Woman diagnosed with both brain & breast cancer shares importance of getting checked
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) — Cancer experts at Medical City Dallas are sounding the alarm about a concerning new trend—more women under the age of 40 are being diagnosed with breast and other cancers than ever before.
In the spring of 2021, Sofia Perry married her high school sweetheart, Max, but a few months later—their whole world changed.
"I had a seizure out of nowhere and ended up at the Medical City ICU for five days and they found a brain tumor," Perry said.
It was a rare form of brain cancer, and she went through weeks of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.
Perry said everything was then "all well" until June of 2023, when she found a lump in her chest.
She had an OBGYN appointment in October but she didn't wait. She went to her doctor with her concerns, and after a biopsy—at just 28 years old—Perry was diagnosed with breast cancer.
"I think breast cancer has this stigma of only happening to people whose mom's or grandma's had breast cancer, so it was very unexpected to me," said Perry. "When you find something wrong with your body and you're thinking something might be off, you really have to be your own health advocate and take yourself to your doctor to get checked."
And she's not alone. Perry is part of a concerning new trend in the United States, of which more and more young women are being diagnosed with breast cancer. In fact, according to a recent study in JAMA Network Open, the largest growing population of cancer patients in the U.S. is women aged 30 to 39 years of age.
"It used to be very common that it was a 70 or 80 year olds or a postmenopausal woman that came to the office with breast cancer," said Dr. Allison DiPasquale, the director of breast oncology at Medical City Dallas. "Just recently over the years, we've seen this trend in the 20, 30, 40-year-old women."
Dr. DiPasquale is one of Perry's doctors at Medical City Dallas.
"It's so important for women to do self-exams, to know what their breasts feel like certain times of the month, to get to know that there is a concern that needs imaging," said Dr. DiPasquale. "It also is very important to talk to your physician about all family history, in all cancers."
Perry is undergoing chemotherapy and also discovered she has a rare gene mutation so she had a double mastectomy to make sure the cancer doesn't return.
"I had no family history of cancer on either side so that was definitely shocking to me," said Perry.
She said she doesn't know where she'd be if she hadn't done that self-exam.
"I've been telling all my friends and family to give themselves exams as often as possible," Perry said. "I went from stage 1 to stage 2 in five weeks...that's how fast that tumor was growing inside of me."
Perry hopes her story will inspire more people to listen to their bodies and speak up if something feels off.
"If you feel like something's wrong or you feel a lump, or you feel that something is off, you can always go to your doctor and have that conversation. Get that scan, get that gene test," she said.
Perry and her husband are looking forward to the day they can put cancer behind them and finally start their family.
"I try to look at it like I'm not going to be the victim of cancer," she said. "Cancer is gonna be my victim."
