New advancements making treating breast cancer more manageable

Christina Rich is a breast cancer survivor. It's a moniker she never expected, but she wears it proudly.

"When I found the lump and went into my nurse, she said, 'Ah, you're young. It's probably nothing, but let's get it checked out,'" Rich said.

It was something. It ended up being stage 2, hormone positive, HER-2 negative cancer in her breast.

"I burst into tears on the phone," she recalled.

But then the battle began. Rich had a lumpectomy, radiation and chemotherapy. The wife and mother of two boys said the hardest part was having to isolate from her family.

"Days 7, 8, and 9 after treatment, my white blood cell count would drop, so I wasn't allowed to be around anyone because of COVID mainly," she explained.

While the treatment was difficult, advancements in drugs have improved the management of breast cancer.

"It's a very exciting time to be in the cancer treatment paradigm," said Dr. Manoj Bupathi, Medical Oncologist with Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers.

Bupathi points to new targeted drugs that are able to treat the many different kinds of cancer, and the tests that have been refined to determine which specific cancer-type is being treated.

"You're seeing some phenomenal responses with much better tolerability from toxicity, and you're patients are living longer," Bupathi told CBS News Colorado.

He says that regular screening is the most important thing that every woman should be doing, because treating cancer early increases the chances of survival. Rich is proud to call herself a survivor.

"It was a big wake up call for me, for my boys, because I couldn't imagine not being there every week for their soccer games, and cheering them on, and helping with homework," she said.