FAQs

When a perfectly healthy, pregnant, 29-year-old gets diagnosed with breast cancer, people have a lot of questions...

FAQs

Q: Do you know if you have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene that is know to cause some breast cancers in young women?
A: I do not have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene.

Q: Do you have a family history of breast cancer?
A: Not really. Both of my Dad's grandmother's had breast cancer in their 70s and survived. My maternal grandmother got ovarian cancer in her 60s and died of it (ovarian and breast cancer are related). So I'm really an outlier. I hope this means my daughter will never have to experience this horrible disease.

Q: How are pregnancy and breast cancer related?
A: Pregnancy-associated breast cancer (PABC) occurs is 1/3000 pregnant women. Young patients with PABC do not have worse prognosis compared with those with non-PABC. Some doctors think that pregnancy hormones can fuel the growth of breast cancer, but the exact relationship is not known.

Q: Can you seriously do chemo while pregnant? How does that even make sense?
A: Yes. Many of the chemo drugs do not cross the placenta due the molecular size of them. News story here. Medical article here. I've met dozens of women (online and in person) who've had chemo (most typically Adriamycin and Cytoxin)  while pregnant  and have perfectly healthy, vibrant children.

Q: What is the survival rate for your type of breast cancer?
A: At diagnosis based on my type and stage we estimate it be around a 70% chance (some recent studies even put the odds as high 80%) as of disease-free survival after 5 years. If I'm cancer free for 5 years, it's unlikely this cancer will ever return.

Q: Does a pathological complete response change your survival odds?
A: Studies show that those that have a complete response to chemo have between an 85%-95% disease-free survival rate. So yes, a complete response is a positive prognostic indicator.

Q: Are you glad you did neo-adjunctive chemotherapy?
A: Yes, yes, YES. It was the recommendation of my doctors for my particular stage and type of breast cancer (triple negative). It was great because my mastectomy after chemo showed that there was no living cancer cells left in the breast or lymph nodes which means the chemo worked. Also, I didn't have to have surgery while pregnant. 

1 comment:

  1. I was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in August 2010. A valuable friend told me about Dr. Itua Herbal Center in West Africa. She gave me her phone number and email address. I quickly contacted him to guarantee that his herbal medicines will heal my cancer and I will heal forever I said OK.I ask him what is the healing process, he asks me to pay the fees I did and within 7 working days he sent me the herbal medicine and then he asked me I told my friend Gomez about the herbal drug so that he gave me to go and drink it.So after drinking for two weeks, I was cured, I am so grateful and I promise that I will do it I recommend to anyone who has cancer and that that I am doing. Herbal medicine Dr. Itua makes me believe that there is hope for people with Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, scoliosis, bladder cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, kidney cancer. , Leukemia, lung cancer, skin cancer, uterine cancer, prostate cancer Fibromyalgia,Fibrodysplasia Syndrome, Epilepsy,Sclerosis sickness, Dupuytren's Disease, Diabetes, Celiac Disease, Angiopathy, Ataxia, Arthritis, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Alzheimer's Disease, Lupus, Adrenocortic Carcinoma.Asthma, Allergic Diseases.HIV Help, Bladder cancer,Brain cancer,Esophageal cancer,Gallbladder cancer,Gestational trophoblastic disease,Head and neck cancer,Hodgkin lymphomaIntestinal cancer,Liver cancer,Melanoma,Mesothelioma,Multiple myeloma,Neuroendocrine tumorsNon-Hodgkin lymphoma,Cervical Cancer,Oral cancer,Ovarian cancer,Sinus cancer,Soft tissue sarcoma,Spinal cancer,Stomach cancer,Testicular cancer,Throat cancer,Meniere's disease,Thyroid Cancer,Vaginal cancer,Vulvar cancerHIV Aids, Herpes, Disease Chronic inflammatory, Memory disorder, Here is his contact information ...... [Email ... drituaherbalcenter@gmail.com. Whatsapp ... + 2348149277967

    ReplyDelete