Amanda wasn’t concerned about the series of lumps she found in her breast. In fact, she was becoming frustrated. With each lump, there was a biopsy, and each time, the results showed that they were harmless, benign lumps. Eager to grow her family, Amanda turned her thoughts to planning for a new addition.

Then, in June 2023, just a month after learning the wonderful news that she was expecting her second child, Amanda felt a new lump. This one felt like a pea, not large like the one from the year before.

“I was irate,” she recalls, wondering why she was developing these lumps. She says she brushed it off.

“I was tired of biopsies,” says Amanda, so she told herself the new lump was benign just like the others.

Lisa Jacobs, M.D., the Kimmel Cancer Center surgeon who did Amanda’s earlier biopsies, wanted to continue following her. A few months later, at Amanda’s regular appointment, Dr. Jacobs felt the lump and ordered an ultrasound and biopsy.

An expecting Amanda, husband and son.

Despite convincing herself over the past few months that it was another benign lump, Amanda’s gut was now telling her something else.

“It was weird. I suddenly had a feeling it was going to be a different outcome this time,” she says.

Still, she remained focused on her pregnancy.

In an Instant

Sept. 5, 2023, started out wonderfully for Amanda. She was finishing up her first trimester of pregnancy. Her appointment with her obstetrician confirmed that everything was going well. Amanda was filled with joy.

However, in an instant, everything changed, as she read a new MyChart message with the results of her biopsy. The words “invasive ductal carcinoma” jumped off the screen.

“I knew what that meant. I had breast cancer,” says Amanda. “I was a basket case, wondering what this meant for my pregnancy.”

Jacobs was away at a conference, but she called Amanda right away, and had an appointment scheduled for her the next day with medical oncologist and breast cancer expert Danijela Jelovac, M.D.

The diagnosis was triple-positive breast cancer, a type of breast cancer fueled by the hormones progesterone and estrogen and a protein called HER2. The next months were a roller coaster ride of ups and downs.

The Plan

Amanda wanted to protect her unborn baby, so Jelovac had to devise a treatment strategy that could attack the cancer without harming the baby. Standard therapy for triple-positive breast cancer involved treatment that blocked hormones feeding the cancer, but these same hormones were critical to Amanda’s developing baby. To save both mom and baby, Jelovac started Amanda on two cancer drugs — Adriamycin and Cytoxan — that were safe to take while pregnant.

The drugs are powerful anticancer drugs, but they also have the side effect of harming other rapidly dividing cells, such as gut cells. Amanda had just gotten beyond the morning sickness that came with her pregnancy, and now the chemotherapy was causing her to feel nauseous.

The plan was for four rounds of chemotherapy — every three weeks — followed by a mastectomy, and then the birth of her baby.

Treatment was not going as planned. The chemotherapy did not appear to be working.

“I felt like the tumor was getting bigger,” says Amanda. “I looked like I had a breast implant.”

With the tumor growing larger instead of smaller, Jelovac decided they could not wait any longer to do the mastectomy. A week before Christmas, Amanda, now 28 weeks pregnant, had surgery to remove the breast.

The tumor that was the size of a pea when Amanda first felt it had grown beyond the size of a grapefruit at the time of surgery, and worse yet, the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.

Unimaginable

“It was unimaginable,” says Amanda. “The cancer was overshadowing the happiness of my pregnancy.”

Amanda knew it was a fast-growing tumor. She had seen that with her own eyes, as her breast grew larger despite the chemotherapy. She was concerned the cancer was continuing to spread. She began to wonder if she would survive the cancer and was filled with worry for her growing baby and her young son, now 4 years old.

“I wouldn’t wish this on anyone,” says Amanda.

Jelovac collaborated with Amanda’s obstetrician, and they agreed to move up the delivery of the baby to 34 weeks so she could begin the standard treatment regimen, called TCHP, and combat the growing cancer. Amanda hoped, for her children’s sake, it would come in time to save her life.

On Feb. 2, 2024, Amanda delivered Aubri Hope, a strong and healthy baby girl.

Amanda was now even more determined to beat the cancer.

A month after her baby was born, Amanda began four months of treatment with the TCHP drug combination, followed by six weeks of radiation therapy. As of her last imaging report, there are no signs of cancer. For the next year, Amanda will receive an injection of the targeted therapy Phesgo every three weeks. The therapy disarms the HER2 protein that helps fuel the breast cancer and is aimed at keeping her cancer from coming back by thwarting any remaining microscopic cancer cells.

Maddie

It is not lost on Amanda how differently things could have gone. After her diagnosis, she joined Pregnant with Cancer, a Facebook support group of moms-to-be battling cancer.

She connected with Maddie, who was battling stage 4 triple-negative breast cancer. Maddie had already had her baby when she connected with Amanda, and seeing Maddie’s healthy baby gave Amanda the hope and comfort she needed as she waited nervously to deliver her own baby.

“Maddie was an angel on earth. We talked every day,” says Amanda, adding that Maddie sent her supplies to help her through her treatment, baby gifts and meals. “She went above and beyond, and she had her own stuff going on. She was amazing.” Even after Maddie’s death, Amanda felt her caring presence.

They had planned to meet in person, but they never got the chance. Maddie messaged her that her cancer had spread to her liver, and two days before Amanda delivered her baby, she received the news that Maddie had died. She was just 30 years old.

“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to hear. We created an amazing connection. I’m a totally different person because of her,” says Amanda. “I had never experienced that level of kindness. My life’s purpose is to pay it forward.”

Because of her early delivery, Amanda’s daughter was being cared for on the neonatal intensive care unit. When Amanda came to the unit to hold her daughter for the first time, she learned that Maddie was also the name of the nurse assigned to her daughter.

Inspired by her friend Maddie, Amanda is bringing the same help and comfort to a young mother of a 2-year-old daughter, who at just 25 years old, was also diagnosed with triple-positive breast cancer.

The two recently met in person. “I didn’t get the chance to meet Maddie. I don’t take time for granted anymore,” says Amanda.

A Mother’s Day Gift

Amanda’s patient navigator, Jill Mull, herself a survivor of breast cancer, thought Amanda also deserved some special care. Mull recommended her for Justin’s Beach House, a Bethany Beach respite for people battling cancer.

After more than a year of fighting against cancer for her life and the life of her unborn baby, Amanda spent Mother’s Day relaxing on the beach with her husband and children.