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 as a right. Dana survived breast most cancers throughout being pregnant together with her youthful daughter.

“I realized to launch management and to not sweat the small stuff,” says the assistant dietetic internship director and prenatal dietitian at UVA Well being. “Whereas I attempted to keep up a constructive perspective and do what I may, I additionally realized I wanted to simply accept the assistance of others. My focus and power shifted to preventing for not solely my life, however my daughter’s as effectively.”

Breast Most cancers — or Being pregnant Hormone Modifications?

Dana and her husband Logan, a cardiac gadget nurse at UVA Well being, came upon 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 very first thing that got here to thoughts was that it was a clogged milk duct,” she recollects. “I’d began weaning Callie from nursing — she was nearly 2 years outdated.”

Plugged milk ducts are frequent throughout weaning because the child’s feeding schedule adjustments. Girls who’re nursing, pregnant — or not too long ago have given beginning — expertise hormone adjustments that may have an effect on the breasts. This will 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 very same day, she additionally ended up having a mammogram and a biopsy.

“This all occurred on Friday afternoon, so I had an anxious weekend of not figuring out,” says Dana, who was 14 weeks pregnant.

Going through Breast Most cancers Throughout Being pregnant

The next Monday, she acquired the information. Dana had HER2-positive, hormone adverse most cancers in her left breast. HER2 is a gene that helps breast most cancers cells develop shortly, in response to the American Most cancers Society. The most cancers had unfold to her lymph nodes close to the left breast.

Extra imaging assessments normally are given after a most cancers prognosis. That permits medical doctors to see if the most cancers has unfold to different components of the physique. However 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 whole being pregnant not figuring out if the most cancers had unfold wherever else past my lymph nodes,” she remembers. “That added an enormous worry and nervousness issue to the entire being pregnant. However there have been so many specialists on my care workforce. I used to be in good arms.”

After prognosis, Dana’s care maternal-fetal drugs specialist Christian Chisholm, MD, led her high-risk care workforce together with breast oncologist Patrick M. Dillon, MD, and breast surgeon Shayna Showalter, MD.

Chemo & Surgical procedure Whereas Pregnant

Just a few days after Mom’s Day 2019, she started chemotherapy therapies. HER2-positive breast most cancers responds effectively to focused therapies. However these medicines aren’t normally protected for unborn infants.

“We began off combining two several types of chemotherapy,” says Dana, who has no household historical past of breast most cancers and examined adverse for all the key breast most cancers genetic mutations, comparable to 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 therapies included chemotherapy and a decreased dose of focused remedy. Her medical workforce additionally elevated progress scans for Emery, who developed as anticipated for her gestational age. Heart specialist James Bergin, MD, medical director of UVA Well being’s Coronary heart Failure/Cardiac Transplantation Program, additionally monitored Dana’s coronary heart perform — it had dropped from greater than 65% to 40%, in response to an echocardiogram. Involved, Bergin coordinated together with her medical workforce to schedule Emery’s supply the subsequent week.

“I appreciated the individualized care that I acquired,” Dana says. “When issues didn’t go as deliberate, the medical workforce needed to pivot alongside the best way. They all the time developed the very best care plan for me, in addition to for Emery.”

Welcoming Emery; Attacking Breast Most cancers

Emery was born at 33 weeks through cesarean part and spent a month within the NICU. Inside every week of giving beginning, Dana underwent imaging assessments comparable to a bone scan, and CT scans of the chest and pelvis. Thankfully, her most cancers had not unfold past the lymph nodes.

Now that Emery was out of the womb, Dana was capable of strive any applicable most cancers remedy. She had:

• 30 rounds of radiation
• Focused drug (totally different from the one she had throughout being pregnant)
• 8 extra cycles of chemotherapy
• 6.5 cycles of oral chemotherapy
• Extra 12 months of one other focused drug

“I advised my workforce, ‘Simply throw me again into therapies!’” Henry says. “I had two younger women at dwelling, so I needed to do the whole lot doable to struggle the most cancers.”

Dana and Logan are each grateful for the care she and Emery acquired at UVA Well being. She sees her oncology workforce each six months. For now, Henry is most cancers free.

“One of many nice issues about UVA Well being is that every one the individuals concerned in my care had been in a single place,” Henry says. “They already had been aware of working collectively on totally different affected person circumstances. I wasn’t the primary affected person that they had handled for breast most cancers throughout being pregnant. In order that coordination of care actually grew to become essential, particularly later in my being pregnant. We had been impressed with how they took care of us.”