Radiation for Breast Cancer: 373 Real Stories
373 stories match breast cancer and radiation. 346 of them mention surgery.
Stage IV Breast Cancer Patient Story
The patient was breastfeeding her daughter in 2016 when she noticed a lump in her right breast. She was reassured at first that she was too young for breast cancer and that it might be related to breastfeeding. After diagnosis, further testing changed the…
Read this storyStage III Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Stacy’s Survivor Story
Stacy had received regular mammograms since age 40 and was repeatedly told the results were clear. Dense breast tissue was noted, and automated whole-breast ultrasound was recommended only once. During a 2023 examination, her gynecologist felt that one breast…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Janella’s Survivor Story
Janella Bustamante was diagnosed with triple-positive breast cancer in June 2021. Her cancer was described as fueled by estrogen, progesterone and the HER2 protein. She returned to Lima, Peru, for the first part of treatment and spent the following months…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Dalitso’s Patient Story
Dalitso was 38 when invasive ductal breast cancer was first found in 2020. She had noticed a hardening breast mass years earlier, along with weight loss, fatigue, and back pain that had been attributed to other health issues. A mammogram first suggested Stage…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Josephine’s Survivor Story
Josephine faced 2 cancer diagnoses before age 40. In 2015, at age 28, she was diagnosed with melanoma. Two years later, breast cancer disrupted the life she and her partner were building around marriage, family plans, and ordinary young-adult freedom. Breast…
Read this storyStage I Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Tammy’s Survivor Story
Tammy McDevitt had years of normal mammograms, even though repeated letters warned that dense breast tissue could make cancer harder to detect. In September 2024, her annual screening mammogram at Cleveland Clinic found a subtle abnormality. Follow-up…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Jennifer’s Survivor Story
Jennifer Njathi’s breast cancer was found after her delayed 40th-birthday mammogram led to extra imaging in early 2023. At first, she thought the callback was routine for a first mammogram. When the repeat screening focused on one breast and the lymph nodes…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Basma’s Patient Story
Basma, a 44-year-old mother of 2, learned she had breast cancer after a mammogram showed concerning changes and a biopsy confirmed the diagnosis. Her name was changed for privacy. She had no family history of breast cancer, and the news affected not only her…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Nikoo’s Patient Story
Nikoo was 42 in 2003 when a normal mammogram missed the cancer her doctor felt during a breast exam. A biopsy confirmed invasive lobular breast cancer, a type that can be difficult to see on standard imaging. The tumor was small, about 0.9 cm, and she was…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Theresa’s Survivor Story
Theresa first faced cancer in 2008, when a painful spot on her lip was biopsied and diagnosed as lip cancer. It was treated with Mohs surgery. Five years later, in 2013, she noticed her left breast looked larger and felt painful. Instead of a typical lump…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Karin’s Patient Story
Karin was first diagnosed with breast cancer on December 4, 2014, after mentioning a swollen breast gland during a visit for a persistent cough. Everything moved quickly. She initially hoped the tumor could simply be removed, but treatment also included…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Maria’s Patient Story
Maria first went through chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and targeted/endocrine therapy for breast cancer. Surgery showed more lymph-node involvement than expected on PET imaging, and up to 20 lymph nodes were removed. Pathology later showed more cancer in…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Charlotte’s Survivor Story
Charlotte was preparing to retire to a quiet cabin in northwestern Minnesota when breast cancer interrupted the plan. About 2 weeks before her 2024 annual mammogram, she felt pain in her right breast. She had long had an inflamed duct on the left side, so at…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Iris’s Patient Story
Iris Lopez-Mendez first faced breast cancer in 2010 after feeling a lump in her right breast. Mammogram and biopsy confirmed Stage IIA breast cancer, and she was treated with lumpectomy, radiation, and chemotherapy. For years afterward, she kept up with…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Marissa’s Survivor Story
Marissa Coreno was 27 when she felt a breast lump in June 2021. She was young, healthy, living independently, and had no family history of breast cancer, so she did not expect the lump to be serious. Diagnostic imaging at Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Linda’s Patient Story
Linda Norman was approaching her 60th birthday in January 2019 when a routine mammogram found a small mass in her left breast. Biopsy confirmed breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy, then 10 radiation treatments over 2 weeks. Anastrozole caused extreme joint…
Read this storyStage III Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Paula’s Survivor Story
Paula Jones was 43 when a routine mammogram in February 2010 found a small spot in her left breast that she could not feel and her doctor could not detect by exam. Because she had lost her mother to breast cancer at age 7, Paula had started screening in her…
Read this storyStage III Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Lynn’s Survivor Story
Lynn Leiro was 36 when back pain, fatigue and then a lump in her armpit led to a Stage IIIC triple-negative breast cancer diagnosis in 2022. Imaging showed five breast tumors and a swollen lymph node; a later CT scan found more cancerous lymph nodes in her…
Read this storyStage III HR-Positive Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Courtney’s Patient Story
Courtney was 37 and pregnant with her 3rd child when she first found a lump in her left breast in February 2022. Ultrasound showed a 5 mm hypoechoic mass that was considered probably benign, and mammogram did not show it because of dense breast tissue. She…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Queen’s Patient Story
Queen was 31 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer after growing up with a strong family history of the disease. Her mother and aunt had both faced breast cancer, so the diagnosis carried personal and family weight from the beginning. Queen’s story later…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Kathleen’s Patient Story
Kathleen McEvoy-Schufreider was first diagnosed in 2011 with early-stage HER2-positive, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. She joined a clinical trial and received 16 weeks of paclitaxel with trastuzumab. After surgery, she received 4 doses of AC…
Read this storyStage III HR-Positive Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Tanya’s Patient Story
Tanya was 44 when she was diagnosed in 2016 with Stage IIIA invasive lobular carcinoma in her left breast. She had noticed a painful lump for about 1 year, but her first concern was dismissed because she had no family history and was told breast cancer was…
Read this storyStage II BRCA2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Onjalai’s Survivor Story
Onjalai Brown was 36 when she felt pain behind one nipple and then a lump about the size of a ping-pong ball. Her family history made the fear especially real: on her mother’s side, eight women had breast cancer and four men had prostate cancer, likely…
Read this storyStage IV HR-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Samantha’s Patient Story
Samantha was 22 when a breast lump, initially treated as an infection, was confirmed as cancer. Further imaging found a small rib lesion that shrank with chemotherapy, showing that the disease had already spread and making the diagnosis stage 4. She received…
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