The breast cancer nobody wants to talk about: 'If I don't find something that works, I will die'
Women living with metastatic breast cancer often feel isolated and invisible in the larger breast cancer narrative.
As many breast cancer survivors know, there is a long-held tradition at cancer treatment centers: Each patient who completes a course of radiation or chemotherapy gets to triumphantly ring a loud bell, celebrating the end of treatment and the start of a cancer-free life.
But for those living with the fatal, stage-4 version of the disease — called metastatic breast cancer, or MBC — witnessing that event can be an excruciating reminder of something they will not get to do.
“I’ll never ring the bell,” Stephanie Walker, 60, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. Since there is no cure for MBC, only ways to manage it, she’ll be in treatment for as long as she’s alive.
It’s just one of the many ways that Walker and the estimated 155,000 women (and men) living with metastatic breast cancer in the U.S. can feel erased from the larger breast cancer narrative — something that’s especially true in October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, when such positive, pink-ribbon stories of survivorship are everywhere, and mention of metastatic breast cancer is as rare as always.