‘I’m in my early 20s. ‘Why do I have breast cancer?’ He received six rounds of chemotherapy and still hasn’t fully recovered…

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WHY ME?

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in October. I was 23 years old when I got the diagnosis. My first question was: Why?

I thought people my age didn’t get breast cancer. I have no family history of this disease. I tested negative for BRCA gene mutations that increase the risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

Did I eat too much sugar? Am I exposed to too much plastic? People started telling me their own theories, like using birth control pills or hiding my phone in my bra. Everyone around me is trying to understand how this could happen to someone my age. Because if it happened to me, it can happen to them too.

THIS IS ‘BAD LUCK’ ACCORDING TO THE DOCTOR

When I asked the doctor this question, his answer was simply “Bad luck.” Life is random. There may be nothing I have done or can do. But that doesn’t make it any less unsettling for me or other young adults who increasingly find themselves in this situation.

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In 2022, only 4 percent of invasive breast cancer diagnoses were among U.S. women under age 40. But recent studies show more young people are getting cancer, including breast cancer. For young patients like me, it’s hard to wrap our minds around the randomness of it all.

Breast cancer is the most common solid cancer type among females and does not rank third in cancer-related deaths. The most common age range is the 40 to 60 age group. In recent years, although the average age of breast cancer is still within this range, the age group has evolved towards 40 years of age. This decline in the age of breast cancer extends to the early 30s, and even breast cancer biologics often seen in this age group are significantly aggressive. For this reason, today’s screening programs have been rearranged as self-breast examination from the age of 25, annual physician examination from the age of 30, and annual breast ultrasound check from the age of 35.

General Surgery-Breast Surgery Specialist Assoc. Dr. Pelin Basım

FINDING A Lump, Then Diagnosing It

It was June 2023 when I noticed a large lump in my breast while taking a shower. I ignored it at first, but when it didn’t go away, I told my primary care doctor I was worried. He wrote me a prescription for an ultrasound, but I had to wait three months to get an appointment in Washington.

I had heard that benign cysts were common in young women, but an appointment was made for a biopsy immediately after the ultrasound. Imaging showed an abnormal mass requiring further testing. Worried, I asked my mother to fly from Phoenix and be with me.

When I entered the examination room on Tuesday, I took a look at my paperwork and it said, “Preliminary diagnosis: Cancer.” A few days later, my doctor called and made the first diagnosis; high-grade invasive ductal carcinoma, a cancer that grows quickly and is more likely to spread. The mass was approximately five centimeters. It was in the 2nd stage.

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The long delay from finding the mass to ultrasound to diagnosis is just one way young cancer patients are not taken seriously. I have heard of women whose doctors did not want a mammogram because they were deemed too young. Colon cancer patients are sometimes diagnosed with hemorrhoids instead of cancer.

It was found that this decrease in the incidence of breast cancer was more pronounced in developed and developing countries. This difference in the distribution of diseases around the world is statistically more evident in European countries, including Turkey. In recent and published scientific studies, there is strong data that this localization distribution is mostly due to increasing stress factors, changing eating habits, increased exposure to radiation and electromagnetic field, and less exercise and more sitting work under the name of sedentary life.

Assoc. Dr. Pelin Basım

DECISION MAKING ABOUT FERTILITY

I decided to move to Arizona with my family for treatment. At my new hospital, I have a triple positive patient who responds well to chemotherapy and targeted therapies. breast cancer I learned more about my diagnosis as I was. I also learned that I can use a technology called cold-capping (scalp cooling) to save my hair.

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Because my treatment affected my fertility, I felt the most pressure on my decision not to have my eggs removed. I quickly realized that this wasn’t what I wanted. I didn’t want to subject myself to more invasive medical procedures, and having biological children was never important to me. My doctors and family wanted me to fully understand the gravity of my decision and gave me many chances to change my mind, but I didn’t.

I also decided to try saving my hair. The treatment requires a special frozen cap that is worn tightly on the head like a swimming cap before, during and after the chemotherapy session. Many people warned me that cold capping would be painful, but once I got through the first 10 minutes I didn’t find it that bad. It was like walking around in the snow without wearing a beanie. It was uncomfortable during chemotherapy sessions, but worth it to maintain a sense of normalcy. I lost the most hair after my last treatment, but my doctors still compliment me on how much I was able to keep.

FINDING CONSOLE IN THE ‘I’M STILL ALIVE’ CLUB

I am grateful to go to a hospital that has a young adult program for patients like me. When I had a procedure to place a port in my chest to facilitate chemotherapy infusions, a specialist nurse for young adults saw that I was upset. She guided me through the empty chemotherapy ward so I knew what to expect before my first treatment.

After I received my full treatment plan, she also introduced me to a support group. We meet once a month to catch up. Some people, like me, are newly diagnosed or re-diagnosed, while others have reached the five-year remission milestone. When I joined the group, I felt less alone. I knew that they had all gone through the same path as I had.

In group meetings, we share frustrating stories like collapsed veins and central line placements or encouraging stories like good doctors and early hospital discharges. We’re talking about playing Pokémon and Sims to distract ourselves. We follow each other on Instagram.

Group members joke about being part of the ‘still alive’ club and that it’s never ‘cancer-free’ but ‘cancer-silent’. These jokes are actually a way of saying that our lives will never be completely cancer-free as we deal with constant check-ups and ongoing symptoms.

Another cause of breast cancer detected at an early age is familial and/or genetic breast cancers, which tend to increase. For this reason, we strongly recommend that individuals with a family history of breast cancer, especially at a young age, be followed up frequently and, if possible, gene analysis be performed on selected patient groups.

Assoc. Dr. Pelin Basım

MY JOURNEY IS NOT OVER YET

Although I have completed six rounds of chemotherapy and undergone surgery, my journey is not over. I am worried about the relapse of the disease. I wonder where I’ll be at the end of all this, furloughed from my job and withdrawn from my life in Washington. I worry about my friends with cancer who are fighting their own battles and other young people who are trying to understand why this is happening to them.

I remember when I went for my first MRI. The test would determine whether the cancer had spread elsewhere. The woman at the reception asked my date of birth to print my bracelet.

“We have the same date of birth,” he said. Month, date, year, everything.

I laughed it off at first, but I can’t get it out of my mind at that moment. A woman who was born on the same day and the same year as me was on the opposite side of the counter, and I was on the other side. I was the one with cancer…

The Washington Post’s ‘I’m in my early 20s.’ ‘Why do I have breast cancer?’ Compiled from the news titled.