Chemotherapy: 963 Real Stories
963 stories match chemotherapy. 777 of them mention surgery.
Breast Cancer: Brian’s Patient Story
Brian Chrobak was 35 when he noticed a small lump behind his left nipple after a shower in January 2021. The lump changed size and began throbbing. After encouragement from his girlfriend, he returned for assessment, and testing and biopsy confirmed male…
Read this storyStage I Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Kim’s Survivor Story
Kim Brisky had worked at Cleveland Clinic Martin Health for 24 years, but being a nurse did not prepare her emotionally for her own Stage I breast cancer diagnosis. After a diagnostic mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy, she learned she had ductal carcinoma that…
Read this storyBRCA1 Breast Cancer: Muriel’s Survivor Story
Muriel Verger was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2015, when she was 33 and close to turning 34. She also reported a BRCA1 abnormality. Because the tumor was not large, her surgical treatment was a tumorectomy, also understood as…
Read this storyStage IV BRCA2 Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Julie’s Patient Story
Julie is an emergency medicine physician in Maryland, a wife, and a mother of 3. In October 2019, soon after a family trip to Italy, she noticed a small indentation on the outer part of her right breast while getting out of the shower. A mammogram did not…
Read this storyOvarian Cancer: Dana’s Patient Story
Dana Kivel was diagnosed in late 2011 with a rare ovarian cancer called a granulosa cell tumor. Over the next 10 years, the cancer recurred, with new tumors appearing in other parts of their body. Dana underwent four surgeries and received 5 months of…
Read this storyStage IV Lung Cancer: Steve’s Patient Story
Steve Castellaw was 72 when a lump on the side of his head led to an MRI, surgery, and biopsy. The next day, he learned he had Stage IV lung cancer. The tumor was in his left lung and had spread to his right pelvis, the L1 and L2 vertebrae in his spine, and…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Gastric Cancer: Bryan’s Patient Story
Bryan Chagolla was 38 when worsening abdominal pain, loss of appetite, heartburn, and nearly 40 pounds of weight loss led him to the emergency room in 2019. A biopsy confirmed Stage IV gastric, or stomach, cancer. The cancer was HER2-positive and had spread…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Barbara’s Survivor Story
Barbara was 42, raising 3 children and going through a difficult divorce, when digestive symptoms kept being dismissed. She had trouble eating because food felt like it sat in her gut, and she repeatedly sought help. She had also documented that her father…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Màrius’s Patient Story
Màrius Soler is a man with breast cancer and the founder of INVI, an association created to make men with breast cancer visible. His story began with a small lump behind the nipple. Like many men, he did not immediately think of breast cancer and waited about…
Read this storyStage III Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Angie’s Patient Story
Angie is a nurse and RN case manager in Louisiana. Because of earlier microcalcifications, she had been getting annual mammograms. She postponed a February 2017 mammogram until May because she had started a new job and expected another negative result. This…
Read this storyStage I HER2-Positive Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Tammy’s Patient Story
Tammy was first diagnosed with Stage 0 DCIS, or ductal carcinoma in situ. After surgery, her pathology report found a second tumor: Stage I invasive ductal carcinoma. She had already undergone a double mastectomy and was waiting for one final test result when…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Carol’s Survivor Story
Carol’s metastatic lobular breast cancer began in fall 2010, the year she retired from a 45-year nursing career and turned 65. While showering, she felt an itchy sensation deep in her left breast and found a long, hard tissue mass. Bilateral breast biopsies…
Read this storyStage III HR-Positive Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Jeanine’s Patient Story
Jeanine had annual mammograms for 10 years because of a family history of breast cancer. In 2016, after years of watching microcalcifications, she noticed that a cyst-like area in her right breast would not go away and that the same breast had slight…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Susie’s’s Patient Story
Susie became involved with the Lobular Breast Cancer Alliance after her daughter was diagnosed with invasive lobular carcinoma. Her daughter was 42 and living in California when doctors found an 8 cm ILC in the left breast. Her mammogram had been clear the…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Joy’s Survivor Story
Joy Albi was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer after a routine mammogram in November 2019 showed a small abnormal area. A biopsy confirmed cancer, and she underwent a lumpectomy in Cincinnati. When Joy later traveled to Boston to discuss joining a…
Read this storyNon-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Rachel’s Survivor Story
Rachel Chua Bradley was 50 when she was diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer and treated near home in northern Virginia. A few years later, the cancer came back. Rachel, an ICU nurse, wanted more information and a plan she trusted, so she went to MD…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Hillary’s Survivor Story
Hillary Robinson was 52 when a routine medical exam found something abnormal in her right breast. She had been busy with family, community work and her family’s manufacturing business, and she had put off yearly mammograms. An ultrasound and mammogram showed…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Brandon’s Survivor Story
Brandon Dale was 53 when he shared how symptoms he thought were hemorrhoids turned out to be Stage III rectal cancer. For years, he had burning and discomfort that would flare up, settle down with cream, and then return. He did not realize the problem was…
Read this storySmall Cell Lung Cancer: Montessa’s Survivor Story
Montessa Lee was 28 when she was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, a diagnosis that came far earlier in life than many people expect. This third part of her Patient Story series focuses on navigating life after diagnosis and treatment. Her treatment path…
Read this storySmall Cell Lung Cancer: Montessa’s Survivor Story
Montessa Lee was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer at 28. This second video in her series centers on getting through treatment. The treatment path named for her story is chemotherapy, radiation, and brain radiation. That combination shaped both the…
Read this storySmall Cell Lung Cancer: Montessa’s Survivor Story
Montessa Lee was 28 when she was diagnosed with small cell lung cancer. This first video in her series focuses on how she got diagnosed, then connects to later parts about treatment and support. The diagnosis itself challenged assumptions about who gets lung…
Read this storyStage III KRAS Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Terri’s Survivor Story
Terri Conneran was 55 when she was diagnosed with Stage IIIA KRAS-mutated non-small cell lung cancer. Her symptoms first looked like asthma, allergies, bronchitis, or pneumonia, but breathing problems kept getting worse. An X-ray done after she developed…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Lee’s Survivor Story
Lee Jones was 55 when a CT scan for what seemed like a prostate infection unexpectedly found 5 spots on his liver. A colonoscopy soon identified the primary tumor in his colon, making the diagnosis Stage IV colon cancer because it had already spread to the…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Erika’s Patient Story
Erika, 47, scheduled a mammogram because both her mother and grandmother had breast cancer. Doctors found a mass in her right breast, and she was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. The discovery made her angry, and the diagnosis left her numb and…
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