Cuddles, first phrases, storytimes, and first days of faculty. Dana Henry cherishes the small moments together with her daughters, Callie, 6, and Emery, 4. She takes nothing with no consideration. Dana survived breast most cancers throughout being pregnant together with her youthful daughter.
“I learned to release control and to not sweat the small stuff,” says the assistant dietetic internship director and prenatal dietitian at UVA Health. “While I tried to maintain a positive attitude and do what I could, I also realized I needed to accept the help of others. My focus and energy shifted to fighting for not only my life, but my daughter’s as well.”
Breast Cancer — or Pregnancy Hormone Changes?
Dana and her husband Logan, a cardiac machine nurse at UVA Health, discovered in spring 2019 they had been anticipating a second baby. Just a few weeks later, Dana felt a lump in her left breast. At first, she wasn’t involved.
“The first thing that came to mind was that it was a clogged milk duct,” she remembers. “I’d started weaning Callie from nursing — she was almost 2 years old.”
Plugged milk ducts are widespread throughout weaning because the child’s feeding schedule adjustments. Women who’re nursing, pregnant — or lately have given beginning — expertise hormone adjustments that may have an effect on the breasts. This could 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 identical day, she additionally ended up having a mammogram and a biopsy.
“This all happened on Friday afternoon, so I had an anxious weekend of not knowing,” says Dana, who was 14 weeks pregnant.
Facing Breast Cancer During Pregnancy
The following 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, in line with the American Cancer Society. The most cancers had unfold to her lymph nodes close to the left breast.
More imaging assessments 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. But a few of these assessments aren’t protected for unborn infants. Dana must wait till after Emery’s beginning for extra testing.
“I spent my entire pregnancy not knowing if the cancer had spread anywhere else beyond my lymph nodes,” she remembers. “That added a big fear and anxiety factor to the whole pregnancy. But there were so many specialists on my care team. I was in good hands.”
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 & Surgery While Pregnant
Just a few days after Mother’s Day 2019, Dana started chemotherapy remedies. HER2-positive breast most cancers responds properly to focused therapies. But these drugs aren’t normally protected for unborn infants.
“We started off combining two different types of chemotherapy,” says Dana, who has no household historical past of breast most cancers and examined unfavorable for all the key breast most cancers genetic mutations, resembling 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. Cardiologist James Bergin, MD, medical director of UVA Health’s Heart Failure/Cardiac Transplantation Program, additionally monitored Dana’s coronary heart perform — it had dropped from greater than 65% to 40%, in line with an echocardiogram. Concerned, Bergin coordinated together with her medical crew to schedule Emery’s supply the subsequent week.
“I appreciated the individualized care that I received,” Dana says. “When things didn’t go as planned, the medical team had to pivot along the way. They always developed the best care plan for me, as well as for Emery.”
Pregnant + Cancer?
It’s time to name within the specialists.
Welcoming Emery; Attacking Breast Cancer
Emery was born at 33 weeks through cesarean part and spent a month within the NICU. Within per week of giving beginning, Dana underwent imaging assessments resembling a bone scan, and CT scans of the chest and pelvis. Fortunately, her most cancers had not unfold past the lymph nodes.
Now that Emery was out of the womb, Dana was capable of attempt any acceptable most cancers remedy. She had:
- 30 rounds of radiation
- Targeted drug (totally different from the one she had throughout being pregnant)
- 8 extra cycles of chemotherapy
- 6.5 cycles of oral chemotherapy
- Additional 12 months of one other focused drug
“I told my team, ‘Just throw me back into treatments!’” Dana says. “I had two young girls at home, so I wanted to do everything possible to fight the cancer.”
Dana and Logan are each grateful for the care she and Emery acquired at UVA Health. She sees her oncology crew each six months. For now, she’s cancer-free.
“One of the great things about UVA Health is that all the people involved in my care were in one place,” Dana says. “They already were familiar with working together on different patient cases. I wasn’t the first patient they had treated for breast cancer during pregnancy. So that coordination of care really became important, especially later in my pregnancy. We were impressed with how they took care of us.”