KOMO reporter to help pen book on IBC
»Play Video
Editor's Note: Five years ago, most people had never heard of inflammatory breast cancer.
But because of reporting by KOMO's Michelle Esteban, more and more women around the world got the right treatment for this silent killer.
Esteban has now been asked to contribute to a book about IBC, and she's using the opportunity to spread the word one more time.
In May of 2006, I started calling IBC "the silent killer" because so many patients with it were being misdiagnosed.
While their doctors loaded them up with antibiotics to fight what they mistakenly thought was a breast infection, IBC was attacking their bodies. By the time most patients got the right diagnosis, the cancer was everywhere.
Tina Turck lost her fight against IBC.
"Tina called me up one night in September and said, 'I have the kind of cancer that I'm probably going to die,'" said her mother, Patti Bradfield.
IBC is the most aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer. And it attacks women of all ages, even young women like Turck.
Bradfield vowed to devote her life to warning women about IBC. She was a key voice in my special report five years ago.
Many patients told me IBC appeared overnight. They woke up with one inflamed or swollen breast. It was red and hot to the touch. Sometimes it came with stabbing pain, or looked like a bug bite. Some even described an orange-peel texture on the breast or a nipple that turned in on itself.
Bradfield and I have been asked by a breast oncologist to write a patient's perspective chapter for an IBC book aimed at doctors.
Since we continue to hear stories of misdiagnosis, Bradfield and I've decided to write our chapter in hopes of reaching those doctors.
Bradfield told me the story of one woman who was so sure she had IBC. She took her laptop to her doctor's appointment in order to the doctor my report on IBC.
"They sat and watched it together, the doctor and patient. And the doctor said, 'That's not you. Good piece, not you.' But it was," Bradfield said.
The same thing happened to Dana Anderson, a Portland-based psychology teacher. She's fighting stage-four IBC.
'My case had been presented to the tumor board at the original hospital I went to, and they had decided it wasn't IBC," she said.
But Anderson insisted on a second opinion. A biopsy revealed the truth.
Her doctor told her something she'll never forget: "My cancer was growing so fast if we waited another two weeks, they probably would have been calling hospice to take care of me rather than starting a really aggressive chemotherapy treatment for me," she said.
Rosa Estrada's breast cancer almost went undiagnosed, too, not because of her doctors, but because Estrada didn't think the changes to her breast were a big deal. Thankfully, her daughters did.
"She's alive," said her daughter Elvira Ellis. "Had she not done something about it, it would have been too late. She is here because we found it immediately."
Our IBC reports prompted Ellis to ask doctors to rule out cancer.
It turned out Rosa isn't suffering from IBC, but another rare breast cancer, one that would have gone undiagnosed if Ellis hadn't pushed.
"I thought, 'Wow, this is because I saw that show that Michelle did on IBC. God was helping us -- that I just happened to see it,''' said Ellis.
My hope is that anyone who sees this report will remember no one knows your body better than you do. Trust yourself, no one is a better advocate for you than yourself.
If you think you may have cancer, the best advice is to get a thorough examination including a biopsy or a PET scan.
For more information, check out eraseIBC.com
But because of reporting by KOMO's Michelle Esteban, more and more women around the world got the right treatment for this silent killer.
Esteban has now been asked to contribute to a book about IBC, and she's using the opportunity to spread the word one more time.
In May of 2006, I started calling IBC "the silent killer" because so many patients with it were being misdiagnosed.
While their doctors loaded them up with antibiotics to fight what they mistakenly thought was a breast infection, IBC was attacking their bodies. By the time most patients got the right diagnosis, the cancer was everywhere.
Tina Turck lost her fight against IBC.
"Tina called me up one night in September and said, 'I have the kind of cancer that I'm probably going to die,'" said her mother, Patti Bradfield.
IBC is the most aggressive and lethal form of breast cancer. And it attacks women of all ages, even young women like Turck.
Bradfield vowed to devote her life to warning women about IBC. She was a key voice in my special report five years ago.
Many patients told me IBC appeared overnight. They woke up with one inflamed or swollen breast. It was red and hot to the touch. Sometimes it came with stabbing pain, or looked like a bug bite. Some even described an orange-peel texture on the breast or a nipple that turned in on itself.
Bradfield and I have been asked by a breast oncologist to write a patient's perspective chapter for an IBC book aimed at doctors.
Since we continue to hear stories of misdiagnosis, Bradfield and I've decided to write our chapter in hopes of reaching those doctors.
Bradfield told me the story of one woman who was so sure she had IBC. She took her laptop to her doctor's appointment in order to the doctor my report on IBC.
"They sat and watched it together, the doctor and patient. And the doctor said, 'That's not you. Good piece, not you.' But it was," Bradfield said.
The same thing happened to Dana Anderson, a Portland-based psychology teacher. She's fighting stage-four IBC.
'My case had been presented to the tumor board at the original hospital I went to, and they had decided it wasn't IBC," she said.
But Anderson insisted on a second opinion. A biopsy revealed the truth.
Her doctor told her something she'll never forget: "My cancer was growing so fast if we waited another two weeks, they probably would have been calling hospice to take care of me rather than starting a really aggressive chemotherapy treatment for me," she said.
Rosa Estrada's breast cancer almost went undiagnosed, too, not because of her doctors, but because Estrada didn't think the changes to her breast were a big deal. Thankfully, her daughters did.
"She's alive," said her daughter Elvira Ellis. "Had she not done something about it, it would have been too late. She is here because we found it immediately."
Our IBC reports prompted Ellis to ask doctors to rule out cancer.
It turned out Rosa isn't suffering from IBC, but another rare breast cancer, one that would have gone undiagnosed if Ellis hadn't pushed.
"I thought, 'Wow, this is because I saw that show that Michelle did on IBC. God was helping us -- that I just happened to see it,''' said Ellis.
My hope is that anyone who sees this report will remember no one knows your body better than you do. Trust yourself, no one is a better advocate for you than yourself.
If you think you may have cancer, the best advice is to get a thorough examination including a biopsy or a PET scan.
For more information, check out eraseIBC.com
