According to research from the National Cancer Institute, the number of women being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer is increasing; at the same time, these women are living longer, especially younger women. Living longer with metastatic breast cancer, a stage of breast cancer which is driven in part by out-of-control production of proteins by cancerous cells, means increased needs for services and research.

Caregivers are often told, “You need to take care of yourself if you are taking care of others.” It’s so easy to say but not so easy to do. I wrote the above sentence in June 2021 for a future memoir. I had no way of knowing that 15 months later I would be writing about a new challenge. Before I can share my breast cancer story, I need to set the scene.

A breast cancer diagnosis can leave you feeling winded, like you’ve been socked in the stomach and can’t breathe, or even think for that matter. That’s how I felt. I had no emotion, no tears and no anger when I first heard the words “you have breast cancer.” My mind and body simply froze and everything around me, including my mind, went hazy. I attribute this now to shock, which, in my opinion, is a fairly reasonable reaction to receiving such life-changing news. And while the haziness eventually wore off, the surrealness of my new reality remained overwhelming.

If you found out that you had a life-limiting illness, would you tell your colleagues at work? If you did, would they think you’re less capable of doing your job? That was the dilemma that Colleen Packer faced when she was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2019.

In May 2021, The Dr. Susan Love Foundation, one of the top breast cancer research organizations in the United States, announced that every year, August 18^th would be known as World Breast Cancer Research Day. The 18^th was chosen as a representation of the 1 in 8 women who will be diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. The Foundation also wanted the day to be apart from Breast Cancer Awareness month, which is October, as awareness, patient support, and research need to be highlighted throughout the year. Dr. Susan Love, founder of the Dr. Susan Love Foundation, recently passed away from recurrent leukemia on July 2, 2023. She was a pioneering breast cancer researcher, advocate, surgeon, and fierce critic of the medical field’s historically patriarchal system and paternalistic treatment of women.

Neutropenia is a condition caused by lower-than-normal amounts of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. Neutrophils fight infection in the body by killing harmful bacteria and other blood-borne pathogens. The most common cause of neutropenia during breast cancer treatment is chemotherapy, though other types of cancer medicine can also cause it. Chemotherapy can cause neutropenia because it kills rapidly dividing cells, such as cancer cells. It can also affect other quickly dividing cells in our bodies, including white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. When chemotherapy destroys too many white blood cells, neutropenia occurs.

Trapped beneath my bra, cotton t-shirt and cropped pants, pools of sweat mingled with dust and grime before being absorbed into my clothes and skin. Despite the cold showers I soaped up under twice daily, one before heading out into the wee hours of the morning and another again in the dark of night before crawling under a thin sheet to sleep, the dirty damage was done. A skin fungus had formed. I had ringworm.

The thought of dating after a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment might make you nervous or excited. It may also reawaken or increase emotional responses you had at diagnosis or during treatment. If you have anxiety or depression, these responses can cause you to focus on or magnify negative thoughts about your prospects for dating. If you want to date but feel reluctant to start, you might be having difficulty imagining yourself meeting new people and having fun.

The negative financial impacts after a breast cancer diagnosis can be strenuous, especially for those already in a precarious financial situation prior to being diagnosed. Already having to deal with the overwhelming feeling of being diagnosed with breast cancer, patients should be able to focus on their health and not have the added stress of dealing with their financial situation. That is why we created FinancialNavigator, an online database of various financial assistance programs across Canada. 

The 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting was held from June 2 to 6. CBCN was pleased to be able to attend and participate in the many interesting and groundbreaking research that was shared at ASCO this year. Below, we present a few highlights and takeaways from this year’s conference.

When I was diagnosed with breast cancer, I had no idea how hard it would be. Not the surgery, I’ve had major surgery before, so I wasn’t afraid of being put under anesthetic and being operated on. Mentally, I was focused on one sole factor, survival, so my head space at the time was very clear and didn’t allow for any other emotions or thoughts. Reality, fear, anxiety, hope…that all came later.

June 21, 2023 is National Indigenous Peoples Day. This is a day for all Canadians to recognize and celebrate the unique heritage, diverse cultures and contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. This is also a day that should call to attention the various issues that Indigenous peoples continue to face, including racism, colonialism, and disparate health outcomes from much of the rest of Canada. Broad determinates of health like geography, accessibility and availability of services, and cultural differences contribute to the challenges faced by Indigenous peoples.

A few years ago, a friend shared a story about the first trimester of her pregnancy. She was thrilled to be pregnant, but at the time, kept her pregnancy under wraps as she hadn’t passed the three-month safety zone. She was also sick as a dog, overwhelmed with intense nausea and fatigue, that heightened during her twice-daily, 25-minute subway commute to and from work. Despite looking green-ish, sweaty, unstable on her feet and gripping whatever pole or hand railing was available, not once in 90 days did anyone sitting on the subway offer my friend their seat. She’d felt invisible.

Depending on your situation, your financial needs can come in different forms, from needing money to pay for rent, to needing help with paying for treatments, to requiring help with parking costs when you go for cancer treatments. To highlight the various types of programs listed in FinancialNavigator, we have put together this blogpost series. All the highlighted programs below are available to individuals in all provinces and territories, unless otherwise noted. This is not an exhaustive list all of programs in these categories but is meant to highlight the types of financial help that can be found in our FinancialNavigator database. Visit FinancialNavigator for all available financial assistance programs.

The fifth reason that cancer still sucks is that although radiation therapy can be an effective cancer treatment, it may fail to kill some of the tumor cells in its path, or it may miss some tumor cells completely. In addition, while “palliative” radiotherapy can dramatically improve symptoms in some individuals with incurable cancers, it may have minimal impact or provide only very brief relief to others.

In February 2019, five days after my birthday, I found a tiny, split pea lump in my right breast. I immediately went to my GP, who sent me for a mammogram and ultrasound. The first available appointment was the following week. The mammogram went “squishingly” and then I was shuffled off for my ultrasound. Afterwards, the technician told me they needed to review the images with the radiologist to make sure they had everything they needed. I didn’t really think twice about it as that seemed to be the normal practice during my pregnancy.

I am a metastatic breast cancer patient with liver and spine metastases. I am also a mom and a grandmother. One day, I felt a very hard pea-sized lump right under the skin. My family physician sent me for a mammogram and ultrasound. The radiologist came in and said he was concerned and brought me back the following day for a biopsy. I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. I was petrified and scared. Since working at a cancer centre, I had every bad scenario going through my mind. I had a double mastectomy followed by four months of chemotherapy and seven weeks of radiation. It was difficult losing my hair, feeling nauseous and weak but I was determined to beat this horrible disease.

Is there anyone out there who feels like I do? Like they’ve lost a part of their memory to tamoxifen, chemotherapy and/or radiation and will never get it back? If you are like me, do you ever wonder where your memory went, like, is it on the beach in Puerto Vallarta or maybe it took a sabbatical and didn’t provide a return date?

Experiencing side effects from breast cancer treatment is a common occurrence for patients. While systemic chemotherapy, radiation, and targeted therapy are effective treatments for breast cancer, learning to cope and live with their unwanted or unexpected side effects can be challenging. We reached out to breast cancer patients to hear about their experiences with this.

I have advanced stage 4 Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC). MBC is when breast cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Typically, it spreads to the bones, liver, lungs, and brain. There is currently no cure for MBC but there is treatment, and some women can live for many years.