Breast Cancer & Fertility Preservation
- Mexican model Lucero Vega, 24, is battling breast cancer after a breakup with her former partner, who she was supposed to marry. She is auctioning off her wedding dress to pay for treatment.
- Vega is undergoing chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery to treat her cancer.
- Vega froze her eggs prior to treatment. People diagnosed with cancer who wish to have a family one day should speak with their care team about ways to preserve fertility through cancer.
- Current guidelines recommend that women aged 45 to 54 with an average risk of breast cancer should get mammograms annually. Mammograms screen for breast cancer and look for lumps in the breast tissue and other signs of cancer.
Vega says in an interview that she feels “an emptiness” because she and her former partner were going to build a family together. However, she reportedly wishes her former partner the best, and has no ill feelings towards him.
Read MoreVega’s Breast Cancer Battle
Vega is treating her breast cancer with chemotherapy, a common treatment path for breast cancer. Other breast cancer treatments include surgery, radiation, and hormone therapy. Due to the treatments, she has lost her hair. Hair loss is a common side effect of chemotherapy, and it can be mitigated with newer technologies, like cooling caps.The Mexican model went through cancer treatments on her own, without her former partner at her side. Having friends, a parent, or supportive people in your life as you go through cancer treatment can make a big difference.
Not Your Parents' Chemotherapy New Solutions for Nausea, Hair Loss, and Other Chemo Side Effects
Fertility & Cancer
Vega reflects on how her partner was supportive initially after her diagnosis. Together, they underwent the process of freezing Vega’s eggs to preserve her fertility. She says, "I went to freeze my eggs with him because he really wanted a family by his side.”
Some cancer treatments, like chemotherapy, can negatively impact fertility. So if you’re battling cancer and hope to be a biological parent at a later time, speak with your medical team about fertility-preserving measures you should be taking prior to treatment.
In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Jaime Knopman, a reproductive endocrinologist at CCRM NY, said that time is of the essence when it comes to fertility conversations with your doctor.
"The sooner we start, the sooner that patient can then go on and do their treatment," she said. "… Success comes down to how old you are at the time you froze and the quality of the lab in which your eggs or embryos are frozen.”
If you're having a treatment that includes infertility as a possible side effect, your doctor won't be able to tell you for sure whether you will have this side effect. That's why you should discuss your options for fertility preservation before starting treatment.
Freezing Eggs or Embryos: What Should I Do?
Paying for Cancer Treatment
To help cover the cost of cancer treatment, Vega is selling the wedding dress she bought for the wedding with her ex-partner. Although she’s finished with chemotherapy, she still needs to have surgery and radiation.
These treatments will be costly. Auctioning off her bridal dress she had planned to wear is generating money to help defray the cost of cancer treatment.
In an earlier interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Allyson Ocean, a Medical Oncologist at Weill Cornell, shares how she’s on phone calls with insurance companies daily, trying to ensure her patients get the care they need and that the cost is covered.
"My best advice to work around the system of whether or not drugs or tests can be covered for cancer is to make sure you have an advocate in your field working for you," says Dr. Ocean. "The frustrating part for me is that sometimes we even have to educate the insurance companies and say, 'There's a reason why I want to use this medicine.'"
Paying for Cancer Find Someone Who Will Advocate For You
Screening for Breast Cancer
Vega is battling breast cancer. Current guidelines recommend that women aged 45 to 54 with an average risk of breast cancer should get mammograms annually. Mammograms screen for breast cancer and look for lumps in the breast tissue and other signs of cancer. If you're at a higher risk for breast cancer due to a family history of the disease or presence of the BRCA gene mutations, you should start screening earlier.
In an earlier interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Rebecca Arend, an Associate Scientist at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, explains the BRCA mutations. "What a BRCA mutation is is it's a defect in your ability to repair a double-strand break. If you think about DNA being a double helix, that we've all learned about in basic science, if you have a single-strand break, a PARP enzyme is needed to repair that single-strand break. If you have a PARP inhibitor, then you can't repair that single-strand break," she says.
Dr. Arend continues, "And if you have a single-strand break that's not repaired, that actually leads to a double-strand break. So when both of the arms of the DNA helix are broken, then your body has normal mechanisms for repairing that. One of them is called homologous recombination."
She explains how this is the body's normal way of repairing a break. "But if you have a BRCA mutation, you actually cannot repair that break."
While getting a mammogram, ask about desnse breasts, which may obscure cancer. The technician will be able to do determine whether or not you have dense breasts.
When Should I Get a Mammogram?
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