Breast Cancer: 732 Real Stories
732 stories match breast cancer. 559 of them mention surgery.
Breast Cancer: Laura’s Survivor Story
Laura's breast cancer journey began after she experienced sharp pain in her right breast and nipple discharge. The diagnosis brought intense uncertainty, including fear of dying and fear of how treatment would affect her. Her care included surgery to remove…
Read this storyStage I BRCA Breast Cancer Patient Story
N had no breast symptoms when her family doctor recommended mammography after menopause. Her mother had experienced breast cancer, although N reported no inherited BRCA finding. Extra mammogram images and an urgent ultrasound led to a direct diagnosis of…
Read this storyStage I Breast Cancer: Susanna’s Patient Story
Susanna sought medical attention after noticing a swollen breast and was diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer. The diagnosis came as a shock and brought fear, helplessness, worry and confusion about what might happen next. Her doctor recommended…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Serena’s Patient Story
Serena had no suspicious symptoms when a mammogram detected her cancer. She went on to have breast-conserving surgery with a lumpectomy, lymph node removal and radiation therapy, following her doctor’s recommendation. She is now undergoing hormone therapy…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Catherine’s Survivor Story
Catherine, 55, was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer in 2020 after finding a lump. Cancer had already affected her family, including an aunt, uncle, and grandfather, so the diagnosis brought intense fear. Her doctor told her the estimated 5-year survival…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Jaidive’s Survivor Story
Jaidive was 44 when she was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer in 2020. She had lost both her maternal grandmother and mother to cancer, so finding a suspicious breast mass through self-examination was frightening. A breast cancer specialist confirmed the…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Jenny’s Patient Story
Jenny’s breast cancer was found during a routine health examination in June 2020, when a hard breast lump was detected. She was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer. The diagnosis made her fearful about treatment side effects, but she also felt courageous and…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Catalina’s Survivor Story
Catalina was 55 when a small lump in her left breast and tiny prickling sensations made her feel that something was wrong. She was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The news left her frightened, helpless and nervous…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Alexandria’s Patient Story
Alexandria was 27 when she felt a hard breast lump in the shower. The ultrasound happened the day after her birthday, and the biopsy found abnormal cells that led to a breast cancer diagnosis. She waited to tell her parents until the diagnosis was clearer…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Natalia’s Patient Story
Natalia Padron’s breast cancer was found after she noticed that something looked different in her breasts and sought routine breast imaging. The report was highly suspicious, and she was referred to a surgeon. She had a family history of breast cancer through…
Read this storyStage III Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Vanessa’s Survivor Story
Vanessa Sanders had worked at MD Anderson for less than 1 year when she became a patient herself. She had felt a small lump in her left breast for years, but it had not bothered her. Then sharp chest pains began, sometimes so intense that they felt like labor…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melanie’s Survivor Story
Melanie Nix grew up knowing that breast and ovarian cancer ran through her family. Her grandmother had breast cancer, her mother was diagnosed when Melanie was 8, and her three aunts had breast cancer, ovarian cancer, or both. Because of that history, Melanie…
Read this storyStage I Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Suzanne’s Patient Story
Suzanne Kulliver had only just completed treatment for colon cancer when a routine annual mammogram in December 2015 led to another major diagnosis. Her doctor requested an ultrasound and biopsy, and Suzanne learned that she had breast cancer. The tumor was…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Janet’s Survivor Story
Janet Klein expected breast cancer might eventually affect her because both her mother and sister had been diagnosed. Careful mammogram surveillance helped catch her first breast cancer at Stage 1, before it had spread. There was no lymph-node involvement…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Jeanette’s Patient Story
Jeanette Stephens-El was 43 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003. Cancer was already deeply familiar to her family: two of her sisters had been diagnosed with breast cancer, and two brothers had died from other cancers. Another sister was…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Lori’s Patient Story
Lori Marx-Rubiner was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer when her son was 3 years old. Thirteen years later, she was still living with Stage IV disease and was on her fourth line of therapy after three previous treatments had stopped working. For Lori…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Mariann’s Survivor Story
Mariann Lotenero was treated for triple-negative breast cancer with a double mastectomy at a California hospital. Afterward, she was deeply grateful to be alive and said she did not have cancer anymore, but survivorship brought a different problem. Her…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Kate’s Survivor Story
Kate Watson was 35, with 2 young daughters, when she learned she had Stage IV HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. The cancer had already spread beyond the breast to lymph nodes in her chest and to spots in her spine, pelvis and one femur. The diagnosis…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Brittney’s Survivor Story
Brittney Rinella was 26 and planning her wedding when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After discussing options with Cleveland Clinic oncologist Dr. Halle Moore and the rest of her care team, Brittney chose a double mastectomy followed by chemotherapy…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Marilyn’s Survivor Story
Marilyn Alejandro-Rodriguez was approaching 40 when her primary care doctor reminded her to schedule her first screening mammogram. She felt healthy and had no breast symptoms. The baseline mammogram showed a subtle area behind the right nipple. Marilyn was…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Margaret’s Survivor Story
Margaret was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer in December 2015 after changes in her left breast were easy to explain away at first. In late 2014, she noticed that her nipple was inverting and that the breast seemed to be shrinking. She was training for…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Margaret’s Survivor Story
Margaret’s fuller treatment story starts with the same breast changes she first noticed in late 2014: an inverted nipple and shrinking appearance in the left breast. A standard mammogram did not clearly show cancer, but a later 3D mammogram found the tumor…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Jane’s Survivor Story
Jane Dennington was living in Haiti with her husband, Bud, doing missionary work when she noticed a growing lump in her breast. Local X-ray equipment malfunctioned, and she was told everything looked fine, but Jane knew the lump was getting bigger. She…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Diana’s Patient Story
Diana Stork was diagnosed with breast cancer in July 2016 and received daily radiation treatment at Dana-Farber. As a social scientist who had spent much of her career studying interpersonal behavior and organizational culture, she found herself closely…
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