I am 50 yrs old with 2 middle school children. I was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma on May 16, 2014. Initially 4 tumors were found at mammo/sonogram/biopsy. After an MRI they found a total of 7 tumors - each tumor is 1.5cm or less (very small-thank God) - all tumors are on 1 breast. This type cancer is also called multicentric breast cancer and apparently it is challenging for Doctors to stage. Some Dr's measure the largest tumor and give you a stage and others combine all the tumors and stage you that way. My Dr chose not to stage me. Stage 1 if she measures the largest tumor, Stage 3 if she measures together. I am also HER2 positive which means it can spread rather quickly. I am trying a new approach - new standard of care that allows you to start chemotherapy before surgery AND I am also trying a very new drug that was released in Oct 2013 called Perjeta - it specifically targets HER2 positive breast cancer. My chemo drugs are taxatere, herceptin and perjeta, I will have four 21 day cycles, then double mastectomy, after surgery I will have three -21 day cycles of FEC and Herceptin, then Herceptin alone to end a year of chemo. . I'm sharing my diagnosis and standard of care with you because multicentric breast cancer is not to common and this is a very new concept for someone with small tumors and Her2 positive. My Dr had to answer 10 billion questions from me because I was hesitant to try a new drug and to do chemo first before surgery. My Dr is great & her area of expertise is Breast Cancer. So far I have had 2 chemo treatments, I feel strong, confident and ready to fight this. God Bless all of you who are fighting this disease. Stay strong.

Nellie Nunez
San Antonio, TX