Surgery: 1,095 Real Stories
1,095 stories match surgery. 777 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage I Lung Cancer: Lauren’s Survivor Story
Lauren Koy lived with breathing problems for much of her life before lung cancer was found. She had chronic wheezing, repeated bronchitis and pneumonia, and difficulty doing the activities she enjoyed, including running and hiking. Because she was young and…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Jason’s Survivor Story
This Patient Story video is a survivorship discussion with 2 colorectal cancer survivors, Jason Randall and Amy Hart, focused on living with an ostomy. Jason describes himself as a Stage IV colorectal cancer survivor who was almost 5 years into the experience…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Fadia’s Survivor Story
Fadia was first diagnosed with breast cancer at age 32. At the beginning, she did not fully understand what the diagnosis meant, but she chose patience and leaned on the people around her. Her first breast cancer treatment journey lasted 3 years. During that…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Gene’s Survivor Story
Gene Jones was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer in 1993, early in the year he turned 51. He had stomach problems and could not go to the bathroom, and colonoscopy could not get past a large tumor that was almost completely blocking his large intestine…
Read this storyStage I Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melissa’s Survivor Story
Melissa Berry was 42 when routine high-risk screening found Stage I triple-negative breast cancer. Breast cancer ran strongly on her mother’s side, and Melissa had learned she carried a BRCA mutation. Because of that, she was being followed closely with MRI…
Read this storyStage I Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Melissa’s Survivor Story
Melissa Berry learned she carried a BRCA gene alteration at age 32 after several women on her mother’s side of the family developed breast cancer. The result initially frightened her, but it also led to intensive screening with MRI, mammography and ultrasound…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Michelle’s Patient Story
Michelle Cappel was first diagnosed with Stage IV colorectal cancer in 2017. Initial treatment included chemotherapy and curative-intent surgery, and she reached no evidence of disease for about 2.5 years. As she approached the 3-year mark, she developed a…
Read this storyStage II HR-Positive Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Megan’s Survivor Story
Megan-Claire Chase was diagnosed with Stage II invasive lobular breast cancer after symptoms such as green bruises, brittle hair, sudden weight gain, and a left-breast mass. Her doctors later believed the cancer may have been growing for 8 to 10 years and had…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Michelle’s Survivor Story
Michelle Cappel was a 40-year-old fifth-grade teacher when years of chronic constipation, bloating, and worsening abdominal pain finally led to a Stage IV colorectal cancer diagnosis. Her symptoms had been blamed on antidepressants, possible celiac disease…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Megan-Claire’s Survivor Story
Megan-Claire Chase was 39 when she was diagnosed with Stage IIA invasive lobular breast cancer. Years before diagnosis, she had a strong family history of cancer and was already watching her body closely. A preventive mammogram at 35 was read as clear, but…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Stephanie’s Survivor Story
Stephanie was 50 when she found a lump in her right breast on July 2, 2018. Mammogram and ultrasound confirmed the lump, and it was removed in early August. The lump itself was benign, but the pathology also found lobular carcinoma in situ, which raised her…
Read this storyStage III Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Nikki’s Patient Story
Nikki, a 47-year-old mother and teacher, had already survived a rare cancer before her breast cancer diagnosis. In 2016, while breastfeeding her long-awaited son, a doctor reviewed years of bowel and IBS-like complaints and investigated further. That workup…
Read this storyStage III HER2-Positive Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Nikki’s Patient Story
Nikki first noticed sharp pain around her right nipple in August 2022. Because there was no lump and she had been told that cancer usually did not hurt, she attributed it to menopause. By late November, her nipple had become completely inverted. A biopsy and…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Lucinda’s Patient Story
Lucinda Rudolph was 68 when an annual breast cancer screening in April 2020 led to a frightening local assessment. She had been treated for breast cancer 10 years earlier with lumpectomy and radiation, and this new cancer was initially described as…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Maria’s Patient Story
Maria Dupree was 58 when cramping and rectal bleeding led to a proximal rectal cancer diagnosis in December 2022. She had seen doctors a few months earlier, but the first tests did not identify the cause. A colonoscopy was recommended, and Maria scheduled it…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Cynthia’s Survivor Story
Cynthia Jordan had normal mammograms for 13 years and no symptoms, even while a walnut-sized tumor was growing in her breast. She had dense breasts but had not been educated about what that meant or why supplemental screening could matter. In 2018, a…
Read this storyStage II Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Cynthia’s Survivor Story
Cynthia Jordan never missed her annual mammogram, but dense breast tissue made her cancer difficult to find. In 2018, a mammogram showed an architectural distortion, and follow-up imaging and biopsy led to a diagnosis of Stage IIB invasive ductal carcinoma…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Angelica’s Survivor Story
Angelica Allen’s follow-up story focused on how life changed after Stage III bowel cancer. She was diagnosed in 2018 at age 38, after exhaustion, iron deficiency, bloating, bowel changes, and intermittent bleeding led to emergency evaluation. Treatment began…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Angelica’s Survivor Story
Angelica Allen was 38 when she was diagnosed with Stage III bowel cancer after months of symptoms that were easy to misattribute. She had iron deficiency, severe exhaustion that lasted 7 or 8 months, bloating, bowel-movement changes, and intermittent…
Read this storyStage II Colorectal Cancer: Wendy’s Survivor Story
Two weeks after turning 50, Wendy Tamis Robbins learned she had Stage II colon cancer. Severe iron depletion found during a routine physical led to her first colonoscopy, which found a large cancerous tumor. Wendy underwent surgery to remove the tumor and a…
Read this storyStage III Invasive Lobular Carcinoma: Neda’s Survivor Story
Neda was 48 and living in Seattle when her breast cancer journey began. In April 2020, she felt a large lump in her left breast. Mammography and ultrasound did not show cancer, and she received a letter noting dense breast tissue and recommending another…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Sarah’s Patient Story
Sarah McDonald was 44 and pursuing fertility treatment with her husband when she received 2 unrelated cancer diagnoses within 2 months. The first was incurable salivary gland cancer, found after she noticed a lump in the floor of her mouth after a deep teeth…
Read this storyStage III HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Sarah’s Survivor Story
Sarah McDonald was 44 when she was diagnosed with 2 unrelated cancers within 2 months. Surgery for a rare salivary gland cancer prompted her to re-examine a breast lump first noticed 6 years earlier. Annual mammograms had not shown a clear problem because she…
Read this storyStage I BRCA1 Ovarian Cancer: Carol’s Survivor Story
After treatment for triple-negative breast cancer, this patient tested positive for a BRCA1 mutation and began high-risk gynecologic follow-up. CA-125 levels remained within the normal range, but the gynecologic oncologist recommended risk-reduction removal…
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