Radiation for ER Positive Breast Cancer: 125 Real Stories

HER2-Positive Breast Cancer With Metastatic Progression and Drug-Induced Lupus During T-DM1

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 50s | Stage IV

Biomarkers: ER-positive, PR-negative, HER2-positive

Metastatic Site: bones, axillary lymph nodes, intra-abdominal lymph…

More than 5 years after her March 2018 diagnosis, she was living with metastatic breast cancer, but T-DM1 had been stopped after disease progression in 2023.

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Stage 4 HR-positive breast cancer: stable disease on ribociclib

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s | Stage IV

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2-negative

Metastatic Site: left iliac bone

Metastatic HR-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer remained without progression as of October 2024 while she continued ribociclib 400 mg plus letrozole after SBRT to a left iliac bone metastasis.

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Anna’s Triple-Positive Breast Cancer Story

Patient Info: Anna, Female, Under 40

Biomarkers: ER-positive, PR-positive and HER2-positive

Anna completed surgery, chemotherapy and radiation and continued to navigate the effects of hormone therapy, early menopause and fertility loss.

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HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Anna's Survivor Story

Patient Info: Anna, Female, Under 40

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2-positive

As of October 2024, Anna was about 7 years from diagnosis and described long-term survivorship after surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, biologic treatment, and tamoxifen-related mental-health effects.

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Stage IV HR-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Dee's Patient Story

Patient Info: Dee, Female, Under 40 | Stage IV

Biomarkers: ER-positive

Metastatic Site: Bones

As of October 2024, Dee was living with Stage IV metastatic ER-positive breast cancer after bone metastases were found in 2023 and had adapted to treatment with ribociclib.

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Stage II HER2-Positive Breast Cancer With Fever and a Reversible Brain MRI Lesion After Radiotherapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, Under 40 | Stage II

Biomarkers: ER-positive, PR-positive, HER2-positive

After radiotherapy, fever, neutropenia, headache, and a reversible splenial brain lesion resolved with supportive and antibiotic treatment during her postoperative breast-cancer treatment course.

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Stage 4 breast cancer: ongoing treatment with multi-line chemotherapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s | Stage IV

Biomarkers: Initial tumor: hormone receptor-negative; HER2 2+. 2011 recurrence: ER 10%; PR 70%; HER2 2+.

Metastatic Site: pleura/pleural effusion; lung

Metastatic breast cancer with malignant pleural effusion achieved complete response after chemotherapy and long-term endocrine therapy; PET-CT in October 2023 still showed complete response, with ongoing cardiac and bone-health management.

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Right-Sided Ductal Carcinoma in Situ Before a Second Breast Cancer

Patient Info: Anonymized, female, 60s

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2 1+

A woman treated for right-sided ductal carcinoma in situ in 2018 later developed a separate invasive cancer in the opposite breast.

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Stage 4 luminal A breast cancer: tumor regression on hormone therapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s | Stage IV

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2-negative

Metastatic Site: skin, soft tissue, lungs

Metastatic Luminal A breast cancer involving skin/soft tissue and lungs showed regressing tumors and stable lung metastasis after 3 months of anti-hormone therapy plus capecitabine; longer-term control was not reported.

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Finding A Lump To BREAST CANCER!

Patient Info: Kelsey Harrison, Female, Under 40 | Stage II

Biomarkers: ER-positive

As of July 2024, Kelsey had completed chemotherapy, double mastectomy with axillary lymph-node removal, and radiation, and was continuing tamoxifen plus Lupron ovarian suppression with additional planned systemic therapy.

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HER2-positive breast cancer: surgery after neoadjuvant therapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 60s | Stage I

Biomarkers: ER 1% weakly positive; PR-negative; HER2-positive

No evidence of disease on follow-up while taking anastrozole after pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant T-DM1, lumpectomy/SLNB, radiotherapy, and adjuvant trastuzumab for Stage I HER2-positive breast cancer.

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Stage 3 breast cancer: pathologic complete response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, Under 40

Biomarkers: ER-positive, PR-negative, HER2-negative breast cancer with very high Ki-67. MammaPrint high-risk/basal type; hereditary testing negative.

Free of recurrence at last follow-up after neoadjuvant pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy, breast-conserving surgery with RCB-0/pathologic complete response, adjuvant radiation, and adjuvant pembrolizumab.

