How a young mom is “living, not just surviving” after incurable cancer diagnosis

Elissa Kalver was 34 years old when she found a bump in her breast. She had no family history of cancer and had just welcomed her first child. She supposed that the bump was a cyst. But when she went to have him checked, the doctors found another bump in her armpits. The biopsies found that the two lumps were clever.

More tests revealed that the situation was worse than it could have imagined: a PET found cancer in its lower spine and its liver. It was diagnosed with positive metastatic breast cancer. Diseases that have spread to Kalver are considered incurable, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

“I was told that I was not going to die tomorrow, but I was told that there was an 80% chance of dying within five years,” said Kalver. “The first oncologist I had, to rise was like” Well, I have patients who are six years old. “Hearing that at 34, that your hope is to live up to 40 years old, was crazy.”

The new mother had to adapt quickly to her new reality.

“In my head, I said to myself, I know other people who crossed this, I will cut my breasts, whatever we have to do to get rid of it,” said Kalver, now 38 years old. “And it was after the PET, I understood that I did not understand. It really changed to try to understand that I am essentially a cancer patient for the rest of my life.”

What is positive metastatic breast cancer?

Positive HER2 metastatic breast cancer is a form of aggressive and fast -growing breast cancer which is considered incurable but treatable. Patients with positive HER2 breast cancer have high levels of human epidermal growth factor 2, or HER2, a protein that manages how cells develop and divide, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The prognosis and treatment of positive HER2 breast cancer vary depending on the moment when it is diagnosed and the spread of the disease at the time. Patients diagnosed before cancer differences have a five -year survival rate of 97%. For patients like Kalver, the five -year survival rate fell to 39%, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

Medical progress continuously improves the prognosis, according to Dr. Shari Goldfarb, an oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who heads young women from the hospital cancer.

“Over the past 10 to 15 years, we have developed so many new drugs that target the HER2 receptor, and which considerably improves the result of women diagnosed with a positive HER2 disease. It was one of the worst and the most aggressive cancer subtypes,” said Goldfarb. “Many women live for years and even decades with a positive metastatic her2 breast cancer.”

Treat positive her2 metastatic breast cancer

Treatment of the disease requires constant monitoring, said Goldfarb. A patient like Kalver receives scans every three to four months. If their cancer is stable or improves, they will continue their current treatment. If the disease progresses, treatment should be changed, said Goldfarb. Doctors must also consider the quality of life of a patient and the side effects of treatment.

“Generally, the principle is to give people the best quality of life possible as long as possible,” said Goldfarb.

Kalver asked for treatment at the UCLA Health Jonsson understanding Cancer Center. His first treatment was an aggressive course in chemotherapy. Over the past four years, she has participated in several clinical trials and has undergone several different forms of treatment, according to her oncologist, the Dre Marla Lipsyc-Sharf.

About a year after his diagnosis, doctors found that cancer had spread to the Kalver brain.

“I have always thought of tumors in your brain, like” it’s all “,” said Kalver.

But targeted chemotherapy that crossed the blood-brain barrier to attack tumors. The masses have been reduced by around 80%, said Kalver, and they have not increased in the past three years.

Treatments have wreaked havoc, said Kalver. Chemotherapy made her so nauseating that “it was difficult to be awake,” Kalver said. Another made him lose his hair, which, worried, would alarm his 1 year old daughter. Sharf said other treatments had caused kalver symptoms, including bone pain, muscle pain and rash. Whenever side effects have become too intense, Sharf strives to recalibrate Kalver’s treatment.

Currently, Kalver receives chemotherapy infusions every three weeks and takes oral medication twice a day. The treatment led him to become “a little anemic”, which recently required a blood transfusion, but if not, things are fine, she said.

“After being on chemo for four years, I really learned that we have to prioritize life, not just survive,” Kalver said. “I am really grateful to always be on chemo treatments that work.”

“Live as I am alive”

Kalver can spend the rest of his life in chemotherapy or other treatments. She, and many other patients with a positive her2 metastatic breast cancer, can never enter a remission or see no evidence of illness on their analyzes. She sounded the bell after completing her first chemotherapy lesson, participating in a ritual that many cancer patients use to mark the end of their treatment.

“I thought about it a lot, because I said to myself:” I haven’t finished with a treatment, but I’m finished with this treatment. And this treatment was quite difficult, and I deserve to ring, “recalls Kalver.” I called him so hard that I broke the bell. ”

Since then, Kalver has developed other ways to mark important steps.

Each year, she celebrates what she calls a “cancer pays”, honoring the day she was diagnosed. For his first “Cancerversary”, Kalver launched “We obtained this”, the first register of non -profit gifts for cancer patients. Since then, she has written a book, which has become a professional speaker and worked to educate other patients on the reality of participation in clinical trials. In July, Kalver will celebrate his fifth “Cancerversary”. She always thinks about how to celebrate the “big step”.

When she is not busy by work and plea, she spends time with her daughter, now aged 4, and her husband. Living life as much as possible is a priority, she said.

“I want to live as long as possible with the best quality of life I can, which makes the greatest impact possible,” said Kalver. “I do all things, and I really make an effort to live as I am alive.”