Our Stories

Roberta heard about dense breast tissue but never knew what it meant to her. Six months after a "normal" mammogram, she felt a lump which was later confirmed to be an advanced stage breast cancer!

Name:  Roberta

State:  California

Date of Diagnosis:   February 25, 2010

Age at Diagnosis:  52   

Stage of Diagnosis:  Stage III

Time from "normal" mammogram to Stage 3 diagnosis:  6 months

How was cancer detected: By me  

Roberta's story:  I had yearly mammograms and was never informed I have scattered mixed density.  Many of my reports, generated from the radiologists, that were not shared with me state "dense breasts".   I felt a lump and my physician said to wait a month to schedule the diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound. In two weeks the arm on the same side swelled. She said that it was a probably a spider bite.   In two days I had enough and scheduled the mammogram and ultrasound.   No one indicated to me how likely it was to be cancer until I got the biopsy results - Cancer!  Surgery revealed 16 positive nodes and a wide area of DCIS so my margins are not entirely clear.  I have started chemotherapy  which will involve a year of Herceptin.  I will need "clean up" surgery and radiation. I am devastated.  I had to quit my new job as a science writer with Stanford.  I am a trained medical journalist who has written occaisonally on cancer and knew that dense breasts meant something, but I never knew just what.  Now! I do, and I vow to do something so that other women will not have to travel this road.