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 as a right. Dana survived breast most cancers throughout being pregnant along with her youthful daughter.
“I discovered 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 angle and do what I may, I additionally realized I wanted to simply accept the assistance of others. My focus and vitality shifted to combating for not solely my life, however my daughter’s as properly.”
Breast Most cancers — or Being pregnant Hormone Adjustments?
Dana and her husband Logan, a cardiac machine nurse at UVA Well being, discovered in spring 2019 they had 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 “I’d began weaning Callie from nursing — she was virtually 2 years outdated.”
Plugged milk ducts are frequent throughout weaning because the child’s feeding schedule modifications. Girls who’re nursing, pregnant — or just lately have given delivery — expertise hormone modifications that may have an effect on the breasts. This will make breast most cancers tough to seek 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 figuring out,” says Dana, who was 14 weeks pregnant.
Going through Breast Most cancers Throughout Being pregnant
The next Monday, she obtained the information. Dana had HER2-positive, hormone adverse most cancers in her left breast. HER2 is a gene that helps breast most cancers cells develop shortly, based on the American Most cancers Society. The most cancers had unfold to her lymph nodes close to the left breast.
Extra imaging checks normally 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 checks aren’t protected for unborn infants. Dana must wait till after Emery’s delivery for extra testing.
“I spent my complete being pregnant not figuring out 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 fingers.”
After analysis, Dana’s maternal-fetal drugs 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 properly to focused therapies. However these drugs aren’t normally protected 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 adverse for all the key 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 development 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 perform — 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 obtained,” 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.”
Pregnant + Most cancers?
It is time to name within the specialists.
Welcoming Emery; Attacking Breast Most cancers
Emery was born at 33 weeks by way of cesarean part and spent a month within the NICU. Inside every week of giving delivery, Dana underwent imaging checks equivalent to a bone scan, and CT scans of the chest and pelvis. Luckily, her most cancers had not unfold past the lymph nodes.
Now that Emery was out of the womb, Dana was in a position to strive any applicable most cancers remedy. She had:
- 30 rounds of radiation
- Focused drug (totally different from the one she had throughout being pregnant)
- 8 extra cycles of chemotherapy
- 6.5 cycles of oral chemotherapy
- Further 12 months of one other focused drug
“I informed my crew, ‘Simply throw me again into remedies!’” Dana says. “I had two younger ladies at residence, so I wished to do every part doable to struggle the most cancers.”
Dana and Logan are each grateful for the care she and Emery obtained 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 had been in a single place,” Dana says. “They already had been acquainted with working collectively on totally different affected person circumstances. I wasn’t the primary affected person that they had handled for breast most cancers throughout being pregnant. In order that coordination of care actually turned necessary, particularly later in my being pregnant. We had been impressed with how they took care of us.”