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Invasive lobular breast cancer with isolated scalp metastasis: excision and endocrine therapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 50s | Stage IV

Biomarkers: Original breast tumor: ER-positive; PR-positive; scalp metastasis: CK7-positive; ER-positive; GCDFP-15 partially positive

Metastatic Site: scalp/skin

As of April 2024, she had no signs of recurrence in the breast or scalp and no distant metastasis after excision of the isolated scalp metastasis while continuing anastrozole.

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Stage II HR-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Dorian's Survivor Story

Patient Info: Dorian de Salvo, Female | Stage II

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2-positive

As of March 2024, Dorian had a complete response to TCHP chemotherapy, clear surgical margins, and no lymph-node involvement after surgery, with radiation completed and additional care still expected for several months.

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Male Invasive Lobular Breast Cancer With a Pathogenic PALB2 Variant

Patient Info: Anonymized, male, 40s

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2 not amplified; pathogenic PALB2 variant

He was disease-free at 1-year follow-up after mastectomy, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy.

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Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Sally's Survivor Story

Patient Info: Sally Johnston, 70+

Biomarkers: Estrogen receptor-positive

Sally was in remission by the end of 2014 and remained active about 10 years after treatment.

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Aggressive breast cancer presenting with severe skin infection

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female

Biomarkers: ER 99% positive; PR 99% positive; HER2 1+ / negative; Ki-67 3%; grade 2; 3 interpectoral lymph nodes negative; later axillary-node biopsy benign

She recovered from sepsis and surgery, had no distant metastases and a benign axillary-node biopsy, and was receiving adjuvant radiation with anastrozole ongoing.

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Metastatic invasive lobular breast carcinoma to pancreas: biliary stent and paclitaxel

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s | Stage IV

Biomarkers: Primary breast tumor was triple-negative. Pancreatic metastasis was ER-positive/GATA-positive

Metastatic Site: pancreas; coelio-mesenteric lymph nodes

After 21 years of remission, she developed pancreatic and coelio-mesenteric nodal metastases from invasive lobular breast carcinoma; palliative paclitaxel was stopped after 2 courses because her condition deteriorated, and she was lost to follow-up.

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Stage III Male Breast Cancer Responds to Chemotherapy, Surgery and Radiation

Patient Info: Anonymized, male, 70+ | Stage III

Biomarkers: ER-positive, PR-positive, HER2-negative

Follow-up CT scans 4 months and 9 months after surgery showed no suspicious metastatic lesions or tumor recurrence.

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Five Years Without Breast Cancer Recurrence Despite a Markedly Elevated CA 15-3

Patient Info: Anonymized, female, 70+ | Stage I

Biomarkers: ER-positive, PR-positive, HER2-positive

Five years after her Stage I breast-cancer diagnosis, breast imaging and systemic evaluation showed no evidence of recurrence. The markedly elevated CA 15-3 was traced to a separate renal tumor and normalized after nephrectomy.

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Breast Cancer Recurs After a 19-Year Remission and Responds to Later Chemotherapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, female, 50s | Stage IV

Biomarkers: Initial tumor: PR-positive, ER-negative, HER2-negative. Recurrence: ER-positive, PR-negative

Metastatic Site: bones

The cancer recurred after a 19-year remission and later spread to bone. More than 21 years after the original diagnosis, she had marked tumor shrinkage, was in good general condition, and had 10 months of progression-free survival after utidelone plus capecitabine.

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Male Breast Cancer Controlled for Years Through Multiple Lines of Targeted and Endocrine Therapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, male, 70+ | Stage IV

Biomarkers: Initial tumor ER-positive, PR-positive, HER2-positive; later ER-positive, PR-negative, HER2-negative; PIK3CA mutation; germline BRCA1/2 negative

Metastatic Site: bones, pleura, liver

After a 5-year and 6-month disease-free interval, the cancer recurred in bone and later progressed to the pleura and liver. He died in January 2021, more than 13 years after his 2007 breast-cancer diagnosis.

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Male breast cancer in both breasts linked to Klinefelter syndrome, initially missed

Patient Info: Anonymized, Male | Stage IV

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2-negative; Klinefelter syndrome

Metastatic Site: spine / bone

With advanced metastatic disease and an estimated prognosis of weeks or less, care focused on symptom relief under the palliative-care team.

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Exercise Trainer Helps Detect Brain Metastases in a Woman With Long-Standing Metastatic Breast Cancer

Patient Info: Anonymized, female, 70+ | Stage IV

Biomarkers: ER-positive, PR-negative, HER2-negative

Metastatic Site: liver, bones, lymph nodes, kidney, brain

She died 5 months after the brain metastases were diagnosed, roughly 7 years after her original 2014 breast-cancer diagnosis.

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