As more women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s are getting diagnosed with breast cancer, one local woman is sharing the story of her simultaneous battle with both brain and breast cancer.
Sofia Perry told CBS News Texas that shortly after she married her high school sweetheart in 2021, she suffered a seizure and was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at Medical City. Doctors discovered a malignant tumor in her brain.
The now 28-year-old Perry was undergoing treatment, enduring chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery, when she discovered a lump in her breast in June of this year. She visited a doctor and was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Breast cancer mainly affects middle-aged and older women. The median age of diagnosis is 62 years old. However, the illness does affect a “small” number of women under the age of 45.
“I think breast cancer has this stigma of only happening to people whose moms or grandmas had breast cancer, so it was very unexpected to me,” said Perry, according to CBS. “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.”
Perry is not the only advocate of early screenings for this type of cancer. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently released new guidelines urging women to be screened for cancer starting at age 40, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
“It used to be very common that it was a 70 or 80 year [old] or a postmenopausal woman that came to the office with breast cancer,” said Dr. Allison DiPasquale, director of breast oncology at Medical City Dallas, according to CBS. “Just recently over the years, we’ve seen this trend in the 20, 30, 40-year-old women.”
Perry explained that her family had no prior history of the affliction. She said she hoped the story of her battle would encourage others to be proactive if they notice something wrong with their body.
“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,” said Perry, per CBS.
The American Cancer Society (ACS) reports that breast cancer is the most common cancer for American women, representing 30% of all new annual cases. The organization estimates 297,790 new cases will be diagnosed in women this year.
According to the ACS, brain cancer is a much rarer form of cancer. It predicts only about 24,810 cases of malignant brain tumors will be diagnosed this year, 10,530 of which will be in women.