A Woman Struggles After Her Fifth Cancer Diagnosis in 10 Years
- Stace O’Brien, 37, suffers from Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a genetic condition that increases her likelihood of developing cancer. Her first diagnosis came 10 years ago when she started to feel a burning pain in her hip. She delayed seeing a doctor for six months, and when she did learned that she had osteosarcoma.
- She has since had four more cancer battles, including breast cancer and a sarcoma in her leg. “The treatments have made me go temporarily blind, lose my hair, not be able to swallow food and suffer a horrible time.The effects of treatment can start to compromise my life so badly,” she said.
- The cancers most frequently tied to Li-Fraumeni syndrome are breast cancer, osteosarcoma (a bone cancer), and cancer of the soft tissue (i.e. muscle), soft tissue sarcoma. This syndrome can also lead to brain tumors, leukemia and adrenocortical carcinoma.
Stace O’Brien, 37, suffers from Li-Fraumeni syndrome, a genetic condition that increases her likelihood of being diagnosed with cancer.
Read MoreShe managed to beat the disease after going through chemotherapy and remained cancer-free for five years.
Then, while shopping for a bra on Valentine’s Day, she felt a lump.
By the end of the month, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent chemotherapy, a double mastectomy, and reconstruction surgery.
She had not even made it through the year when doctors discovered cancer in her lymph nodes and then sarcoma in her leg two months later.
O’Brien said she had just finished with the four surgeries to treat that when she learned that the breast cancer had metastasized last month.
The young woman is tired but trying to hold on to hope.
"Treatment has been very traumatic. I went through months of chemotherapy and opted to use a cold cap to keep my hair,” said O’Brien.
“I'm only 37, but my body feels 100 years old with broken parts that don’t work and chronic fatigue. I usually try to hide how sick I am.”
She went on to say: "I'm just hoping I can beat it once and for all and will give anything to do so."
Genetic Testing & Cancer Mutations
Li-Fraumeni syndrome is a rare disorder that increases the risk of developing certain cancers, especially in children and young adults. It’s comparable to Lynch syndrome in that it elevates cancer risk factors.
Related: What is Lynch Syndrome? And Why Is it Important to Know About for People Fighting Cancer?
The cancers most frequently tied to Li-Fraumeni syndrome are breast cancer, osteosarcoma (a bone cancer), and cancer of the soft tissue (i.e., muscle), soft tissue sarcoma. This syndrome can also lead to brain tumors, leukemia, and adrenocortical carcinoma.
Discovering that you or a family member have Lynch syndrome, Li-Fraumeni syndrome, or the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutation, which increases the risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer, can be life-saving. Knowledge equals power, and when you can have this syndrome or gene mutation, you can screen for specific cancers at a younger age and more frequently than you may otherwise; this can lead to life-saving discoveries and allow for earlier treatment should a cancer present.
What are Sarcomas?
If you get a diagnosis of common cancer such as breast cancer you might already have some sense of what that means. But what if you learn you have a sarcoma cancer? These are much rarer and less likely to be discussed in casual office visits or among friends. This rare and diverse group of diseases accounts for only about one percent of adult tumors and just over 10 percent of tumors in children.
Sarcoma is the general term describing an array of cancers more than 70 that begin in the bones and in the soft tissues (that includes muscles, fat, blood vessels, tendons, nerves, and joint linings). Osteogenic sarcoma, also called osteosarcoma, starts in the bone, often forming as a young person grows.
"Sarcomas are rare, and the cause in most patients is unknown," Dr. Vishal Gupta, site director of Radiation Oncology at The Blavatnik Family Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai, previously told SurvivorNet.
Teen Documents His Osteosarcoma Battle
Sarcoma Symptoms
The typical symptom of sarcomas is a slow-growing, painless mass. But sarcoma can be hard to detect through symptoms. "Unfortunately, most sarcomas do not cause many of the symptoms that may be associated with other cancer," Dr. Dale Shepard, director of the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute Phase I and Sarcoma Programs, previously explained to SurvivorNet.
Shepard went on to say that this often leads to large tumors at the time of diagnosis. "Soft tissue sarcomas are typically painless," he says. "Bone sarcomas may be mistaken for orthopedic injuries. A mass the size of a golf ball or larger and growing should be evaluated as a potential sarcoma. Patients who do have symptoms mustn't be dismissive of them."
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