What happened, in summary

Dr. Liz O'Riordan, a breast surgeon, was diagnosed at 40 in 2015 with Stage III mixed ductal and lobular breast cancer. Her cancer was not seen on mammogram; it was found on ultrasound and MRI. She received chemotherapy first, and her final MRI appeared encouraging, but surgery showed why lobular disease can be difficult to measure. The ductal part had responded, yet her mastectomy still found 13 cm of lobular cancer in the breast. Her cancer was ER-positive and HER2-negative, and she later described having a PIK3CA mutation. About 3 years after the original diagnosis, Liz had a locoregional recurrence on the chest wall. Around 7 months before the June 2024 video, she had a second local recurrence above the mastectomy scar. Her story is also used to explain why invasive lobular breast cancer can be missed: it can grow in sheets rather than forming a clear lump, can be harder to see on mammogram or MRI, and is often ER-positive and HER2-negative. As of June 2024, Liz was living after repeated local recurrence, with no distant metastatic site described in her own case. She emphasized that this imaging gap was part of the reason lobular breast cancer can be confusing for both patients and clinicians.