HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Anna's Survivor Story

What happened, in summary

Anna Rathkopf was 37 when she found a lump in her breast on her birthday. She was living in Brooklyn with her husband and their 2.5-year-old son, and they had just started thinking about a second child. A prior doctor had told her she did not need a mammogram because she was young, healthy, and had no family history. When Anna pushed for evaluation, the mammogram did not show the tumor because she had dense breast tissue, but ultrasound found it and biopsy confirmed breast cancer.

Anna learned she had triple-positive breast cancer: ER-positive, PR-positive, and HER2-positive. She chose lumpectomy, and sentinel nodes were removed. Because the cancer was estrogen-positive, fertility preservation became complicated, and she and her husband decided not to pursue egg preservation. About 3 weeks after surgery, she started weekly chemotherapy. One component caused a toxic reaction that required oxygen, so the regimen was changed.

Treatment continued with radiation, biologic infusions every 3 weeks, and tamoxifen. The physical effects were hard, but the mental-health impact was even more frightening; Anna described becoming suicidal around the transition into survivorship. As of October 2024, she was about 7 years from diagnosis and used photography and writing to process survivorship, body changes, partnership, intimacy, and parenting after cancer.