‘Anne With An E’ Star And Breast Cancer Survivor Miranda McKeon, 21, Had to Get Hormone Treatment While Studying Abroad: What Is Lupron and How Does It Help?

"I have wanted to go abroad since the time that I started looking at colleges,” McKeon said on Instagram before she left for her study abroad program “That's the first thing I would ask in any of my college tour questions, was about their study abroad programs.”

Now that her abroad courses have officially come to an end, she’s returned to her family’s home in New Jersey and reflected on the wonderful experience with tons of social media photos and videos.

 

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“i wish IG had a 10000 slide option so I could properly recap study abroad,” she wrote in a recent Instagram caption. “Most fun four months of my life and feeling so grateful for all of the memories I collected in Rome and everywhere in between. My heart is just so so so so so so so full. Massive #gratitudeMMoment”

McKeon made sure to keep followers updated during her trip via social media and her blog. From sharing tasty treats she devoured, to posting pictures of beautiful scenery, to writing about the little moments that made her time there feel like “an absolute dream,”

McKeon made it very clear that she was determined to cherish every moment – including getting treatment.

In an Instagram story, she shared a picture from what looked like the inside of a health clinic in Italy. She said she had to take a medication called Lupron. What is this medicine and how does it help cancer patients?

What Is Lupron Therapy?

Lupron (generic name leuprorelin) is a type of ovarian suppression drug that stops the ovaries from making the hormone estrogen.

When a cancer tests positive for being hormone-receptive, like in the case of Miranda McKeon, it means that the cancer needs the hormones estrogen and/or progesterone to grow. So, doctors may want to lower a patient’s estrogen levels to help slow the growth of some cancers or help prevent it from coming back.

That’s where a hormone therapy like Lupron comes in.

Hormone Therapy for Breast Cancer

Lupron is in a class of drugs called luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) agonists, also known as LHRH analogs, according to the American Cancer Society. Lupron is a common type of LHRH drug that can be used alone or with other hormone drugs (such as tamoxifen, which many breast cancer survivors may recognize) as hormone therapy in pre-menopausal women.

According to Susan G. Komen, the ovaries will usually begin making estrogen again once drug therapy is stopped.

Miranda McKeon’s Cancer Journey

Miranda McKeon first knew something was wrong when she found a lump “the size of a jellybean” in her breast during a party with friends.

"I stepped away into the bathroom. I peed, fixed my hair, and performed the classic boob scoop a typical mid party practice," she wrote in an Instagram post. "I brushed across a lump that was definitely not there before. It was the size of a jellybean but powerful enough to sink my stomach and set off emergency sirens in my head."

After an appointment with her primary care doctor, McKeon was sent for a mammogram, biopsy and ultrasound. That’s when a then-19-year-old McKeon was diagnosed with stage three hormone-positive breast cancer on June 14, 2021, without having a family history of the disease.

"I spent most of that time confused and scared, but mostly in shock," she told Coping magazine. "Most of us go through life with the belief that we are untouchable. It's a crazy feeling when the spinner lands on you."

Fertility Preservation After a Cancer Diagnosis

Before starting chemotherapy, McKeon had her eggs frozen in case her treatments impacted her fertility.

“This past week I've spent most of my mornings at a fertility clinic and all of my nights (@8pm) doing self injections for an egg harvesting process,” she wrote a day before starting chemo. “The intention behind this is kind of like an insurance policy (my dad will love this analogy). It's so that I have a safety net of options when I want to have little clones down the line, as chemotherapy increases the risk of infertility.

“So… we have eggs on ice.  May they never be needed, and donated to science down the road after I have my kids on my own and get to bring them into this weird, messy, beautiful world.”

Surgery or Chemo First? How is Breast Cancer Treatment Order Determined

Chemotherapy included eight rounds of AC-T over the course of four months. AC-T is an abbreviation for a breast cancer chemotherapy combination of drugs that includes doxorubicin hydrochloride (Adriamycin) and cyclophosphamide, followed by paclitaxel (Taxol).

RELATED: Hope For Some Early-Stage Breast Cancer Patients: Verzenio

Following chemo, she had a double mastectomy and reconstruction followed by 25 rounds of radiation via proton therapy. Proton therapy is a relatively new type of radiation that does have advantages, though it's usually more expensive than other treatment alternatives. Proton therapy tends to be most effective for people whose cancer has not spread to other parts of the body, and its biggest advantage is that it minimizes the damage to healthy cells.

RELATED: The Benefits of Proton Therapy

"I never would have anticipated that going through cancer treatment would feel like working five full-time jobs at once!" she said. "For months, my schedule was filled with all-day doctor's appointments.

"If I had a day off, I was managing symptoms, resting (also a job), not to mention trying to see friends and keep a level of normalcy for my mental health."

Today, McKeon is happily in remission, though she continues to take medication. Here’s to hoping for continued recovery for her!

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