‘Just check your breasts’: 32-year-old woman faces aggressive form of breast cancer

Brittney Chapman says the possibility of a breast cancer diagnosis wasn’t on her radar when her biopsy results came back positive.

At the age of 32, she was diagnosed with triple-negative breast cancer — one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat forms of breast cancer.

“My aunt passed away from breast cancer,” Chapman says. “But I never even considered I could have it.”

The biggest question Chapman had is how she missed the tumor for so long.

“I thought it was my period,” she says. “My breasts would hurt, but then it didn’t go away. Then I felt a lump and it was already two centimeters. It felt like a rock. Very hard, very definitely obvious. It blows my mind that I didn’t know it was there.”

Chapman asked about the lump at her next appointment with her MultiCare Rockwood Clinic OB/GYN, Lacey Marks, MD, FACOG, who immediately ordered a mammogram, ultrasound and biopsy.

Within a month, Chapman had harvested her eggs and began chemotherapy.

Dr. Marks said she feels incredibly fortunate to work within an integrated health system like Rockwood Clinic when cases like this arise.

“When my patients need care from other specialties, it is so easy to communicate with the appropriate people to get my patients to where they need to be seen,” she says. “This ultimately benefits patients by giving them seamless, time-sensitive care.”

Situations like Chapman’s come up more frequently than one would expect, Dr. Marks continues. That’s why it is so important for providers and patients to have open and honest relationships, regardless of their specialty.

“Patients generally know their bodies, and they will tell you what is wrong if you listen,” she says. “When patients feel cared for and safe, they are more likely to open up and mention details they may have otherwise thought were irrelevant. It’s usually these very details that are key to figuring out what is wrong.”

Already at stage 2, Chapman’s cancer was aggressive and growing. With few treatment options available, her care team immediately ordered 16 rounds of Doxorubicin chemotherapy, commonly referred to as “the red devil,” over six months.

After completing chemotherapy, she underwent a double mastectomy and followed that with another nine months of oral chemotherapy.

Chapman still vividly remembers the hardest parts of treatment: the constant beeping of monitors; not being able to drink water because it tasted like a “slimy penny”; losing her hair, eyebrows and eyelashes; white blood cell treatments that she felt were harder than chemo; contracting shingles; and being incredibly tired, a side effect she still faces every day.

There were times her white blood cell counts weren’t high enough or her body just couldn’t handle the chemotherapy, she says, which meant postponing that round of treatment.

“There were many times where I just wanted to keep pushing to get rid of this cancer,” she says. “But the doctor had to say no.”

Triple-negative breast cancer is a difficult cancer as it tends to be more aggressive in its growth, recur more often and have a higher likelihood of spreading, says Brett Gourley, MD, an oncologist at MultiCare Rockwood Clinic Cancer and Blood Specialty Center. There are currently no tumor-directed therapy options, so the best option is chemotherapy.

Because of how challenging cancer treatment is, Dr. Gourley says he and his team are mindful of patients’ physical and mental health. Sometimes they decide to stop or reduce therapies to ensure a patient’s overall health.

“Unfortunately, many of our anti-cancer treatments put a person through a great deal of stress,” he says.

Dr. Gourley says it takes great courage, organization and fortitude to face a diagnosis of cancer and be able to manage all that comes with it, such as side effects and frequent appointments.

“We are very proud of the strength and courage all our patients show,” he says. “We feel a great sense of duty and honor in walking with and advising patients during their cancer journey.”

Chapman says she’s often asked how she has remained so positive, to which she answers:

“Can you imagine if I wasn’t? I would be so depressed. I could think, ‘Oh, I could die,’ but your mindset controls so much. I never once thought I couldn’t beat it.”

On top of the roller coaster of treatment, Chapman says getting her diagnosis during the COVID-19 pandemic made her feel like she was in a glass bubble. She was completely isolated at home with her 3-year-old daughter, Carter, and her husband, Jason, who was working from home. Then her father, who was helping them remodel their home to sell, passed away.

“I don’t know how we did it, you just do,” she says. “I still have things I’m dealing with. I get anxiety, especially if I think about recurrence.”

Knowing that anxiety is common after treatment, she’s now two years in remission and life is finally looking good again for Chapman.

She recently reached a milestone at the gym — bench-pressing the bar. Her hair is back. Her daughter is in kindergarten. Her scars are lightening. She found a community of women battling triple-negative breast cancer on Instagram. And she is thankful for her team of MultiCare caregivers.

“They actually cared,” she says. “You’re not just another patient for them to push through the office.”

She says she can’t thank her care team enough: Dr. Gourley for sitting with her as long as she needed to ask questions; her nurses, who kept her company and comfortable during treatment; Dr. Marks for suggesting Chapman save her eggs in the hopes she can have more children; and her “miracle worker” breast reconstruction surgeon, Dr. Emily Williams.

“Just check your breasts. I tell my friends that it can happen to anybody,” she says. “Listen to your body. I had so many people telling me it was something else, but I had a feeling.”

MultiCare offers a range of breast health services, including easy 3D mammography scheduling in Spokane and Spokane Valley, as well as a Breast Cancer Risk Assessment to learn your five-year and lifetime risk of developing invasive breast cancer. For any questions regarding your health, please contact your MultiCare provider.