Stage IV Breast Cancer: Amy's Survivor Story

What happened, in summary

Amy Mannarino was first diagnosed with Stage I breast cancer in November 2014 after a routine mammogram. She had a lumpectomy at MSK Commack, then started tamoxifen because chemotherapy was not expected to work well for her type and stage of cancer. Tamoxifen was hard for her to tolerate, so in February 2015 she had a mastectomy, followed by reconstructive surgery that summer. Amy returned to work and family life until October 2017, when her right arm suddenly started twitching and the right side of her body went numb. A local MRI suggested a meningioma, but Amy knew her breast cancer history mattered and returned to MSK. Neurosurgeon Viviane Tabar suspected the brain lesion was a metastasis. Because it sat near the area controlling Amy’s dominant right hand, the team used brain mapping before surgery. The 2-hour operation removed the entire tumor, and pathology confirmed breast cancer metastasis to the brain. Amy then had 3 sessions of radiation to the postoperative cavity with essentially no side effects, followed by monitoring with neuro-oncology. After surgery and radiation, she was doing well with no evidence of disease. Her story is careful about language: in metastatic disease, no evidence of disease does not mean the same thing as being cured.