Breast Cancer: 732 Real Stories
732 stories match breast cancer. 559 of them mention surgery.
Stage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Julie’s Patient Story
Julie Campbell was living with chronic myelogenous leukemia when a second cancer changed her course. In October 2020, tests showed no leukemia in her blood and her leukemia chemotherapy was stopped. One month later, she was diagnosed with Stage IV…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Anabel’s Patient Story
Anabel’s breast cancer story was shaped by family loss. Her sister and mother had both died from cancer, and Anabel had cared for them before facing her own diagnosis. About 1.5 years after losing her mother, she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Christal’s Survivor Story
Christal Love was 39 when she was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer, described as aggressive hormone-positive, HER2-negative disease that had spread to her lymph nodes. She began treatment locally with chemotherapy. The first cycle used Taxol. During a…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Duncan’s Patient Story
Soon after Duncan Finigan was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, she told her oncologist that she struggled with the weight of the stage label. He encouraged her to think of the disease instead as a treatable, non-curable condition. That framing helped…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Katie’s Patient Story
Katie Lazdowski was 33 when she was told on a Monday that she had breast cancer. After meeting with a local oncologist in western Massachusetts, she called Dana-Farber on Wednesday and met her new care team the next day. Within about four hours, Katie met a…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Faye’s Patient Story
Faye Belvin was 58 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2019. She began treatment soon afterward, including radiation therapy. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, she was able to continue her cancer care while spending much of her time at home…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Kehau’s Survivor Story
At 78, Kehau Matsumoto described herself as a five-time cancer survivor and patient advocate in Hawaii. Her first breast cancer was found on a routine mammogram in 1993. Afraid of surgery, she chose radiation therapy. Breast cancer later returned more than…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Daneen’s Survivor Story
Daneen had surgery for lobular carcinoma in situ at age 32 and was monitored closely afterward. Tamoxifen was discussed as a preventive option, but she and her husband were trying to have a child after years of infertility and unsuccessful IVF. In June 1999…
Read this storyStage III Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Marlena’s Patient Story
Marlena Murphy was 40 when she found a lump in her left breast during a monthly self-exam in 2018. Mammography, ultrasound, biopsy, and MRI led to a diagnosis of Stage III triple-negative breast cancer involving nearby lymph nodes. Marlena began chemotherapy…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Elizabeth’s Patient Story
Elizabeth Cahn faced treatment decisions after being diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer. Her experience with a clinical trial was shaped by both her own health needs and a desire to contribute to future care. She reflected on the patients who had…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Sandra’s Patient Story
Sandra Morales first noticed an uncomfortable sensation in her left breast in 2008, when she was 38. Two years later, she had her first mammogram on her birthday. The test found a suspicious mass, and a biopsy led to a Stage III breast cancer diagnosis in May…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Fleur’s Patient Story
Fleur Profinet was 48 when she spoke about living with metastatic breast cancer and the way it changed family life. She first had breast cancer in 2013, then a recurrence beginning in 2020. Formal biomarker results, specific metastatic sites, surgery details…
Read this storyInvasive Ductal Carcinoma: Simone’s Patient Story
In late 2021, Simone Saint Laurent received a mammogram after pandemic-related screening delays. Suspicious calcifications led to a biopsy and a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS. Her doctors recommended removal of both breasts and testing nearby…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Tamara’s Patient Story
Tamara was 30, recently returned from the United States, and had just given birth when she noticed a small lump in her armpit during breastfeeding. She was first reassured that it was probably a lactation-related cyst, but because her mother had died of…
Read this storyBRCA1 Breast Cancer: Janice’s Patient Story
Janice Dolnick had already been through a long breast cancer journey before she came to Dana-Farber in 2018. Over the previous 21 years, she had undergone 2 rounds of breast cancer treatment and a bilateral mastectomy. Genetic testing had shown that she…
Read this storyStage I Breast Cancer: Lorena’s Patient Story
Lorena, a Colombian woman living in Miami, first felt something was wrong during a trip to Spain. Her hands and feet went numb, and although others thought it was travel fatigue, she kept insisting that her body felt different. Back in Miami, her doctor…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Jo’s Survivor Story
Jo was 56 and receiving twice-yearly ultrasound and annual mammography because of dense, cystic breasts. During 2021, several suspicious areas in the left breast were biopsied and found to be benign. A technician later noticed an area in the right breast, but…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Eileen’s Survivor Story
Eileen’s lobular breast cancer was diagnosed in September 2018, when a radiologist called just after her plane landed. Early consultations suggested lumpectomy and 5 weeks of radiation, but an MRI changed the plan. What first appeared to be a line of invasive…
Read this storyStage II HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: María’s Survivor Story
María Ángeles found a small lump in her armpit while showering, just months after a divorce and during a stressful period of rebuilding her life. She had also had fever and some weight loss, but the lump was the sign that pushed her to see her gynecologist. A…
Read this storyBRCA1 Breast Cancer: Mary’s Patient Story
In 2017, this nurse underwent a mammogram after her doctor raised concerns about very high inflammatory markers and a family history of ovarian cancer. The mammogram detected early-stage breast cancer. A second evaluation at MD Anderson showed that the breast…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Loli’s Patient Story
Loli was 63 when she shared the story of having breast cancer 3 times. About 4 years earlier, she felt a hard area in her breast, like mastitis, and quickly saw her gynecologist. An urgent ultrasound and biopsy led to a HER2-positive breast cancer diagnosis…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Stephanie’s Patient Story
Stephanie was 68 when she shared a long breast cancer history. In 2004, a routine mammogram found an abnormality on the right side. She had a needle-localized biopsy, lumpectomy, and sentinel node biopsy, then was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ and…
Read this storyStage IV Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Caroline’s Patient Story
Caroline McGuirk first noticed that her right breast felt tighter in September 2020. Over the following weeks, she developed swelling, redness, and dimpling, and later felt masses behind the nipple. Because she was 31 and otherwise healthy, breast cancer had…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Claire’s Patient Story
Claire Jacob first had breast cancer at 36, while running a communications agency focused on the art market and raising a 9-year-old daughter. She said she did not stop working during that first cancer. The more difficult moment came in 2016, when the cancer…
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