Stage IV Breast Cancer: Samantha's Patient Story

What happened, in summary

Samantha was diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer at 22 in March 2019 after pain in her left breast led her to feel a lump. Initial reassurance and antibiotics did not help. A biopsy confirmed breast cancer, and her surgeon also biopsied a suspicious lymph node. Her team first expected chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and then years of hormone therapy because the cancer was hormone-positive. During treatment planning, a small spot in a high rib became important. After chemotherapy, the rib lesion shrank like the other cancer, so her team considered it metastatic disease. Taxol was stopped early because of neuropathy risk. Instead of a double mastectomy, Samantha had a lumpectomy, then radiation, finishing in November 2019. She then started hormone and targeted therapy, but side effects were severe. After about 2 years, she paused treatment to try for pregnancy and had a daughter. After childbirth and breastfeeding, severe back pain led to scans showing a spinal fracture from cancer, plus other lesions in her spine and pelvis. She had spine-stabilizing surgery, 3 rounds of radiation, and joined a clinical trial involving chemo with or without a radium drug; she was assigned to the radium arm but stopped after mixed scan results. As of July 2024, she was back on hormone and targeted therapy, with scans every 3 months and recent surgery to remove a growing breast tumor.