Supportive Care: 133 Real Stories
133 stories match supportive care. 80 of them mention surgery.
Stage IV ALK Lung Cancer Patient Story
This unnamed man had a medical and pharmaceutical background before becoming a patient himself. At 44, he previously faced cancer, and years later he developed another serious cancer diagnosis. The lung cancer story began with severe bone pain that he first…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Donna’s Survivor Story
Donna Marie Caruso, 70, began treatment for rectal cancer in November 2020, soon after retiring from a 30-year teaching career. Because colorectal cancer ran in her family, she had been careful about screening and credited colonoscopy with catching the cancer…
Read this storyStage IV EGFR Lung Cancer Patient Story
This unnamed woman’s lung cancer journey began with leg swelling. She first received water-reducing medication, but the swelling continued and eventually involved more of her body. Doctors became concerned about her heart, found fluid around the heart area…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Paul’s Patient Story
Paul Forgette was 68 when arthritis-related preoperative blood work unexpectedly revealed low-grade prostate cancer that only needed observation. Soon after, he bumped his chest and felt a lump. A mammogram first suggested male breast cancer, and further PET…
Read this storyStage IV Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Dalitso’s Patient Story
Dalitso was 38 when invasive ductal breast cancer was first found in 2020. She had noticed a hardening breast mass years earlier, along with weight loss, fatigue, and back pain that had been attributed to other health issues. A mammogram first suggested Stage…
Read this storyStage IV BRCA2 Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Marissa’s Patient Story
Marissa was 31 and raising young children when fatigue, nighttime hot flashes, restless legs, and a lump in her right breast led to testing. On February 17, 2024, biopsy confirmed Stage II invasive lobular carcinoma in the right breast, with positive lymph…
Read this storyStage IV Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melissa’s Patient Story
Melissa Fouts was diagnosed with Stage IV triple-negative breast cancer in 2019 after previously being treated for triple-negative breast cancer twice before: Stage I in 2004 and Stage II in 2016. At the Stage IV diagnosis, she believed time was short and…
Read this storyStage I Breast Cancer: Angela’s Patient Story
Angela George was 42 when family history led her to take a closer look at her cancer risk. Her father had recently been diagnosed with colon cancer, and several relatives had also had cancer, including her mother and grandmother with breast cancer. In July…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Margarita’s Patient Story
Margarita “Mickey” Miller was an active coach and sprint-triathlon participant before breast cancer was found during a routine checkup. Her first concern was how to tell her husband and children. During treatment, even walking to the bathroom could feel…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Dolly’s Survivor Story
Dolly Chua was living in Makati, Philippines, when she felt a breast lump in the shower in 2019. Mammogram and ultrasound confirmed breast cancer, and she wanted the best treatment she could find even if it meant traveling. Her daughters independently found…
Read this storyStage II BRCA2 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Onjalai’s Survivor Story
Onjalai Brown was 36 when she felt pain behind one nipple and then a lump about the size of a ping-pong ball. Her family history made the fear especially real: on her mother’s side, eight women had breast cancer and four men had prostate cancer, likely…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: India’s Survivor Story
India Robinson was 40 when her first mammogram in August 2022 led to more imaging, ultrasound, and 2 biopsies. On October 25, her birthday, she learned that 1 biopsied area was malignant. Within days, she and her family met with a Cleveland Clinic team to…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Erica’s Survivor Story
Erica Watson was 51 when pain and a breast lump led to a diagnosis of triple-negative breast cancer. She had stayed current with mammograms and had breast cancer in her family, so the diagnosis still came as a shock. A formal stage was not shared, but her…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Liz’s Survivor Story
Liz O'Riordan brings an unusual perspective to breast cancer: she has lived it as both a breast surgeon and a patient. After facing breast cancer three times, she became known for speaking plainly about the parts of cancer care that are often hidden…
Read this storyStage IV ALK Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Lindsay’s Patient Story
Lindsay Wagner was 42 when side pain, chest discomfort, and a year-long cough led her to the ER. Doctors first suspected gallbladder disease, pneumonia, or ovarian cancer because a CA-125 test was elevated and imaging showed liver lesions. A liver biopsy…
Read this storyStage 0 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Erica’s Survivor Story
Erica was diagnosed with Stage 0 ductal carcinoma in situ in 2018 after about 10 years of close breast monitoring. Her mother had died of breast cancer more than 20 years earlier, and although Erica’s BRCA testing was negative, repeated mammograms…
Read this storyStage I HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Allison’s Survivor Story
Allison Tierney is an oncology dietitian and breast cancer survivor who shared her experience with cold capping during treatment for Stage IA triple-positive breast cancer. The video focused less on diagnosis and more on how she managed chemotherapy-related…
Read this storyBreast Cancer Patient Story
Sex, dating, and intimacy can change sharply after breast cancer treatment, but many patients are never given enough space to talk about it. This survivorship-focused discussion brings that private part of recovery into the open. Dr. Liz O'Riordan begins from…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Allison’s Survivor Story
Allison Tierney is a board-certified oncology dietitian and breast cancer survivor whose own diagnosis shaped how she talks about food and cancer. She describes cancer as multifactorial and emphasizes that survivors often never know exactly what caused their…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Catherine’s Survivor Story
Catherine was 45 when she shared her experience of living after metastatic breast cancer. She first had breast cancer in 2016. In 2019, she had a recurrence with a tumor located near the cerebellum, placing her story in the metastatic breast cancer setting…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Chrystie’s Patient Story
Chrystie was 30 when severe pain led to hospitalization in March 2007. She was initially diagnosed with diverticulitis and spent months moving in and out of the hospital, including weeks of intravenous antibiotics at home. When she returned with severe pain…
Read this storyEducational / palliative-care content; no patient cancer case Patient Story
This educational palliative-care discussion focuses on a subject many cancer patients, families, and clinicians avoid: talking openly about death and dying. Dr. Kathryn Mannix, a palliative care physician, joins Dr. Liz O'Riordan to reduce fear around…
Read this storyBreast Cancer Patient Story
This breast cancer support episode focuses on what happens emotionally after diagnosis. Dr. Liz O'Riordan begins from the kind of thoughts many patients recognize: fear of dying, fear the cancer will come back, and long nights spent trying to make sense of…
Read this storyStage IV Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Corky’s Patient Story
Corky Thacker was 64 when breast discoloration that first seemed like a heat rash eventually led to a Stage IV inflammatory breast cancer diagnosis. She was careful about annual mammograms, but inflammatory breast cancer can be hard to detect because it often…
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