When I was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer in 2018, I wasn’t really that surprised. My gynecologist had been monitoring several suspicious spots in my right breast for years.
At almost every mammogram, the technician would say, “Oh, here’s something else we need to watch.” And, my doctor would insert a tiny metal clip there to mark the new spot after performing a breast biopsy on it. By the time my annual screening...
Cervical cancer can be detected with a Pap test. Breast cancer can be detected with mammograms and clinical breast exams. But ovarian cancer...
When I was 6 years old, my mother died from cancer. She was only 35, and at the time, her death came as a shock to everyone in our family....
I was in Mexico in the summer of 2013 when I came down with a bad case of diarrhea. That’s a pretty common complaint among travelers, so I figured it was just an intestinal bug. The problem continued off and on for several weeks, even after I returned to the States. I tried to ignore it and just get on with my life, but I’m a middle school teacher, and summer is my break time. I had training and traveling to do.
Then I started...
New results from the world's largest ovarian cancer screening study demonstrate that a strategy that starts with a simple blood test called...
I recently found out that I carry the BRCA 1 genetic mutation, and I'm not freaking out.
The mutation means that I have a crazy high...
It's difficult to condense the emotional and physical tolls that a mastectomy brings. It's life-changing, but so worth it.
After...
Twenty years ago, while a college senior, I spent weekends commuting from Austin to Houston to care for my 42-year-old mother. She was battling...
For Terry Arnold, the decision to undergo genetic testing was simple. A triple-negative inflammatory breast cancer survivor, she wanted her...