The three women in the therapy group were portrayed by actresses who themselves went through breast cancer in various times of their lives.
Wendie Jo Sperber was diagnosed in 1997, the year before the episode and passed away in 2002 after a recurrence.
Marcia Wallace was diagnosed in 1985 and made a full recovery.
Coincidentally, while Tracy Nelson was also a cancer survivor (Hodgkin's Lymphoma diagnosed in 1987), she was the only one of the actresses who was diagnosed with breast cancer many years after this episode - in 2010.