Category Archives: Recurrence

Despite Metastatic Breast Cancer, Foster Mom Continues Opening Her Home

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Carol

Lise Pass has been living with metastatic breast cancer for nearly a decade, but she prefers focusing not on her disease, but rather on her children – all 48 of them.
Lise (left) and Sami Pass with the family’s latest foster son.
In addition to a biological son and daughter who are now adults, Pass and her husband Harry have been foster parents to 46 boys and girls.
The way Pass sees it, being a foster mom has played as big a part in her getting through cancer treatment at the Susan F. Smith Center for Women’s Cancers at Dana-Farber.
“You have to empower …

 

Five Things Young Women with Breast Cancer Should Know

Posted on October 2, 2014 by Carol

While the majority of women diagnosed with breast cancer are age 55 or older, about 14,500 women age 45 and younger are diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. each year. In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, here are some facts about breast cancer all young women should know.
1. Genetic testing can help identify women who are at increased risk
SOG_9339_12-2While all women are at risk for breast cancer, women who have a family history of premenopausal breast or ovarian cancer or a family member with a mutation in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene are at a higher risk and …

 

A Message from Peter- THE CANCER IS BACK

Posted on May 27, 2013 by Carol

Since today is Memorial Day and we celebrate those who have served our country, I have chosen today to share this message from our friend Peter Devereaux.  Peter served our country and was based at Camp Lejeune. He is one of the many men based at Camp Lejeune who developed male breast cancer.
A Message from Peter- THE CANCER IS BACK
May 2013
My treatment stopped working. My cancer had a chance to grow and get inflamed. We have already started a new treatment and they are hopeful for great results. These are the challenging times when my body is extremely sore with …

 

Fear of Recurrence

Posted on November 27, 2012 by April Yablonsky

One of the challenges of being a breast cancer survivor is the fear of recurrence. It’s a strange fear for me at this point, more than four years out from the end of my treatment. I don’t look like a cancer survivor anymore, and most days I don’t feel like one. Most of my coworkers don’t even know I have been through cancer, and I would think that it would surprise them, given that I am just 33 years old. My breast cancer is no longer a regular topic of conversation among my family and friends. It just seems further …

 

Older Women and Aromatase Inhibitors

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Jean

One of the studies presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Summit in 2011 dealt with the possible cause-effect relationship of severe side effects of aromatase inhibitors in older breast cancer survivors and why so many of these women stop taking these drugs that can help prevent a recurrence.
The study was of particular interest to me as I was put on Arimidex, an aromatase inhibitor, after my second breast cancer. Having been on tamoxifen for five years after my first cancer, I was prepared for side-effects, but didn’t expect them to be as severe as they were. Significant weight gain, …

 

The #1 Fear in Survival…Recurrence

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Jean

You’ve had your last chemo or radiation treatment and the medical oncologist and /or the radiation oncologist  says, “See you in three months.” Even the surgeon doesn’t want to see you for three months. At first it is exhilarating…three whole months with no treatments, no one examining you, testing you, questioning you.
Then it hits you that you are on your own with no one looking after you, checking to see that you are okay, making sure that you are healing well, and reassuring you that your cancer is gone. For many of us that is when a new fear set …