Stage III Breast Cancer: Zhan's Survivor Story

Patient Info: Zhan Shen Ya Dian Na | Stage III

She reports that her breast cancer is in remission and continues hormone therapy.

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Stage IV Breast Cancer: Liu's Patient Story

Patient Info: Liu Jing | Stage IV

More than eight years after a stage 4 diagnosis, Liu Jing remained on hormone and targeted therapies and continued working, walking, and mountain hiking.

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Synchronous Stage IA breast cancer and Stage IIA lung adenocarcinoma: disease-free after surgery and adjuvant therapy

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

Biomarkers: Breast tumor: ER/PR positive, HER2 negative. Lung tumor: KRAS/EGFR wild type, ALK rearrangement not detected.

As of April 2014, more than 2 years of follow-up showed no recurrent disease after treatment of synchronous Stage IA breast cancer and Stage IIA lung adenocarcinoma.

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Mixed epithelial and mesenchymal metaplastic breast carcinoma: no recurrence 1 year after surgery and adjuvant therapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s

Biomarkers: Mixed metaplastic breast cancer: epithelial part ER/PR/HER2-positive; mesenchymal part ER/PR-negative with weak HER2. Ki-67 ~20%.

As of March 2014, she was doing well with no recurrence or metastasis 1 year after modified radical mastectomy, adjuvant CEF/Taxotere chemotherapy, and tamoxifen.

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Breast invasive ductal carcinoma with coexisting inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor: disease-free after mastectomy, TAC, and tamoxifen

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, Under 40

Biomarkers: Breast cancer: ER/PR-positive with HER2 2+ and p53-positive. Separate inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor had ALK/vimentin/actin/S-100 markers.

As of August 2013, she remained disease-free 2 years after modified radical mastectomy, 6 courses of TAC chemotherapy, and tamoxifen.

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Localized hormone receptor-positive breast cancer disease-free 5 years after endocrine therapy switch

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2-negative; low Ki-67; Oncotype DX 12

After lumpectomy and 36 months of adjuvant hormonal treatment, she remained disease-free at her last examination in March 2013, 5 years after diagnosis.

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ER/PR-positive mucinous breast cancer treated with mastectomy and tamoxifen

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, Under 40

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2/neu not overexpressed; no pathogenic BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations identified; chromosome 13q34 duplication

After radical right mastectomy with nipple and areola preservation followed by tamoxifen, she showed no evidence of local recurrence or metastasis of breast cancer.

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Stage IV ER/PR-positive mucinous breast cancer: long-term no evidence of disease after surgery, AFTV, radiation, CEF, and endocrine therapy

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

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; delayed-type hypersensitivity to AFTV became pseudo-positive after vaccination and remained pseudo-positive 5.4 years later

Metastatic Site: Th7 vertebra

More than 6 years after primary surgery, she remained well with no evidence of vertebral metastasis activity, new metastasis, or local recurrence.

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ER-positive breast cancer recurrence with renal metastasis inside angiomyolipoma

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

Biomarkers: ER-positive; mammaglobulin-positive; e-cadherin-positive; GCDFP-15-positive; melan A positive in angiomyolipoma component

Metastatic Site: right subpectoral lymph node, left kidney

At 7 months after nephrectomy, she continued anti-estrogen hormonal therapy with no demonstrable progression of disease; surgical excision of the subpectoral lymph node was offered but declined.

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BRCA1-associated right invasive ductal carcinoma followed by left acinic cell carcinoma of the breast

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s

Biomarkers: Constitutional BRCA1 mutation. Right breast cancer was ER/PR positive, HER2 negative; later left tumor was triple-negative with TP53 change.

After treatment for right invasive ductal carcinoma and later contralateral acinic cell carcinoma, she was alive and well 19 months after the acinic cell carcinoma surgery, with no evidence of disease while continuing hormonal therapy.

