More than two decades have passed, but Erika Archer Lewis clearly recalls the fear, uncertainty and struggle required to bring her 42-year-old mother back from the edge of stage 4 breast cancer. Lewis, a senior studying at the University of Texas when her mother was diagnosed, shuttled between Austin and Houston, supporting her through surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and, later, reconstructive procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a four-year ordeal,\u201d Lewis recounts, sitting beside her husband one autumn morning in a sandwich shop north of Houston. Her own breast cancer risk, always a nagging worry, didn\u2019t assume centre stage until 2013 when, then 42 and a mother herself, she had a series of breast-imaging callbacks. Her routine screening mammogram was abnormal, which led first to an ultrasound, then a MRI and then a biopsy of several worrisome areas before cancer ultimately was ruled out. \u201cGod, it felt like forever,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Determined to no longer live in a cancer limbo, Lewis got tested later that year for the BRCA gene mutations that can run in families and significantly raise a woman\u2019s risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. And when the results came back positive, she moved quickly. In early 2014, a surgeon removed both of her breasts and she recovered with the help of her husband, Jerry, and her mother, who recently celebrated 23 years free of cancer.<\/p>\n
But the thornier dilemma \u2013 whether to relinquish her ovaries as well \u2013 was just emerging.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, I feel quite a ways away from menopause,\u201d says Lewis, who has two young daughters. \u201cAlthough we were pretty confident that we were finished having children, I didn\u2019t want to prematurely be thrown into menopause. I was more afraid of that actually than the double mastectomy, because of the hormonal changes it can cause and the imbalance in your body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now there may be an alternative surgery, an experimental approach that\u2019s built upon intriguing science. A small cadre of doctors are exploring whether removing the fallopian tubes but sparing the ovaries \u2013 for a stretch at least \u2013 will enable women like Lewis to preserve their hormonal balance a bit longer, and perhaps provide some buffer against ovarian cancer.<\/p>\n