Reardon says the institute has refused to accommodate her disabilities caused by repeated surgeries she has undergone for her treatment.

"These are physicians that I work for," said Reardon, 60, of Silver Spring. "If anybody should be understanding, because of all they see with patients every day -- it should extend to the people who are working for them."

Reardon filed a complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services on Dec. 9, accusing the National Cancer Institute of violating the ADA. Dr. Lee J. Helman and Dr. Alan S. Wayne, the chief and clinical director of the Pediatric Oncology Branch at the NCI, are named in the complaint.

On May 20, the agency recommended that she be fired, charging her with the "medical inability" to perform her job.

NCI officials would not comment for this story because the issue is in litigation, agency spokesperson Ann Benner said Friday.

The Department of Health and Human Services has until June 9 to report on its investigation into Reardon's complaint. From there, the complaint will be heard before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 120 days, said Reardon's attorney, John P. Mahoney. The complaint could also be filed in federal court.

Reardon, who had double mastectomy for breast cancer in 1982, was hired as a secretary at NCI's new pediatric branch at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda in 2000.

Since then, she said she has had numerous surgeries as a result of complications from her illness, including removal of her reconstructed breast and major bowel and abdominal surgeries.

Reardon said she is unable to sit for long periods of time, stand for any length of time or walk long distances, and now wears two back braces and uses a scooter to move around.

On advice from her doctors and from occupational physicians at NIH, Reardon said, she proposed a job description in which she would work four hours a day at the office and four hours a day from home. But her supervisors at NCI refused to agree to the split schedule.

Reardon said she has a fax machine, copier and computer at home with satellite access to the NIH computer system. She asserted that she successfully worked the schedule on a trial basis for two weeks in October.

Reardon said there are about five secretaries in the office at any given time, as well as research nurses and physicians, all of whom answer their own phones.

"We would argue that her proposed removal is retaliation for the complaint," Mahoney said. "Now we have to go back and explain yet again in writing, why they have a legal obligation under the Americans with Disabilities Act to reasonably accommodate her and not terminate her and why termination is really discrimination under that statute."

As a result of the termination notice, Reardon said she has been forced to apply for involuntary disability retirement in order to continue receiving a paycheck and health benefits. The disability retirement is about 60 percent of her gross salary, she said.