Surgery: 1,095 Real Stories
1,095 stories match surgery. 777 of them mention chemotherapy.
Gastric Cancer: Do’s Survivor Story
At age 78, Do Lee faced stomach cancer after already losing his wife of almost 40 years to the same disease. Her cancer had been Stage IV, and watching her treatment initially made Do reluctant to undergo similar care himself. Persistent severe diarrhea…
Read this storyBreast Cancer Patient Story
This healthcare advocate became a breast cancer patient after finding a tiny lump during a self-exam. Two mammograms three months apart showed the lump, but an outside surgeon initially felt it was too small to be cancer and planned another mammogram. A…
Read this storyOvarian Cancer: Leslie’s Survivor Story
This patient was diagnosed with high-grade serous ovarian cancer in August 2013 after weeks of diarrhea were followed by severe bloating. A CT scan showed large amounts of abdominal fluid, and further evaluation led her to MD Anderson. A laparoscopy showed…
Read this storyStage II BRCA1 Invasive Ductal Carcinoma: Roxana’s Patient Story
Roxana Lopez was 25 when she was diagnosed with Stage II invasive ductal carcinoma in her left breast in August 2015. Breast and ovarian cancer had affected several women in her family, including her mother, who died of breast cancer when Roxana and her twin…
Read this storyStage II BRCA1 Ovarian Cancer: Barb’s Patient Story
In February 2014, at age 50, Barb White underwent a hysterectomy to remove a large suspicious cyst. The surgery confirmed Stage II ovarian cancer, which had spread to her uterus. Three weeks later, she began chemotherapy. Barb had a severe allergic reaction…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Cancer: Rachel’s Survivor Story
Rachel was 34 when she was diagnosed with Stage III colorectal cancer after a colonoscopy. She had gone in expecting another explanation and remembered telling people not to worry because she was too young for cancer. The diagnosis was a shock and changed how…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Ronnie’s Patient Story
Ronnie was diagnosed with colorectal cancer after a routine colonoscopy. He remembered waking up and being told by oncology that he had cancer and that it needed to be treated. His first major treatment was surgery, and at that point his team believed surgery…
Read this storyStage III Ovarian Cancer: Dianne’s Patient Story
Dianne Simpson was 73 when she completed treatment for Stage III high-grade serous ovarian cancer in April 2017. Her symptoms had started months earlier with worsening pain, bloating and difficulty sleeping. Initial evaluations did not identify the cause, but…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Monica’s Patient Story
Monica Wright was 44 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2015. She underwent a lumpectomy in December, with an old friend beside her during that first treatment. When Monica later began weekly chemotherapy infusions in Boston, friends…
Read this storyOvarian Cancer: Allison’s Patient Story
At 31, Allison Bellevue was pregnant when an ultrasound found a small mass on her right ovary. The mass grew over the next month and was removed. Three days after surgery, when she was 17 weeks pregnant, she learned that she had clear-cell ovarian cancer. Her…
Read this storyBreast Cancer Patient Story
At 36, six months after giving birth to her second daughter, this patient was diagnosed with hormone-sensitive breast cancer. The diagnosis echoed a striking family history: her mother had developed breast cancer at the same age, her aunt had also had breast…
Read this storyHER2-Positive Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Trish’s Patient Story
Trish Vickery learned in 2013 that she had inflammatory breast cancer, a diagnosis that carried particular weight because her mother had died from the same disease. At age 58, Trish described coming to Dana-Farber as one of the luckiest decisions of her life…
Read this storyBreast Cancer: Marianne’s Survivor Story
Marianne Gongos was 60 when a lump appeared in her left breast in 2011. She was already living with chronic myeloid leukemia, diagnosed in 1999, and had reached remission through a clinical drug trial. Surgery confirmed breast cancer, leading to removal of…
Read this storyStage IV Colorectal Adenocarcinoma: Darrell’s Survivor Story
Darrell Sawyer’s colorectal cancer journey began in November 2012, when what seemed like a short stomach flu did not go away. After a month of ongoing stomach upset, a colonoscopy found a tumor in his intestines so large that the procedure could not be…
Read this storyGastric Cancer: Hans’s Patient Story
This patient was diagnosed with stomach cancer in July 2005 and ultimately had both the stomach and esophagus surgically removed. The cancer journey was followed by a long recovery: over the next 10 years, the patient underwent 12 surgeries and was left with…
Read this storyGastric Cancer: Hans’s Patient Story
This patient was diagnosed with stomach cancer in July 2005, the day before his 33rd birthday, after chest tightness and difficulty swallowing led him to the emergency room. Doctors found a tumor at the junction of his stomach and esophagus. During surgery…
Read this storyStage I Gastric Cancer: Marne’s Patient Story
Marne Shafer was 33 when genetic testing showed that she carried a CDH1 mutation after several relatives, including her father, grandmother and aunt, died from stomach cancer. Because early stomach cancer can be difficult to detect in people with this…
Read this storyStage IV HER2-Positive Breast Cancer: Sarah’s Patient Story
Sarah was 37 when she was first diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer had affected several women in her family: her grandmother was a 40-year survivor, her aunt a 20-year survivor, and her mother had also been diagnosed. Sarah said her family did not…
Read this storyColorectal Cancer: Theresa’s Survivor Story
Theresa Cotton was 49 when she opened her colonoscopy results alone in a hospital parking lot and learned she had cancer. She called her husband immediately, then started researching cancer centers and treatment options. People she knew encouraged her to go…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Natalia’s Survivor Story
Natalia, from Colombia, had a hard, growing lump in her left breast. An early ultrasound found nothing, and three months passed before a mastologist removed the lump and confirmed cancer. Dissatisfied with the information and manner of her first doctor, she…
Read this storyStage II Breast Cancer: Tasha’s Patient Story
Tasha’s breast cancer was detected through a mammography study that invited people aged 47-49 to explore whether screening should begin before age 50. The mammogram revealed Stage II breast cancer in July 2017. Doctors recommended breast-conserving surgery…
Read this storyStage III Breast Cancer: Elizabeth’s Survivor Story
Elizabeth was 45 when she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer after first finding a problem in November 2017. Her mother had developed breast cancer at 51, so the family had already been encouraged to remain alert. When an initial appointment was delayed…
Read this storyStage III Colorectal Adenocarcinoma: Anne’s Survivor Story
Anne developed persistent diarrhea with blood and later unexplained weight loss. After several months, a primary-care physician referred Anne to a gastroenterologist, and testing confirmed Stage III rectal adenocarcinoma in February 2017. Anne was 39 at…
Read this storyStage IV Breast Cancer: Debora’s Patient Story
Debora, 65, lives in the United Kingdom and was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer in 2017 after noticing a dimple across her left breast. The diagnosis brought anger, fear, sadness, numbness, and vulnerability. Her initial treatment plan included…
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