Stage 2: 191 Real Stories
191 stories match stage 2. 165 of them mention surgery.
Stage II Breast Cancer: CL’s Survivor Story
CL, 58, is from Singapore and was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer after noticing suspicious symptoms during a self-examination. She consulted a doctor, then sought a second opinion because she wanted advice from a more experienced doctor. Based on her…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Kristel’s Survivor Story
Kristel was 38, married with 3 children, and working as a communications director in Wisconsin when she found a breast lump just before Christmas 2018. At her yearly check-up in January, she was sent for a mammogram and ultrasound, but both were read as…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Alma’s Patient Story
Alma had always been vigilant about breast self-checks and annual mammograms because her mother had been treated for breast cancer. After moving from St. Louis to Australia with her husband and 2 sons, she began having recurring pain on her left side and…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Tanya’s Patient Story
Tanya was 47 when a routine mammogram in November 2020 led to a callback for a 3D mammogram. Small calcifications were seen, and biopsy first showed ductal carcinoma. While waiting to meet a surgeon, Tanya followed a friend’s advice and saw a high-risk cancer…
Read this storyStage II Colorectal Adenocarcinoma: Robert’s Survivor Story
Robert’s colon cancer was found after a colonoscopy showed a bleeding ulcer at the site where a suspicious polyp had been removed 6 months earlier. He was told he needed surgery right away. On December 27, 2010, surgeons removed the ascending colon and 10 cm…
Read this storyStage II Colorectal Cancer: Deondre’s Survivor Story
Deondre Williams was diagnosed with Stage II colon cancer in 2017 after blood in his stool kept returning. He first thought the bleeding was hemorrhoids and tried to manage it himself, but his wife encouraged him to see a doctor. Colonoscopy found multiple…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Roxanne’s Survivor Story
Roxanne, from Anchorage, Alaska, was 36 when she was diagnosed with Stage IIB grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma in April 2024. The first clue came the previous summer, when her boyfriend noticed a bump in the right breast. She saw her primary care doctor in…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Dwan’s Survivor Story
Dwan Thomas, a chemical engineer, was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer in 2017 after noticing something different in her left breast. At her OB/GYN appointment in March, she had a mammogram, ultrasound and breast biopsy. The diagnosis was HER2-negative…
Read this storyStage II BRCA2 Breast Cancer: Rachel’s Patient Story
Rachel Zitofsky was 38 when she noticed a lump and was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer in April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. She went to MSK Commack and met with a breast surgeon to plan treatment. MRI showed additional suspicious areas in her…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Eutha’s Survivor Story
Eutha Prince was diagnosed with Stage II invasive ductal and lobular breast carcinoma in 2012 after a suspicious finding on her yearly mammogram led to ultrasound and biopsy. Her tumor was estrogen receptor-positive, progesterone receptor-positive and…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Nicole’s Survivor Story
Nicole Grogan was 44 when a mammogram and biopsy in September 2017 showed Stage II breast cancer. Because she had 2 tumors in the same breast, MSK surgeon Andrea Barrio recommended mastectomy. Nicole chose to remove both breasts and have reconstruction, and…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Naomi’s Patient Story
In May 2006, an unnamed patient was 26 weeks pregnant with her younger son when she was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. The diagnosis brought immediate fears about both her own survival and her baby, but a treatment plan helped reduce some of the…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Renée’s Survivor Story
Renée had already survived acute myeloid leukemia and a bone marrow transplant when she noticed a change in the shape of her left breast at age 35. A dimple appeared, her nipple flattened, and urgent imaging and biopsies found stage 2 breast cancer involving…
Read this storyStage II Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Lucy’s Survivor Story
Lucy found a breast lump at 23, months after learning that she carried a germline BRCA1 mutation. Several clinicians thought the area felt like fibrous tissue, but because of her inherited risk she continued with imaging and biopsy. Three days after her 24th…
Read this storyStage II Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melissa’s Survivor Story
Melissa found a growing, painless lump in her left breast while breastfeeding her 1-year-old daughter. Testing confirmed stage 2B triple-negative breast cancer, and she soon learned that she was pregnant with her second child. She was in her late 20s and had…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Wendi’s Survivor Story
During a September bicycling trip, an unnamed patient felt a sudden stabbing pain in the right breast. A biopsy of the painful lump showed Stage II, high-grade, triple-positive breast cancer. The diagnosis was unexpected despite annual mammograms and a…
Read this storyStage II Colorectal Cancer: Allison’s Survivor Story
Allison was 32 and living with Crohn’s disease in remission when new symptoms felt different from anything she had experienced before. About 1.5 years earlier, she had the cleanest colonoscopy of her life. Then she began losing weight, feeling severely…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Cat’s Survivor Story
Cat was diagnosed with Stage IIB breast cancer after feeling a lump in her left breast. An ultrasound raised immediate concern, and biopsy confirmed cancer. She was diagnosed at the end of June and chose to wait until after a family trip and school…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Bethany’s Patient Story
Bethany was 33 when a breast lump she had watched for months became impossible to dismiss. Earlier breast lumps in her 20s had turned out to be cysts or swollen lymph nodes, and she had dense breast tissue, so she first assumed this one was benign too. The…
Read this storyStage II Colorectal Cancer: Amanda’s Survivor Story
Amanda was 30 when almost a year of gastrointestinal symptoms finally led to a colonoscopy. Her symptoms began with daily stomach gurgling and then progressed to blood in her stool, worsening constipation, and the feeling that something was blocking bowel…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Doreen’s Patient Story
Doreen was diagnosed with Stage IIA triple-positive invasive ductal breast cancer after finding a lump in her left breast during a work trip. Getting the right imaging took persistence: after several calls and one wrong order, she finally had the correct…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Callie’s Survivor Story
Callie was 38 when she noticed dimpling and a bulge in her breast. Her husband urged her to take it seriously, and her primary care doctor quickly arranged a mammogram and ultrasound. The radiologist told her the mammogram was BI-RADS 5, highly suspicious for…
Read this storyStage II BRCA1 Breast Cancer: Joy’s Survivor Story
Joy began checking her breasts after a friend was diagnosed with breast cancer, and that habit helped her notice a lump. A private clinic performed ultrasound, mammogram, and biopsy, and the doctor was confident it was breast cancer even before the biopsy…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Margaret’s Survivor Story
Margaret’s Stage II breast cancer involved both invasive ductal carcinoma and ductal carcinoma in situ. She first noticed left-breast pain and an inverted nipple. Mammogram and biopsy led to diagnosis, followed by rapid decisions about surgery, scans…
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