Stage 4 Breast Cancer: 144 Real Stories
144 stories match breast cancer and stage 4. 91 of them mention surgery.
Stage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Anne’s Patient Story
Anne Keane was diagnosed in 2016 after pain in her sternum led to testing that found HER2-positive breast cancer already involving her bones and liver. She was a young mother, and learning that the disease was metastatic and incurable was devastating. At 42…
Read this storyStage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Maggie’s Survivor Story
Maggie was applying for a U.S. green card when she was diagnosed in 2022 with de novo Stage IV triple-negative breast cancer. She is from the Netherlands and had planned to move to the United States because her wife is American. Before the diagnosis, she…
Read this storyStage IV HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Kate’s Patient Story
Kate first felt a breast lump while breastfeeding. An ultrasound found a 4 mm mass, but she was told she was too young for a mammogram or biopsy and that it was likely a cyst. In November 2023, the lump had grown to 2-3 cm, but she was again told not to…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Kate’s Patient Story
Kate first found a breast lump while breastfeeding her daughter in 2022. She was told it was probably a cyst and that she was too young for mammography or biopsy. The lump continued to grow, but repeated assessments still did not lead to tissue testing. In…
Read this storyStage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Deltra’s Patient Story
Deltra James was diagnosed at 33 with de novo Stage IV triple-negative metastatic breast cancer. Her advocacy has focused not only on living with advanced cancer, but also on quality-of-life issues that many patients are embarrassed to raise. In this 2024…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Nina’s Survivor Story
Nina was 34 when she noticed hardening under her left armpit. About 1 year later, the lump had grown and her breast began to show dimpling. A mammogram and ultrasound found an abnormal lump, and a biopsy confirmed Stage III breast cancer. Soon afterward…
Read this storyStage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Deltra’s Patient Story
Deltra James was diagnosed at 33 with de novo Stage IV triple-negative metastatic breast cancer and later became a voice for people navigating love, identity, and confidence while living with advanced disease. In this part of the Empowered Intimacy series…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Nina’s Survivor Story
Nina was 34 when she was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. Her first sign was a hard strip under her left armpit, not the small pea-like lump she had been told to watch for. At first, she was reassured because she was young, had dense breast…
Read this storyStage IV HR-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Dee’s Patient Story
Dee was 31 and breastfeeding in 2017 when pain in her left breast was followed by a large lump. Her symptoms were initially minimized because of her age, but she kept pushing for answers and eventually had an ultrasound through a private hospital. She was…
Read this storyStage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Deltra’s Patient Story
Deltra James was diagnosed at 33 with de novo Stage IV triple-negative metastatic breast cancer. In this conversation with Melissa Berry, she focused on the emotional and body-image side of living after a breast cancer diagnosis. Cancer can leave visible and…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Dee’s Patient Story
Dee Doherty was first diagnosed at age 31 with Stage III invasive ductal carcinoma and extensive DCIS in her left breast. Her early signs included trouble producing milk on the left side while breastfeeding, then breast pain and a growing lumpy area. Because…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Lourdes’s Patient Story
Lourdes Monje was 25 when they noticed a new mass in their chest in October 2020. After an ultrasound, biopsy, and several scans, they were diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer in January 2021. The diagnosis disrupted plans for a new career and brought…
Read this storyStage IV KRAS Breast Cancer: Lauren’s Patient Story
Lauren, from Houston, first found a breast lump in 2014 after breastfeeding her second child. It was initially dismissed as a fibroadenoma, but 2 years later she developed breast pain and noticed that her left nipple looked unusual. She was diagnosed with…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Samantha’s Patient Story
Samantha was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer at 22 in March 2019 after pain in her left breast led her to feel a lump. Initial reassurance and antibiotics did not help. A biopsy confirmed breast cancer, and her surgeon also biopsied a suspicious lymph…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Lisa’s Patient Story
Lisa Ordmandy was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 and was told after treatment elsewhere that it would not recur. A few years later, a fall from a stationary bicycle caused a C2 vertebral fracture, and doctors believed the fracture was caused by…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Melissa’s Patient Story
Melissa Adams noticed a persistent abnormal area in her right breast in 2017 while finishing a graduate degree in planetary geology. Ultrasound, mammography, and biopsy led to a diagnosis of invasive lobular carcinoma. Because the tumor was large, she…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Catherine’s Survivor Story
Catherine was 45 when she shared her experience of living after metastatic breast cancer. She first had breast cancer in 2016. In 2019, she had a recurrence with a tumor located near the cerebellum, placing her story in the metastatic breast cancer setting…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Leslie’s Patient Story
Leslie was 56 when her breast cancer diagnosis unfolded over 2.5 months in 2017. A March 3D mammogram led to a call-back for the left breast, but the follow-up report was normal and noted dense breasts that could obscure small masses. Leslie still sensed that…
Read this storyStage IV BRCA Breast Cancer: Dena’s Patient Story
Dena Ofengeim was 28 in December 2021 when worsening back pain and leg weakness sent her to the emergency room. Imaging found a mass pressing on the nerves of her spine. Surgery removed the mass, and a biopsy showed that it was breast cancer that had spread…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Kris’s Patient Story
Kris Hallenga was 23 when she was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer. By the time she spoke with Dr. Liz O'Riordan in December 2023, she had been living with advanced breast cancer for 14 years. Her story is not built around a detailed treatment timeline…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Sherri’s Patient Story
Sherri was first diagnosed in November 2022 with aggressive Stage IV metastatic breast cancer after her blood counts dropped and doctors found a breast mass. The cancer had spread to her bone marrow, so she needed multiple transfusions before starting…
Read this storyStage IV Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Corky’s Patient Story
Corky Thacker was 64 when breast discoloration that first seemed like a heat rash eventually led to a Stage IV inflammatory breast cancer diagnosis. She was careful about annual mammograms, but inflammatory breast cancer can be hard to detect because it often…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Olivia’s Survivor Story
Olivia Franz was 27 and breastfeeding her 4-month-old son when she noticed a painless lump in her left breast in mid-October 2020. An initial ultrasound suggested mastitis, but the lump and swelling grew during a week of antibiotics. A second ultrasound and…
Read this storyStage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: April’s Patient Story
April Donaldson was 40 when she found 4 lumps along the side of her left breast in January 2020, only months after a normal mammogram. Around the same time, she received genetic testing results showing she was BRCA1 positive. Biopsy confirmed triple-negative…
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