Latest news with #biopsy
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
Dakota, 28, was fit, happy and had no reason to think anything was wrong with her health. Then she received heartbreaking news
Just three weeks before her 29th birthday, Dakota Middleby 's life changed in an instant. It was March 26 when she received the call that confirmed her worst fears. What began as seemingly innocuous swelling under her right arm turned out to be something far more serious: stage 3, grade 3 HER2-positive breast cancer - a rare and aggressive form of the disease most often associated with older women. 'I initially went to the doctors seven years ago for a lump I found in my breast, but I was told it was a fatty lump and not harmful,' Dakota told FEMAIL. 'The only thing I noticed this time was some swollen lymph nodes under my arm. My doctor initially thought it was viral, and that I'd start to get sick because of it. But weeks went by and they weren't going down.' Eventually, she was sent for an ultrasound. 'I put it off for a week because I couldn't get an appointment and I didn't think it was serious. I mean, I was 28 and extremely healthy - what could it actually have been? 'But then I saw the ultrasound technician's face change and I knew something was wrong,' she recalled. Dakota's doctor told her it was suspected breast cancer. 'I was in shock,' she recalled. 'There's no cancer in my family. I felt completely healthy. I didn't know people in their twenties could get breast cancer.' What followed was a blur of medical tests: two biopsies, a PET scan, a CT scan, and a flurry of bloodwork. Then came the official diagnosis - stage 3 HER2-positive breast cancer, known for how quickly it spreads. 'I literally thought I was going to die. My whole life flashed before my eyes,' she said. She had just moved from the Gold Coast to Melbourne for a new job, but within six months, she was forced to resign to focus on treatment. 'I resigned when I was diagnosed, just because mentally it was too much to try and manage both,' she said. Dakota quickly discovered how aggressive her treatment would need to be. HER2-positive cancers require a combination of chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and often surgery. There wasn't time to do traditional egg freezing to preserve her fertility. Instead, she underwent emergency ovarian tissue freezing - a relatively uncommon procedure - and began monthly Zoladex injections to shut down her ovaries and protect them from the harsh effects of chemo. 'I had to go into early menopause almost overnight,' she said, suffering menopause-like symptoms such as hot flushes, mood swings, and more changes and puts your body through a physical toll. Dakota's chemotherapy began shortly after. Every three weeks, she receives a round of powerful drugs designed to kill the cancer cells. 'I get mouth ulcers, nausea, heartburn, memory fog, and even temporary vision issues,' she said. 'It takes about a week to even feel semi-human again. By the second week, I start feeling slightly better. The third week is my only good week - then it all starts again.' Two weeks after her first treatment, her hair started to fall out. 'My skin changed overnight. I've gone from having clear skin to acne on my face, chest and back,' she said. 'It's not something I can hide, and that's been one of the hardest parts.' In September, Dakota is scheduled to undergo surgery to remove the lymph nodes from her right side. If chemotherapy hasn't shrunk the tumour enough by then, doctors will perform a mastectomy. Determined to keep her mind active, she recently began an internship with a marketing agency. 'I just wanted to keep my brain moving and keep learning as much as I can,' she explained. Still, daily life looks dramatically different now. Even something as simple as leaving the house has become a challenge. 'It's whether you're brave enough to go to the grocery store with no hair and have everyone look,' she said. 'Otherwise it's, "Where's my wig? I've got to put my wig on". Those appearance-based things mean a lot more now. You're looked at differently.' Being 29 and living in Melbourne, she used to thrive on a busy social life. 'There was always something happening - going out for a wine during the week, seeing friends, just being out and about,' she said. 'Now it feels like everything's been put on hold.' Even the small things - those most people wouldn't think twice about - have shifted. 'I have to be so careful about what I eat, make sure all my vegetables are washed properly, make sure I'm walking, moving my body, keeping on top of everything. It's a lot. A lot of things have changed,' she said. The experience has made her re-evaluate everything - including how long the cancer may have been growing. 'I was told I had a fatty lump in my breast when I was 21. I didn't get it checked again until now,' she said. 