Love the podcast? Send us a text! For many people with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, taking a daily medication like tamoxifen can become part of life for years. But what does it actually feel like to live with the side effects day after day? In this candid episode of Breast Cancer Conversations, Laura Carfang sits down with Lindsey, who was diagnosed with DCIS at age 37 after finding a lump herself. Following surgery and radiation, Lindsey began taking tamoxifen—and quickly discove...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! Your scans came back. The portal posted results before anyone called. There are four appointments on the calendar and a vocabulary nobody taught you — and underneath it all, the feeling that you're already behind. Dr. Tiffany Troso-Sandoval spent 25 years treating women's breast and gynecologic cancers, much of it at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Her first piece of advice is the one nobody expects: slow down. Breast cancer treatment is urgent, she says, but it is...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! When Vic Clevenger's mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, he and his brother had a thought that many men probably share: At least we're not women. We don't have to worry about breast cancer. Years later, Vic learned firsthand just how wrong that assumption can be. It started with what looked like a stain on his shirt. When Vic realized fluid was coming from his nipple, he initially assumed it was probably a cyst, pimple, or something minor. His fiancée en...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! What happens emotionally after you've spent months—or years—focused on simply surviving cancer? Treatment may end. Scans may look good. Life may begin moving forward again. But that doesn't necessarily mean you've processed what happened to you. In this episode of Breast Cancer Conversations, Laura Carfang sits down with visual artist, therapeutic arts practitioner, author, and cancer survivor Nerissa Balland for an honest conversation about the emotional aft...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! Listen to hear three very different perspectives on what radiation for metastatic breast cancer can really look like and what these women want others to know before starting treatment. Radiation can play a very different role in metastatic breast cancer than it does in early-stage disease. It may be used to treat a specific metastatic site, help control cancer in the brain, liver or bones, relieve pain, or—as you'll hear in this episode—become part of a much ...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! What if a blood test could detect signs of breast cancer at the molecular level? Circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA, is generating growing interest among people diagnosed with breast cancer, particularly those wondering about recurrence, treatment response, and what may be happening in the body before something appears on conventional imaging. One test you may have heard about is Signatera. In this episode of Breast Cancer Conversations, Laura Carfang talks with...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! What does life really look like five—or even ten—years after a metastatic breast cancer diagnosis? For many people, the initial diagnosis is filled with uncertainty, fear, and countless unanswered questions. But thanks to advances in treatment, more people are living longer with metastatic breast cancer than ever before, and with that comes an important conversation about what it means to continue living while navigating an incurable disease. In this episode ...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! Somewhere between the diagnosis and the last appointment, most of us stopped breathing all the way down. Not on purpose. The body braces, the jaw clenches, the shoulders come up — and then treatment ends, everyone tells you congratulations, and nobody mentions that your nervous system never got the memo that the emergency is over. In this episode, host Laura Carfang sits down with Brett Aldrich — Ayurvedic health counselor, breathwork facilitator, and former ...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! When you're living with breast cancer, the medical team treats the cancer — but who takes care of everything else? The fear that won't quiet down at 2 a.m. The diarrhea you're not sure is "bad enough" to call about. The FMLA paperwork, the school pickup, the light bill, the strange grief that shows up right when everyone expects you to feel grateful. In this episode, host Laura Carfang sits down with Dr. Julia Frydman, palliative care physician and medical di...

Love the podcast? Send us a text! Palliative care is one of the most misunderstood parts of cancer care. Many people hear the term and think it means hospice, end-of-life care, or giving up. But palliative care, also called supportive care, can be offered alongside active cancer treatment and is focused on improving quality of life. In this episode of Breast Cancer Conversations, we hear from Kacie Flaherty, Joyce Garber, Paula Bouckhuyt, Hillary Stackpole, and Aimee Hoes, who are living with...