Pamela Biedermann never could have imagined that four of her five siblings would be diagnosed with cancer—or that she would be diagnosed, too.
In Pamela’s words: “The story is really bigger than just me.”
After Pamela’s oldest sister, Laurie, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2018, Laurie encouraged her siblings to undergo genetic testing as soon as possible.
“So, my other sister, Lynn, and I went out and got genetic testing and got our acts together,” Pamela said.
Six months later, Lynn was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), also known as stage 0 breast cancer, the earliest form that hasn’t become invasive and is the most easily treatable (Lynn had a lumpectomy and radiation). And soon after that, Pamela was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer herself. She was 62 at the time and had no symptoms.
In her family, Pamela said she’s the one “who just keeps going and puts everybody’s ducks in a row.” Pamela recalls not having much time to process her own diagnosis. “We were still reeling from my older sister being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. She made it a year, but it moved rather quickly,” Pamela remembered. “Lynn and I both helped her partner take care of her. We were overwhelmed.”
After her first mammogram, Pamela’s doctors told her she would need to come back for a second round of imaging, which confirmed the doctor’s suspicions. At her first appointment with a surgeon, she said reality started to kick in. “I guess I just wasn’t ready, because the first thing she said to me when I walked in the door was, ‘Well, you know, you’re gonna have to have your breasts removed.’”
Pamela was not aware.
“We hadn’t talked about it,” she said. “I knew there were two spots they were concerned about, but there was no dialogue on how big they were, how involved they were, where they were, etc. And of course, I wasn’t having any kind of symptoms. So [at that point] I’m still thinking I’m healthy.”
After discussing her options with her husband, Pamela had a double mastectomy in September—the day after her mother passed away—followed by several weeks of radiation. In conversations with her husband, she remembered him saying: “I just need to know it’s gone.”
Looking back on her experience, Pamela now knows she made the right decision. “It was a good thing because there were more spots, and it had spread into the lymph nodes. It was a grade two growth in a somewhat aggressive pattern. It was a good thing that I had opted just to go ahead and have the breasts removed,” she said.
And thanks to the Oncotype DX test, and research supported by BCRF, Pamela learned she could safely forgo chemotherapy.
“I have to admit I was a little nervous. I said, ‘Well, if you think it would help, just do it.’ But my doctors held to the fact that I did not need that,” she said.
Today, Pamela takes medication to reduce her risk of recurrence, but because of her family history, she still worries.
“I’m worried about getting it elsewhere, and particularly because pancreatic cancer seems to be in the family,” she said.
Pamela credits research for the progress we’ve made against breast cancer now—and in the future.
“Treatment has changed, obviously, and fortunately,” Pamela said. “For women who don’t require drastic surgery, through research, they found they can do lumpectomies. Research can give people knowledge to make good, educated decisions about their health, and keep them healthy, as much as possible and as long as possible, and that’s a great thing.”
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