'Looking back, I wonder if that was the start of it.' Despite everything, Dakota has found strength in unexpected places. She's continued doing Pilates and is completing her internship to stay mentally stimulated between treatments. 'There were a couple of weeks where I was in a 'poor me' headspace,' she said. 'But I've had to shift my mindset. I don't want cancer to take more from me than it already has.' She's also been buoyed by support from her loved ones. Her mum has flown to Melbourne twice to help care for her, and her partner has remained by her side. 'He's been incredible. His workplace has been so understanding, and not everyone is that lucky,' she said. But Dakota knows many other women don't have the same support - or access to early screenings. Since sharing her story, she's been contacted by other women in their twenties who are also battling breast cancer. 'I've heard from girls as young as 20 who have it. We're not anomalies - it's happening more and more,' she said. 'But there's still a massive age bias. We're told we're "too young" for breast cancer. We're not taught to check our breasts. Screenings aren't offered to us. And when we do speak up, we're often dismissed.' That's why she's launching a donation fund to help women under 40 access early breast cancer screenings - even if they don't have symptoms or family history. 'There's just no help for us,' she said. 'You shouldn't have to find a lump or wait until it's stage 3 to get answers.' Her goal is to have the fund up and running by the end of the year. 'I don't want to just survive this. I want to do something with it,' she said.
Washington Post
24-05-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
‘Toxic positivity' denies real feelings. Here's how to do better.
I was recently texting with a friend when he paused for a moment before writing back: Him: 'Full disclosure here. I'm having a biopsy next week for a growth on my bladder.' Me: 'Thanks for telling me. … You know I had testicular cancer? One of my hard-won mantras in life: wait to worry.'
Telegraph
16-05-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
Why an all-clear mammogram can be wrong – and the life-saving question to ask
When Sarah Fleetwood found a lump in her right breast on the day of the King's Coronation, May 2023, she knew she needed to get it checked. It was the third lump over the past few years. In 2017 it had proved harmless, and in 2021 she'd been told 'you just have lumpy boobs'. But now a third mammogram was looming. When this latest mammogram proved inconclusive, the Berkshire mother of two was then sent for an ultrasound, which had shown 'an unusual mass which needed further investigation,' says Fleetwood. 'So then they took a biopsy.' Unfortunately, the cancer had already spread to her lymph nodes and was stage three – so in July 2023 Fleetwood underwent a mastectomy and lymph node removal and began a course of aggressive chemotherapy. At no point was Fleetwood ever informed of her breast density and how this can make it hard to spot cancer on a mammogram. 'The evidence suggests it's highly likely that the cancer had been growing in my right breast for many years. Had I asked for an ultrasound after my second mammogram in 2021 – the cancer might have been detected sooner, I may not have needed such aggressive chemo and years of hormone treatment,' says Fleetwood. 'Women need to be clued up about this.' 'After the second mammogram I'd always felt niggling doubt, I wanted to ask 'are you sure?' when I was told 'everything is fine'. Because I knew they weren't able to see anything from the first one I'd had, so how would they know with this one?' While grateful for the care she received, Fleetwood believes that more awareness of dense breasts, and their link to an increased risk of cancer, could have resulted in a different outcome for her. Early intervention may have saved her from having her whole breast removed. Fleetwood is far from alone in not knowing what her own breast density is. A new survey of 2,000 UK women aged over 18, found that 93 per cent of women in the UK are unaware of what dense breast means. Moreover, 83 per cent of women surveyed didn't realise that a clear mammogram result doesn't always mean they are cancer-free. What does having a dense breast actually mean? 'Breast density is a mammographic measurement of how much fibroglandular tissue there is in a woman's breast versus fatty tissue,' says Harleen Deol, a consultant oncoplastic breast surgeon for East and North Herts NHS Trust, and a specialist breast cancer advisor to Genesis Care. Approximately half of all women aged 40 or above who have a mammogram have dense breasts. 