Stage 4 Breast Cancer: 144 Real Stories
144 stories match breast cancer and stage 4. 91 of them mention surgery.
Stage IV Breast Cancer: Britney’s Patient Story
Britney Beadle was 18 and still in high school when she found a breast lump in February 2015. An ultrasound and mammogram were arranged, but she was told 18-year-olds do not get breast cancer. A few months later, the lump had grown and her nipple inverted…
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Brittney Beadle was 18 and still in high school when she found a lump in her right breast in February 2015. An ultrasound and mammogram showed a mass, but she was told that 18-year-olds did not get breast cancer. Three months later, the lump had grown and her…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Fadia’s Survivor Story
Fadia was first diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32. At the beginning, she did not fully understand what the diagnosis meant, but she chose patience and leaned on the people around her. Her first breast cancer treatment journey lasted 3 years. During that…
Read this storyStage IV HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Abigail’s Patient Story
Abigail Myers was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2014, just over a year after the birth of her son. Testing showed triple-positive disease, with estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors. Her initial treatment included a double mastectomy, radiation…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Lesley’s Patient Story
Lesley Glenn was first diagnosed with Stage IIB breast cancer. Soon afterward, doctors found that the cancer had spread to her bones, changing the diagnosis to Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. The shift was heartbreaking and left her feeling that some…
Read this storyStage IV BRCA Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Langley’s Patient Story
Langley Perer was 35 when she was diagnosed in 2017 with ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS. Genetic testing showed that she had inherited a BRCA mutation, and she underwent a double mastectomy in Los Angeles. In 2020, Langley began feeling generally unwell…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Anna’s Patient Story
Anna, 67, went for a checkup after noticing a lump growing in her armpit and was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer. She did not seek a second opinion, choosing instead to follow her doctor’s recommendation. The diagnosis made her feel disappointed…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Aria’s Patient Story
Aria, 57, sought medical care after noticing an ulcer on her breast. She also had redness, irritation, thickening of part of the breast, and a change in the shape of the affected breast. In October 2023, she was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer. Cancer…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Adriana’s Patient Story
Adriana was 39 when a lump under her left armpit made her feel that something was wrong. On October 19, 2023, she learned that she had stage 4 breast cancer. Following her doctors' recommendation, Adriana underwent a mastectomy and then intensive chemotherapy…
Read this storyStage IV HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Bethany’s Patient Story
Bethany was 34 when breast cancer was first found in both breasts and a lymph node. Earlier, she had felt breast and underarm lumps but pursued thermography and other nonstandard approaches before ultimately getting a mammogram and ultrasound that showed…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Nancy’s Patient Story
Nancy’s story is told by her husband, Brian. The two were high school sweethearts who reunited after 14 years apart and married in 1992. Their life changed on May 26, 2017, when numbness in Nancy’s arm and hand did not go away. She had experienced the…
Read this storyStage IV PIK3CA Breast Cancer: Abigail’s Patient Story
Abigail was 38, running a law firm, raising 2 young children, and breastfeeding when she felt a lump in her left breast in January 2017. She first thought it was a clogged duct. In April 2017, she was diagnosed with strongly hormone-positive breast cancer and…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Lianne’s Patient Story
Lianne Kraemer was 37 when a small painful area in her left breast led to imaging and a biopsy in late 2013. She was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer involving lymph nodes. In 2014, she underwent a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, reconstruction, and…
Read this storyStage 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 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 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 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 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…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Marie-Pierre’s Patient Story
Marie-Pierre Bertrand was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer when she was barely 50. Before the diagnosis, she had strong fatigue and struggled to get through normal activities. A lymph node was found in 2014, and a mammogram led to the discovery of…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Simone’s Patient Story
Simone sought medical care after developing headaches and sharp, shooting pain in her left breast. She was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer and had not yet started cancer treatment when she shared her story. The diagnosis left her overwhelmed, helpless…
Read this storyStage IV BRCA2 Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Julie’s Patient Story
Julie is an emergency medicine physician in Maryland, a wife, and a mother of 3. In October 2019, soon after a family trip to Italy, she noticed a small indentation on the outer part of her right breast while getting out of the shower. A mammogram did not…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Màrius’s Patient Story
Màrius Soler is a man with breast cancer and the founder of INVI, an association created to make men with breast cancer visible. His story began with a small lump behind the nipple. Like many men, he did not immediately think of breast cancer and waited about…
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