When Annette began her medical training in the U.S., she was staying with her aunt, a physician. Unfortunately, her aunt had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, stage 3B. This occurred in 1987, when there were fewer cancer chemotherapy options than there are today. Though her prognosis was not good, she bravely went through surgery and chemotherapy.
Without advances in research, my aunt wouldn’t have survived her cancer, and my sister wouldn’t be cancer-free.”
Annette helped care for her aunt during this time. After her treatment, she took Tamoxifen as adjuvant therapy. She was able to beat her cancer and live a full and long life. Years of research have gone into Tamoxifen’s effectiveness and how it works, and Annette’s family credits Tamoxifen with giving her aunt those extra 3 decades of life.
Years later, in 2010, Annette’s sister was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer (HER2/neu receptor positive), where the cancer cells spread quickly. Luckily, a newer drug Herceptin was available to her. This medicine targets HER2 receptors, blocking their ability to signal the cell to grow and divide, and also helping the body’s immune system to destroy the cancer cells. Today, 15 years after her diagnosis, her sister is thankfully cancer-free. This never would have been possible without cancer research.