'A mammogram might not show up a tumour on someone with dense breasts,' adds Deol. Breast tissue, she explains, is composed of three types of tissue: fibrous connective tissue, glandular tissue and fat. 'The more fibroglandular tissue, the denser the breast. The denser the breast, the more challenging it is to identify a tumour in a mammogram, because cancers show up the same colour (white) as the dense breast tissue, making it difficult to differentiate between the two. You can't tell whether you have dense breasts by self-examination, or an ultrasound or an MRI. The dense breast tissue grading is only on a screening mammogram set by the Royal College of Radiologists in the UK.' There are four categories of breast density, according to Deol. Class A: This means your breast is made up of lovely, beautiful, entirely fatty breast tissue, meaning we can clearly see through the whole of the breast in a mammogram. About 10 per cent of women are blessed with fatty breasts. Class B: It is when you have little scattered areas of this fibroglandular tissue, so we can mostly see through it on a mammogram. Around 40 per cent of women are in category B. Class C: A further 40 per cent fall into this category, meaning there are multiple areas, like little islands of very dense breast tissue scattered across the breast within a background of otherwise fatty tissue. Class D: The remaining 10 per cent of women fall into this category. These are extremely dense breasts, with dense fibroglandular tissue and minimal or no fat. Why knowing your breast density is crucial For women with very dense breasts (category D) there is up to a six times higher risk of developing breast cancer. 'And not just because there is a difficulty in detecting cancer in dense breasts – but with factors due to the nature of very dense breast tissue itself,' says Deol. As of January in United States, all women receiving a mammogram will now be informed about their breast density. Here in the UK, however, this is not standard practice. 'There is no way that the NHS can cope at the moment with telling women their breast density, because then women [with dense breasts] would naturally want to ask what else can be done to reduce their risk of them developing breast cancer and the resources are not available for breast screening with MRI scans,' says Doel. 'The truth is that ideally all patients with dense breasts would be sent for further investigation after their mammograms – either an ultrasound, followed by a biopsy if necessary, or an MRI,' Doel continues. 'The NHS couldn't cope with that number of MRI scans, they'd have to buy thousands more machines and hire more staff as standard MRIs take 45 minutes to perform.' Alongside her NHS work, Deol works as a specialist advisor for GenesisCare, a private healthcare provider who are the first in the UK to inform all patients who undergo a mammogram of their breast density as standard practice. Their new campaign 'Keep Abreast of Your Breast Density' sets out to educate women about the risks of dense breasts. They also have launched a new breast screening service where patients who have dense breast tissue can pay for a rapid MRI scan (£450) for early detection of cancer. Private MRI breast scans are available across the UK starting from £350 per breast, and the standard MRIs take 45 minutes, while the rapid breast MRI screening ones only take 15 minutes and screens both breasts. Some latest studies have also revealed that the rapid test can be just as effective as the longer one. Private hospitals as well as the NHS offer full breast MRIs for women who have a medical need. For example, a breast cancer not seen clearly on a mammogram, but these have to be medically indicated and ordered by a doctor. The benefit of a rapid screening MRI is that patients can self-refer if they are paying themselves, or be referred by the breast surgeon. The rapid MRI takes only 15 minutes rather than 45 minutes as it is specifically designed to be used for breast screening, not for women who have breast symptoms or a lump. (They should see a breast surgeon first). Deol recommends a private MRI – if women can afford it – she insists she's 'not trying to give it a hard sell' or advertising on their behalf. 'My life's mission is empowering women to have the knowledge to self advocate, to be able to look after their own health, so they can get a quicker diagnosis and we can save more lives,' she says. Yet women with dense breasts shouldn't panic. A 2015 study of 365,000 women aged 40 to 74 in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that not all women with dense breasts are at a higher risk of breast cancer. Only when other risk factors, such as age, ethnicity and family history of breast cancer, were added to the equation did tissue density correlate with increased risk of breast cancer after a clear mammogram result. Who is most at risk of dense breasts? Breast size is not a factor as anyone can have dense breasts, but women with a very low BMI are likely to have more dense breasts. 