS, CT - A local teen who was forced by the court system to undergo cancer chemotherapy said she has found a mass in her lungs.

"Well here it is. Here is my 85-percent chance of life after chemo. Unfortunately I didn't make the 85 percent ... I fell into the 15 percent," 18-year-old Cassandra Callender said on her Facebook page while showing a cat scan printout to illustrate her condition

She continued, "This is the mass that is now inside of my lung . I've known about this for a while but it's been hard going public with it. But this is why I fought so hard against chemotherapy. I am so sick of being treated like number and how everything is based off of statistics . I am a patient not a number."

According to reports by WFSB and WTNH, and The Associated Press via the Harford Courant, Cassandra had been in remission after undergoing five months of forced chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma when she was 17.

She had argued she didn't want to poison her body with chemotherapy.

Her case went to the state Supreme Court, which ruled in January 2015 that Connecticut's Department of Children and Families wasn't violating her rights by taking custody.

She was released from the hospital last April.

Cassandra is now legally allowed to make her own treatment decisions.