Surgery: 1,095 Real Stories
1,095 stories match surgery. 777 of them mention chemotherapy.
Stage IV HR-Positive Breast Cancer: Bethany’s Patient Story
Bethany was 34 when breast cancer was first found in both breasts and a lymph node. Earlier, she had felt breast and underarm lumps but pursued thermography and other nonstandard approaches before ultimately getting a mammogram and ultrasound that showed…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Trevor’s Patient Story
Trevor Maxwell began feeling unusually exhausted in early 2018. Because he had dealt with anxiety and depression before, he first thought his symptoms were mental health-related. Bloodwork changed the direction of care, and his doctor pushed for a…
Read this storyTriple-Negative Breast Cancer: Stephanie’s Survivor Story
Stephanie Rifici Thorkelson noticed a breast lump while nursing her first son and initially thought it was another clogged milk duct. When the lump did not go away after about 1 month, she saw her Ob/Gyn. Mammogram and biopsy showed breast cancer shortly…
Read this storyStage IV PIK3CA Breast Cancer: Abigail’s Patient Story
Abigail was 38, running a law firm, raising 2 young children, and breastfeeding when she felt a lump in her left breast in January 2017. She first thought it was a clogged duct. In April 2017, she was diagnosed with strongly hormone-positive breast cancer and…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Sharon’s Survivor Story
Sharon Kovach grew up with breast cancer in her family: her grandmother and mother had both been diagnosed, and her mother died from the disease at age 56. An abnormal mammogram led to Sharon’s own diagnosis in October 1999, 1 month after her 40th birthday…
Read this storyStage III Testicular Cancer: Felipe’s Survivor Story
Felipe Soltero had no cancer symptoms until an accident with his 5-year-old son changed everything. While they were practicing boxing combinations in the backyard, his son accidentally hit him in the groin. The swelling did not improve, so Felipe went to the…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Lianne’s Patient Story
Lianne Kraemer was 37 when a small painful area in her left breast led to imaging and a biopsy in late 2013. She was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer involving lymph nodes. In 2014, she underwent a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, reconstruction, and…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Feyama’s Survivor Story
Feyama Ashby, a quality and compliance coordinator in MD Anderson’s diagnostic labs, noticed pain in her sternum that extended into her right breast. She initially thought she had pulled a muscle while working out, but the timing lined up with her annual…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Christal’s Survivor Story
Christal Love was 39 when she was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer, described as aggressive hormone-positive, HER2-negative disease that had spread to her lymph nodes. She began treatment locally with chemotherapy. The first cycle used Taxol. During a…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Patient Story
This 32-year-old woman was diagnosed with Stage IV rectal adenocarcinoma after a routine physical found a liver abnormality in late 2015. Further tests showed a rectal tumor 5 to 8 cm from the anus, perirectal and presacral involvement, liver metastases, and…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Survivor Story
An unnamed woman was diagnosed with Stage III adenocarcinoma of the colon. Her treatment began with surgery to remove the half of the colon affected by cancer, along with lymph nodes in that area. After surgery, she received chemotherapy for 6 months. Every…
Read this storyStage III BRCA Ovarian Cancer: Mimi’s Survivor Story
Mimi Gallagher was 46 when bloating, constipation and lethargy led to several medical visits in July 2012. A vaginal ultrasound eventually confirmed Stage III ovarian cancer. Within days, she went from being an active stay-at-home mother of two to preparing…
Read this storyOvarian Cancer Survivor Story
At 43, this patient had a hysterectomy for fibroids. During the operation, the surgeon noticed an abnormal ovarian cyst and removed the ovary. The cyst was cancerous. One month later, in June 2009, the second ovary was removed with a lymph node dissection; 1…
Read this storyStage III Ovarian Cancer: Margaret’s Patient Story
Margaret Winchester was diagnosed with advanced Stage III ovarian cancer in 2008 after months of bloating, constipation, and menstrual changes were followed by sudden pain during Pilates. A CT scan found a mass. She began treatment with surgery to remove her…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Cancer: Almudena’s Survivor Story
Almudena was a medical student doing hospital rotations when rectal bleeding pushed her into the patient role. She had noticed blood in her stool 6 months earlier, at age 25, but was reassured that it was probably hemorrhoids. When bleeding happened again, a…
Read this storyOvarian Cancer: Faye’s Patient Story
While finishing radiation for an earlier breast cancer, Faye Belvin developed pain in her side. A blood test at a routine oncology visit raised concern, and follow-up scans and biopsies led to a diagnosis of ovarian cancer in February 2021. Faye began…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Daneen’s Survivor Story
Daneen had surgery for lobular carcinoma in situ at age 32 and was monitored closely afterward. Tamoxifen was discussed as a preventive option, but she and her husband were trying to have a child after years of infertility and unsuccessful IVF. In June 1999…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Kehau’s Survivor Story
At 78, Kehau Matsumoto described herself as a five-time cancer survivor and patient advocate in Hawaii. Her first breast cancer was found on a routine mammogram in 1993. Afraid of surgery, she chose radiation therapy. Breast cancer later returned more than…
Read this storyStage III Triple-Negative Breast Cancer: Marlena’s Patient Story
Marlena Murphy was 40 when she found a lump in her left breast during a monthly self-exam in 2018. Mammography, ultrasound, biopsy, and MRI led to a diagnosis of Stage III triple-negative breast cancer involving nearby lymph nodes. Marlena began chemotherapy…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Alejandro’s Patient Story
Alejandro Mirazo joined the Mayo Clinic Tapestry DNA Sequencing Research Study in 2021 to contribute to research on genetics and health. He expected to help science, but the study also changed his own care. Genetic sequencing raised concern for Lynch…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Tamara’s Patient Story
Tamara was 30, recently returned from the United States, and had just given birth when she noticed a small lump in her armpit during breastfeeding. She was first reassured that it was probably a lactation-related cyst, but because her mother had died of…
Read this storyBRCA1 Breast Cancer: Janice’s Patient Story
Janice Dolnick had already been through a long breast cancer journey before she came to Dana-Farber in 2018. Over the previous 21 years, she had undergone 2 rounds of breast cancer treatment and a bilateral mastectomy. Genetic testing had shown that she…
Read this storyStage I Breast Cancer: Lorena’s Patient Story
Lorena, a Colombian woman living in Miami, first felt something was wrong during a trip to Spain. Her hands and feet went numb, and although others thought it was travel fatigue, she kept insisting that her body felt different. Back in Miami, her doctor…
Read this storyInvasive Lobular Carcinoma: Jo’s Survivor Story
Jo was 56 and receiving twice-yearly ultrasound and annual mammography because of dense, cystic breasts. During 2021, several suspicious areas in the left breast were biopsied and found to be benign. A technician later noticed an area in the right breast, but…
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