Most patients with this cancer undergo surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, though treatment depends on how much the cancer has spread. It doesn't have any hormone or protein receptors attached, and there are fewer treatment options. The type of cancer Ellis had, triple-negative breast cancer, can be more aggressive. Allison Aggon, who also attended Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, treated Ellis. “It freaked me out so much that I was like, ‘You know what? I would just rather do the double mastectomy.’” Triple negative breast cancerĭr. “They did two biopsies on the right breast, and it turned out this was actually fibroadenomas,” she says. Ellis decided to get a double mastectomy with breast reconstruction. She was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer and additional imagining showed masses in her right breast. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I did not want to have to take time off because of getting diagnosed with cancer.”Įllis underwent genetic testing and learned she had a mutation to her BRCA1 gene, which increases the risk of breast cancer recurring, as well as developing ovarian cancer, according to the U.S. “I worked so hard to get into medical school. That touched her because of how dedicated she was to continuing her education. “(The doctor said), ‘This is not going to define you,’” Ellis remembers. Immediately, she responded much better to this new doctor’s demeanor. She met with an expert at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia to learn more about her treatment options. “If I listened to (his) advice to begin with … I could have been looking at a much different outcome,” she says. After a few days, Ellis knew she wanted a second opinion. She needed time to process the diagnosis and speak with her loved ones. The doctor provided treatment options, but Ellis felt overwhelmed. "He was like, ‘I didn’t know what your med school schedule was like.'" Were you ever going to call me and tell me I have cancer?’” Ellis recalls. “The first thing he said was, 'I guess you saw the test results,' and I was like, ‘Yeah, I saw the test results. “I was like, ‘Really?'"Įllis says the doctor responded by telling her about another patient with a fibroadenoma, a noncancerous breast tumor common in young women, who went backpacking for three months and was fine when it was removed after her trip.Īt first, she thought it was a mistake and called the doctor. But you’re a medical student, so why don’t you come back in three months? We can worry about it after you take your board exam,’” she recalls. “He’s like, ‘You can leave it in, or we can take it out. After he performed a breast exam, he told her that she didn’t need to do anything. She hoped the breast surgeon would put her fears to rest and confirm the cyst wasn't cancerous. The screenings both found the mass, so a week later, she saw a local breast surgeon, even though previous doctors told her it was likely benign. But during the appointment, the technician called in the radiologist, who suggested completing the mammogram that day, too. At first, she thought she’d only get an ultrasound because she didn’t have a family history of breast cancer. She visited her OB-GYN and was recommended to get an ultrasound and mammogram. “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s weird,’” she recalls. She moved the blanket and still felt the lump and then compared her left and right breasts. While Ellis watched TV, wrapped in a blanket, she was leaning oddly and felt something hard in her breast. “I had an idea of what it said because I was learning about it in medical school.” A lump eventually leads to a diagnosis “It said, 'Invasive ductal carcinoma, ER negative, PR negative, HER2 negative,' which means I have triple-negative breast cancer, which is a more aggressive breast cancer,” she says. Still, Ellis scheduled surgery to have it removed.Īfter the procedure, she didn’t hear from the doctor and received an alert from the electronic medical records system that revealed the mass was not benign. If you’d like, I can just leave it in there,’” Ellis, 27, a medical student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, tells. “He did a breast exam and was like, ‘Yeah, I’m not worried about this at all.
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