'Breast density reduces as we age, but can be increased while hormone replacement therapy [HRT] is used during the menopausal years,' says Deol. 'Dense breast tissue is present in over half of the women having mammograms over the age of 40 and although breast size is not a factor relating to dense breasts, women with a very low BMI are more likely to have dense breasts as they have a lower fat content in the breasts. It's also been found that people from Asian or Afro-Caribbean descent are more likely to have dense breast tissue but it can also run in families. 'Unfortunately, for women – including myself – who've never had children or breastfed there is an increased risk of dense breasts. HRT use might also increase the risk, because breasts love oestrogen, and oestrogen causes the breasts to remain more youthful – and more dense.' (Deol doesn't want to put women off using HRT however, and still uses it herself: 'It's a balancing act of risks versus quality of life.') Why can't I just be treated on the NHS? You can, Deol reassures us. The last thing women should do is panic. 'If you have any symptoms, such as a lump, puckering [also known as dimpling] or any significant change on your breasts then of course go to your GP and you will be referred and looked after in a timely manner with the NHS. Around half of women over 40 have dense breasts, but we do not know what percentage will get breast cancer. Under the NHS screening programme, women aged between 50 and 70 are invited to attend a mammogram every three years. Women under the age of 40 do tend to have more dense breast tissue, which is normal at that age. As we grow older, breast density tends to reduce overall, but remains very dense in 10 per cent of women. Every time we X-ray any part of the body we have to be certain of the benefit and that is not clear in women under the age of 40. If a woman is having a routine NHS breast screening mammogram (ie they have no symptoms/lumps) then any abnormality shown on a mammogram will be checked with an ultrasound scan, and in some hospitals, a 3D mammogram (tomosynthesis) to see if the abnormality is visible and then to have a biopsy. 'The NHS screening programme is fantastic, so please do go when you are invited for a mammogram. I recommend all women to have regular screening mammograms as these still provide a lot of information and detect breast cancers early in most women. Self-examination monthly is also vital for all women of all ages.' How to find out about your breast density grading A further precaution which Deol advises, is for women to proactively find out about their breast density by writing and asking for it. (You can't just ask the radiographer who carries out the procedure on the day, Deol explains, as the images have to be sent to Consultant Radiologists to then be reported later. ) 'When women receive their mammogram report letter from the NHS Breast Screening Programme, there are contact details for the unit that reported their mammogram – they can use this address to request their breast density grading,' says Deol. 'Similarly, they can request their density from any hospital where they have a mammogram.' 'The NHS Breast Screening Programme does not currently offer MRI scans of the breasts for any woman routinely, but it does offer MRI scans at symptomatic breast clinics, usually where cancer is diagnosed but cannot be seen on a mammogram,' explains Deol. And women shouldn't fear not being able to access the NHS for treatment after undergoing a private test. 'If a private MRI shows a cancer or a suspicious lesion then of course patients can be treated on the NHS,' reassures Deol. 'They would just need the MRI report for their GP to refer them to their local NHS Breast Clinic' The best way for women to look after their breasts Then if money were no object, suggests Deol, that from the age of 40 (10 years before they become eligible for the NHS programme) women seeking reassurance might wish to consider finding a local clinic to have a private screening mammogram every two years. Costs range from between £200-400 for a standard mammogram. At the time of the mammogram, a patient should specifically enquire about their breast density category. If they learn they have dense breasts, Deol recommends a private rapid MRI. Then they should continue having a mammogram every two years, and if they have dense breasts, she advises a rapid MRI around the same time. As there's no radiation with an MRI, says Deol, they could consider going every year, if they could afford it and wanted peace of mind. 'We know so much more about breast cancer and the survival rates are so much better than ever before' says Deol. 'The new research showed us that 75 per cent of women would feel more confident in managing their breast health if they had clearer information about breast density after a mammogram. 'It is important to know that breast cancer patients who have dense breasts are no more likely to die from breast cancer than cancer patients with fatty breasts, but early detection vital for the best treatment of breast cancer, so, please do ask the question – it could save your life'
