EVA
DIAGNOSIS: Age 32 | Stage 2
GENETICS: Mother had breast cancer
BRCA: Tested negative for mutation
DIAGNOSED BY: Palpable mass
TREATMENT: Chemotherapy, partial mastectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy
CANCER-FREE: 18 years
Eva was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer at the age of 32.
Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 56 years old.
Presented as a palpable mass.
High grade triple negative invasive ductal carcinoma- treated with chemotherapy “dose-dense AC-T”.
Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) accounts for about 10-15% of all breast cancers. The term triple-negative breast cancer refers to the fact that the cancer cells don’t have estrogen or progesterone receptors (ER or PR) and also don’t make any or too much of the protein called HER2. TNBC differs from other types of invasive breast cancer in that it tends to grow and spread faster.
Initially Eva had a partial mastectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy, but after chemotherapy had a skin-sparing mastectomy with expander reconstruction. Permanent implant was later placed.
A sentinel node biopsy is a procedure to test if cancer has spread beyond the original tumor.
4 years later, Eva had a contralateral preventive mastectomy with implant reconstruction after breast feeding her sons.
Eva is now 18 years cancer-free.
Read ‘No Longer Radical’ for more stories about women of all ages diagnosed with breast cancer and the different treatment options available.