Heather has always seen herself as an advocate for women battling cancer. As a nurse practitioner in Rhode Island, she has spent her career caring for patients and watching cancer research reshape what she can offer them. She remembers when treatment options were fewer, and choices felt blunt and limited. Now, because of research, there are new ways forward.
Throughout my career, I’ve witnessed new tools, therapies, and approaches that have transformed patient care. These advancements give me hope and have strengthened my ability to care for the patients I see every day.
One of those advances is biomarker testing. Heather says it allows her team to look more closely at the cancer, to see its unique biology, and to use that information to match patients with more precise treatments. She remembers a patient who had relied on standard therapies for years. When her breast cancer spread, biomarker testing revealed mutations in her tumor that could be treated with a targeted oral therapy. For more than a year, her disease did not progress, and she felt good. That time was precious, and it was something earlier generations of patients could not have had.
Cancer research gives Heather more tools to care for her patients. It helps keep people out of the hospital and lets them hold on to their everyday lives. Advocacy has always been at the heart of her work, and now that means speaking up about how much research has already transformed care and how much more it can still do.