Breast Most cancers Throughout Being pregnant: A Survivor’s Story

Cuddles, first phrases, storytimes, and first days of faculty. Dana Henry cherishes the small moments along with her daughters, Callie, 6, and Emery, 4. She takes nothing with no consideration. Dana survived breast most cancers throughout being pregnant along with her youthful daughter.

“I realized to launch management and to not sweat the small stuff,” says the assistant dietetic internship director and prenatal dietitian at UVA Well being. “Whereas I attempted to keep up a optimistic perspective and do what I may, I additionally realized I wanted to simply accept the assistance of others. My focus and vitality shifted to preventing for not solely my life, however my daughter’s as nicely.”

Breast Most cancers — or Being pregnant Hormone Adjustments?

Dana and her husband Logan, a cardiac system nurse at UVA Well being, discovered in spring 2019 they have been anticipating a second youngster. A couple of weeks later, Dana felt a lump in her left breast. At first, she wasn’t involved.

“The very first thing that got here to thoughts was that it was a clogged milk duct,” she remembers. “I’d began weaning Callie from nursing — she was nearly 2 years previous.”

Plugged milk ducts are frequent throughout weaning because the child’s feeding schedule modifications. Ladies who’re nursing, pregnant — or not too long ago have given beginning — expertise hormone modifications that may have an effect on the breasts. This will make breast most cancers tough to search out.

Testing a Suspicious Lump

A month handed, and the mass in Dana’s breast didn’t go away. So her OB/GYN specialist Katherine Latimer, MD, ordered an ultrasound. The outcomes involved the radiologist. That very same day, she additionally ended up having a mammogram and a biopsy.

“This all occurred on Friday afternoon, so I had an anxious weekend of not understanding,” says Dana, who was 14 weeks pregnant.

Going through Breast Most cancers Throughout Being pregnant

The next Monday, she acquired the information. Dana had HER2-positive, hormone unfavorable most cancers in her left breast. HER2 is a gene that helps breast most cancers cells develop rapidly, based on the American Most cancers Society. The most cancers had unfold to her lymph nodes close to the left breast.

Extra imaging exams often are given after a most cancers analysis. That permits docs to see if the most cancers has unfold to different elements of the physique. However a few of these exams aren’t secure for unborn infants. Dana must wait till after Emery’s beginning for extra testing.

“I spent my complete being pregnant not understanding if the most cancers had unfold anyplace else past my lymph nodes,” she remembers. “That added an enormous worry and nervousness issue to the entire being pregnant. However there have been so many specialists on my care crew. I used to be in good arms.”

After analysis, Dana’s maternal-fetal medication specialist Christian Chisholm, MD, led her high-risk care crew together with breast oncologist Patrick M. Dillon, MD, and breast surgeon Shayna Showalter, MD.

Chemo & Surgical procedure Whereas Pregnant

A couple of days after Mom’s Day 2019, Dana started chemotherapy remedies. HER2-positive breast most cancers responds nicely to focused therapies. However these drugs aren’t often secure for unborn infants.

“We began off combining two various kinds of chemotherapy,” says Dana, who has no household historical past of breast most cancers and examined unfavorable for all the main breast most cancers genetic mutations, equivalent to BRCA.

After 4 chemo cycles, imaging revealed her tumor had grown. So Showalter carried out a left mastectomy and eliminated the lymph nodes from the left armpit. Dana was 25 weeks pregnant.

Following surgical procedure, her remedies included chemotherapy and a diminished dose of focused remedy. Her medical crew additionally elevated progress scans for Emery, who developed as anticipated for her gestational age. Heart specialist James Bergin, MD, medical director of UVA Well being’s Coronary heart Failure/Cardiac Transplantation Program, additionally monitored Dana’s coronary heart operate — it had dropped from greater than 65% to 40%, based on an echocardiogram. Involved, Bergin coordinated along with her medical crew to schedule Emery’s supply the following week.

“I appreciated the individualized care that I acquired,” Dana says. “When issues didn’t go as deliberate, the medical crew needed to pivot alongside the best way. They at all times developed the very best care plan for me, in addition to for Emery.”

Welcoming Emery; Attacking Breast Most cancers

Emery was born at 33 weeks through cesarean part and spent a month within the NICU. Inside every week of giving beginning, Dana underwent imaging exams equivalent to a bone scan, and CT scans of the chest and pelvis. Fortuitously, her most cancers had not unfold past the lymph nodes.

Now that Emery was out of the womb, Dana was in a position to attempt any applicable most cancers remedy. She had:

• 30 rounds of radiation
• Focused drug (completely different from the one she had throughout being pregnant)
• 8 extra cycles of chemotherapy
• 6.5 cycles of oral chemotherapy
• Further yr of one other focused drug

“I instructed my crew, ‘Simply throw me again into remedies!’” Dana says. “I had two younger women at residence, so I wished to do all the pieces attainable to struggle the most cancers.”

Dana and Logan are each grateful for the care she and Emery acquired at UVA Well being. She sees her oncology crew each six months. For now, she’s cancer-free.

“One of many nice issues about UVA Well being is that each one the folks concerned in my care have been in a single place,” Dana says. “They already have been acquainted with working collectively on completely different affected person instances. I wasn’t the primary affected person they’d handled for breast most cancers throughout being pregnant. In order that coordination of care actually grew to become essential, particularly later in my being pregnant. We have been impressed with how they took care of us.”