Surgery for Breast Cancer: 559 Real Stories
559 stories match breast cancer and surgery. 392 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage III Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Kelly’s Survivor Story
Kelly Thomas was 33 when she felt a lump in her left breast. She had no breast cancer history in her family and had checked her breasts regularly, so the finding was frightening. Imaging and biopsy confirmed breast cancer, and her breast surgeon told her…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Susan’s Patient Story
Susan was 72 when she shared a long history with breast cancer. Her first diagnosis began in 2000, when her husband, a physician, felt a small hard lump in her left breast. A fine needle aspiration missed the cancer 3 times, but surgical removal showed the…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Susan’s Survivor Story
Susan was 72 when she shared a breast cancer history spanning more than 20 years. Her first diagnosis began when she was 50 and her husband, a physician, felt a hard pea-sized lump in her left breast. A fine needle aspiration incorrectly came back negative…
Read this storyStage 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…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Brittney’s Patient Story
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 I Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melissa’s Survivor Story
Melissa Berry was 42 when routine high-risk screening found Stage I triple-negative breast cancer. Breast cancer ran strongly on her mother’s side, and Melissa had learned she carried a BRCA mutation. Because of that, she was being followed closely with MRI…
Read this storyStage I Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melissa’s Survivor Story
Melissa Berry learned she carried a BRCA gene alteration at age 32 after several women on her mother’s side of the family developed breast cancer. The result initially frightened her, but it also led to intensive screening with MRI, mammography and ultrasound…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Megan’s Survivor Story
Megan-Claire Chase was diagnosed with Stage II invasive lobular breast cancer after symptoms such as green bruises, brittle hair, sudden weight gain, and a left-breast mass. Her doctors later believed the cancer may have been growing for 8 to 10 years and had…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Stephanie’s Survivor Story
Stephanie was 50 when she found a lump in her right breast on July 2, 2018. Mammogram and ultrasound confirmed the lump, and it was removed in early August. The lump itself was benign, but the pathology also found lobular carcinoma in situ, which raised her…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Megan-Claire’s Survivor Story
Megan-Claire Chase was 39 when she was diagnosed with Stage IIA invasive lobular breast cancer. Years before diagnosis, she had a strong family history of cancer and was already watching her body closely. A preventive mammogram at 35 was read as clear, but…
Read this storyStage III Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Nikki’s Patient Story
Nikki, a 47-year-old mother and teacher, had already survived a rare cancer before her breast cancer diagnosis. In 2016, while breastfeeding her long-awaited son, a doctor reviewed years of bowel and IBS-like complaints and investigated further. That workup…
Read this storyStage III HER2-Positive Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Nikki’s Patient Story
Nikki first noticed sharp pain around her right nipple in August 2022. Because there was no lump and she had been told that cancer usually did not hurt, she attributed it to menopause. By late November, her nipple had become completely inverted. A biopsy and…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Lucinda’s Patient Story
Lucinda Rudolph was 68 when an annual breast cancer screening in April 2020 led to a frightening local assessment. She had been treated for breast cancer 10 years earlier with lumpectomy and radiation, and this new cancer was initially described as…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Cynthia’s Survivor Story
Cynthia Jordan had normal mammograms for 13 years and no symptoms, even while a walnut-sized tumor was growing in her breast. She had dense breasts but had not been educated about what that meant or why supplemental screening could matter. In 2018, a…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Cynthia’s Survivor Story
Cynthia Jordan never missed her annual mammogram, but dense breast tissue made her cancer difficult to find. In 2018, a mammogram showed an architectural distortion, and follow-up imaging and biopsy led to a diagnosis of Stage IIB invasive ductal carcinoma…
Read this storyStage III Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Neda’s Survivor Story
Neda was 48 and living in Seattle when her breast cancer journey began. In April 2020, she felt a large lump in her left breast. Mammography and ultrasound did not show cancer, and she received a letter noting dense breast tissue and recommending another…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Sarah’s Patient Story
Sarah McDonald was 44 and pursuing fertility treatment with her husband when she received 2 unrelated cancer diagnoses within 2 months. The first was incurable salivary gland cancer, found after she noticed a lump in the floor of her mouth after a deep teeth…
Read this storyStage III HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Sarah’s Survivor Story
Sarah McDonald was 44 when she was diagnosed with 2 unrelated cancers within 2 months. Surgery for a rare salivary gland cancer prompted her to re-examine a breast lump first noticed 6 years earlier. Annual mammograms had not shown a clear problem because she…
Read this storyBRCA1 Breast Cancer: Carol’s Survivor Story
In 2018, this patient was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer after years of monitoring suspicious areas in the right breast. Genetic testing later showed a BRCA1 mutation, which influenced both breast cancer planning and future ovarian cancer risk…
Read this storyStage III HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Christine’s Survivor Story
Christine Elliott was 31 when she noticed a large, hard, fixed breast lump while lying in bed. She had also felt tired, pale, stressed, and increasingly anxious, but the visible divot and the lump made her seek care. Imaging, biopsy, and MRI showed Stage III…
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 II Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Tara’s Survivor Story
Tara was 50 when routine breast imaging found invasive lobular carcinoma. She had dense breast tissue and a history of many mammogram call-backs, so screening had often been difficult to interpret. Shortly after her 50th birthday in August 2022, a routine…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Debbie’s Survivor Story
Debbie Bliss MBE is best known as a knitwear designer, but her cancer story adds another layer to a life built around creativity, resilience, and self-definition. She has had both thymus cancer and breast cancer, and her breast cancer treatment included a…
Read this story