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ER/PR-positive breast cancer with bilateral ovarian metastases controlled after oophorectomy and aromatase inhibitor

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

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-positive; HER2-negative; CK7-positive; gross cystic disease fluid protein-15-positive; CK20-negative

Metastatic Site: bilateral ovaries

After bilateral oophorectomies and aromatase inhibitor therapy, pleural effusion resolved, CEA and CA 15-3 decreased below the normal upper limit, and she remained well with no further recurrence for 40 months.

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Metastatic lobular breast cancer to gynecologic sites: disease-free after surgery and chemotherapy

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

Biomarkers: ER-positive; PR-negative; HER2/C-Erb-B2-negative

Metastatic Site: vagina, uterus, ovaries

After treatment of vaginal, uterine, and ovarian metastases from lobular breast cancer, she was free from disease 12 months after completion surgery.

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Hormone-positive breast cancer with axillary recurrence responding to hyperthermia, radiation, and chemotherapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 60s

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

The left axillary recurrence enlarged during weekly paclitaxel and radiotherapy, then became nearly flat and was assessed as a complete response 8 weeks after adding hyperthermia.

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Metastatic lobular breast cancer to bladder trigone: partial response to tamoxifen

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

Biomarkers: progesterone receptor-positive; genetic testing including BRCA1 negative

Metastatic Site: bladder trigone

As of January 2012, urge incontinence had resolved and PET showed decreased activity in the breast and bladder trigone lesions nearly 10 months after starting tamoxifen, consistent with clinical and partial radiologic remission.

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Right breast ductal carcinoma with unusual sentinel-node drainage treated with lumpectomy and adjuvant therapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s

After lumpectomy, negative sentinel lymph node evaluation across 3 drainage territories, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy, she remained free of disease 2 years and 6 months after surgery.

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Lobular breast cancer with extraocular muscle and lung metastases: ocular improvement after radiotherapy and tamoxifen

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

Biomarkers: Original breast cancer: ER-negative; PR-negative. Extraocular muscle metastasis/recurrent disease: ER strongly positive; PR strongly positive.

Metastatic Site: bilateral extraocular muscles, right upper lobe lung,…

At 18 months after presentation with extraocular muscle metastases, PET showed no abnormality, diplopia had resolved, and ocular motility had markedly improved, with mild bilateral ptosis remaining.

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Male invasive papillary breast cancer: mastectomy and tamoxifen with 2-year well status

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

Biomarkers: ER-positive; HER2 not over-amplified

Recovered after mastectomy and sentinel node biopsy, received adjuvant tamoxifen, and remained well 2 years after surgery.

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Male invasive ductal breast cancer treated with mastectomy and tamoxifen

Patient Info: Anonymized, Male, 70+

Biomarkers: ER-positive

Treated with mastectomy, negative sentinel lymph node biopsy, and adjuvant tamoxifen; remained well 4 years after surgery.

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ER-positive breast cancer recurrence after DCIS: chemotherapy, nodal surgery, radiation, and endocrine therapy

Patient Info: Anonymized, Female, 40s

Biomarkers: Recurrent invasive breast cancer: ER-positive; HER2/neu-negative. PR not reported.

Disease-free for 33 months after treatment of ER-positive, HER2-negative invasive breast cancer recurring in the mastectomy skin flap with positive axillary sentinel nodes.

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Male ER/PR-positive breast cancer with contralateral DCIS: mastectomy and tamoxifen with no recurrence

Patient Info: Anonymized, Male, 60s

Biomarkers: Left breast cancer was ER+/PR+ with weak HER2. Right breast had intermediate-grade DCIS; no node spread reported.

Well with no evidence of locoregional recurrence after 5 years of follow-up on adjuvant tamoxifen after bilateral breast surgery.

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Stage II Breast Cancer: Martha's Survivor Story

Patient Info: Martha | Stage II

Martha completed treatment and said she had been declared cancer-free, 14 years after her stage II diagnosis.

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Stage III Breast Cancer: Mary's Survivor Story

Patient Info: Mary | Stage III

Mary said she was in remission and no longer required cancer treatment.

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