METASTATIC CANCER STORIES

I was diagnosed stage 2, HER2+. In 2009. My youngest child was only 12. After A mastectomy, 6 rounds of chemo and a year of Herceptin, I thought I was free, But only five months later, cancer was found in my liver.

I am Ilene Alizah Kaminsky. Alizah means happiness in Hebrew. I am a great granddaughter of a rabbi and cantor from St. Petersburg Russia who emigrated in 1910 through Ellis island.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 38 after I had my daughter. My breast wasn’t producing milk even though she was biting it. I asked my doctor about it after I had her in 2006 and my doctor ignored me. I pushed and finally in 2008 I was told I had had METS from the get-go and that is had now spread to my lymph nodes and my liver.

I had a red circle on the right side of my breast, and I had lost twenty pounds despite the fact that I was not on a diet. When I went to the doctor their tests couldn’t find anything wrong, so I told them to check out this red spot.

I was diagnosed with stage 2 triple negative breast cancer in September of 2017. I had a lumpectomy, 4 rounds chemo, and 21 sessions of radiation which I finished in March of 2018. In May of 2018 a lymph node was swelling and by June a spot on my skin had started growing.

I was diagnosed with incurable Stage IV Gleason 9 prostate cancer de novo in 2015. I had a RALRP and later went on ADT, but, last year became refractory.

I was diagnosed in October 2011. Originally at Stage 3, I found out later I was misdiagnosed. I was Stage IV denovo. I have gone through 4 years of non-stop chemo.

"I can only hope that future research will eventually find a way to prevent breast cancer before it even begins."

It's About Time we had more research and funding and finally a cure for all breast cancer.