I was given all-clear from rare breast cancer – only to be diagnosed with a different type in my other breast just weeks later

After nearly 18 months of grueling breast cancer treatment, Jess Parsons finally got the news she was hoping for late last year: her tumor was gone.

“It was an incredibly emotional moment,” said the 38-year-old who works in human resources. ‘I cried buckets. It was a matter of going back and forth, not knowing for a year and a half whether I would see my two children grow up, go to college or get married.”

But just five weeks later, in early January, Jess from Bath received devastating news. She had developed cancer again, this time in the other breast. Moreover, it was a completely different form of cancer, which had nothing to do with her initial diagnosis.

Jane Murphy, senior clinical nurse specialist at Breast Cancer Now, said: ‘Getting breast cancer before the age of 50 is in itself unusual, so it is extremely rare to be diagnosed twice in such a short time. I’ve never seen a case like this before.’

Not only was the event a medical anomaly, it was also a crushing blow to Jess and her family, who had only just celebrated her good health and begun to plan for a cancer-free future.

Just five weeks later, in early January, Jess from Bath received devastating news. She had developed cancer again, this time in the other breast

“It was horrible,” says Jess. ‘I thought there must be some mistake. Even my surgeon couldn’t understand that I got cancer again so quickly and that it had nothing to do with the first tumor. My husband, Matt, was shocked. No one could believe what was happening.”

Around 55,000 women and 400 men in Britain are diagnosed with breast cancer every year – around one case every ten minutes. The huge advances in treatment over the past decade mean that nine in ten are still alive five years after diagnosis.

However, survival rates are usually lower if the tumor – known as the primary cancer – has migrated to other parts of the body, such as the other breast, lungs, liver or brain. This is known as secondary cancer and is not the same as developing a new type of cancer.

Some research suggests that people who have previously had cancer have an increased risk of developing a second primary tumor later in life, but cases of this happening within months are virtually unheard of.

Jess – who has an eight-year-old son, Stanley, and a two-year-old daughter, Ines – was just 36 in 2022 when she discovered a lump in her right breast while breastfeeding newborn Ines. She mentioned it to her doctor, but at the time she was not concerned that the lump could be cancerous. ‘I thought it was probably a blocked milk duct or a cyst. I was way too young to have cancer,” she says.

But a biopsy at Royal United Hospitals Bath confirmed that Jess not only had breast cancer, but that it was a very rare form of tumor. The disease, called metaplastic squamous cell carcinoma, accounts for less than two percent of breast cancer cases. The causes are largely unknown. “It’s so rare that I started to worry that maybe they didn’t know how to treat it,” Jess admits.

What makes Jess’ case even more remarkable – and devastating – is that she has no family history of breast cancer, which is a key factor determining the likelihood of cancer developing.

What makes Jess’ case even more remarkable (and devastating) is that she has no family history of breast cancer, which is a key factor determining the likelihood of cancer developing. Subsequent DNA testing also revealed no apparent genetic mutations that increased Jess’ risk of the disease.

What followed was a tough treatment regimen of chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy – drugs that train the immune system and fight the cancer. Jess also underwent a mastectomy: the surgical removal of her right breast.

By the time the tumor was removed, it had grown to about 3 inches – about the size of a peach.

‘I found the chemotherapy very difficult. I managed to avoid losing too much of my hair, but the fatigue was crippling. One minute I was talking to Matt on the couch and the next minute I was drifting off. It was so bad that I couldn’t stay alone with Ines, who was still a baby at the time.’

A CT scan in November brought the news Jess longed for: the cancer was gone. “It felt like I had been suffocating for 18 months and I could breathe again,” she says.

She was so relieved that a few weeks later she almost couldn’t attend her annual breast cancer screening on her remaining left breast.

Because people who develop breast cancer early in life are considered to be at risk of recurrence, they are invited for an X-ray to screen for it, called a mammography, every year after their treatment until they are 50 years old. They are then invited for routine screenings. , which is offered every three years to all women aged 50 to 71.

Younger women are not offered mammograms because their risk of developing the disease is low, but are encouraged to regularly check their breasts for lumps.

Jess changed her mind about not attending the screening after a cancer nurse explained that a mammogram can often detect cancer cells missed by a CT scan. The decision may have saved her life.

‘About a week later I received a letter from the NHS breast screening service saying that something suspicious had been discovered in my left breast that needed to be investigated,’ she says. ‘I started hyperventilating. It was a very difficult moment.’

Jess underwent another biopsy and in January she received the heartbreaking news that she had breast cancer for the second time.

The new tumor is different from the first: a ductal carcinoma in situ, a very early form of the disease that affects the milk ducts.

Jess has now had a second mastectomy and is about to undergo chemotherapy. “I’m still in shock, but also hopeful because it was caught early,” she says.

Experts say it is crucial that women who have had breast cancer do not delay screening.

“Anyone who has had breast cancer in one of their breasts has a slightly higher risk of developing a new primary breast cancer,” says Sally Kum, associate director of nursing and health information at Breast Cancer Now.

‘That’s why it’s crucial that they continue to check their breasts and have anything unusual checked.’

Jess agrees: ‘I’m so glad I had my mammogram. I would urge all women who have the opportunity and anyone who is still too young for screening to check their breasts regularly.’

To participate in Breast Cancer Now’s Pink Ribbon Walk, visit breastcancernow.org/prw