Daily Mail
15-05-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
Vanderpump Rules alum Lala Kent tears up as she reveals scary health ordeal: 'I'm freaking out a little'
Lala Kent got visibly emotional as she revealed on Instagram this week that she's been dealing with scary health issue. The Vanderpump Rules star, 34 - who will not appear in the reboot of the Bravo show - told her followers that she recently sought a doctor's opinion after spotting discoloration on one of her eyes. In a reel uploaded on Tuesday, the reality star explained that she 'originally went to an eye doctor' and was told it seemed to be just inflammation. 'For some reason, that just didn't feel right because the drops that he gave me weren't working so I went to a doctor's appointment today to a doctor that came highly recommended. 'And he looked at it and said, "I do not think it is that at all. I actually want to biopsy it because to me it looks like it could be pre-cancer,"' Kent continued. 'So again, maybe. We're trying to expedite surgery to remove it and see what it actually is.' In the next video, Lala continued to discuss the next steps and zoomed in to better show the discoloration on the inside of her eye and admitted she's been 'obsessing over it.' The TV personality explained that she first noticed the difference nearly two months earlier when there was 'just the slightest bit of discoloration.' She added, 'Like a week and a half ago it started becoming like an actual - like it looked like a blister to me. And I'm like what is that? 'Again it could be nothing and that is the hope,' Kent said before stopping as she became tearful. 'That when they go in it is nothing.' During the procedure, the star told her followers that doctors will 'numb the eye' before removing the small growth. The mom-of-two became emotional again as she expressed that she was 'freaking out a little.' And on Wednesday, Lala gave another health update after seeing a specialist in regards to her eye and confirmed that it was pre-cancer. The media personality shared that her next steps will be to use chemotherapy drops over the course of three months. 'Now I know that sounds terrifying. I cried obviously because when you hear that word...' When the three months are over, Kent added, 'At that point in time God willing, it kills all of the cancer cells. If it doesn't, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. And talk about surgery.' The star's latest health update comes just days after she celebrated Mother's Day over the past weekend. Lala shared photos to her main Instagram page as she spent time with her children Ocean, four, and baby girl Sosa - whom she shares with ex Randall Emmett. Another image was taken as she posed with other loved ones including her own mother Lisa Burningham during the special day. In the caption of the post, she penned to her 2.4 million followers: 'The house don't fall when the bones are good. Happy Mother's Day, babes.' Lala was previously engaged to Emmett until their split in 2021 when she accused him of having multiple infidelities. While talking to People a few months earlier in March, she opened up about raising two children as a single mom. 'I think because I prepared myself for it being absolute torture because people said one is great, two is no f***ing joke. And so I was preparing myself for the worst, but I knew that this moment would be fleeting.' Kent continued to the outlet, 'It's actually been a well-balanced transition. All hands are on deck.' She also revealed that she would possibly want to continue to grow her family later in the future. 'I play it by ear. I have not canceled out having one more. I think that I just, I'm not ready for that stage of my life to be over, you know, the having kids.' Kent added, 'The next time that my flesh and blood, I guess, in baby form would be when my girls have kids of their own. So I'm just not ready to be done with it, especially when I look at Ocean and Sosa as like brand new babies. 'I'm like, "I got to have one more." Plus they're so d**n cute. I just make cute kids.' Lala is also known for being one of the main cast members on the hit Bravo series Vanderpump Rules. But late last year in November, it was announced that the show would be getting an entirely new cast - with only Lisa Vanderpump returning. It came after the future of the series was left rocky amid a feuding cast.
