Mother, daughter battle same type of cancer in West Texas

In this photo taken on Monday, 12, 2015, Kristol Veach, left, and her mother Maria Reyes are accompanied by Veach's daughters Ava and Aubrey as they enjoyed an outing to the The Fountains at Farah, in El Paso, Texas. On June 2, Veach was officially diagnosed with HER2-positive invasive ductal carcinoma — the most common form of breast cancer. The El Paso Times reports it is the exact same type of cancer her mother, Reyes, was diagnosed with six years earlier. (Victor Calzada /The El Paso Times via AP) EL DIARIO OUT; JUAREZ MEXICO OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT IF USE ON LAM OR LAT AND EL DIARIO DE EL PASO OU

                   EL PASO, Texas (AP) - On the very day of her youngest daughter’s preschool graduation, Kristol Veach received a call no woman wants to get.

  It was her oncologist requesting her to come in for a visit.

“I knew why they wanted to see me,” Veach said. “I asked them to give me two hours so I could watch her graduate.”

On June 2, Veach was officially diagnosed with HER2-positive invasive ductal carcinoma - the most common form of breast cancer. The El Paso Times reports (http://bit.ly/1O5VgUP ) it is the exact same type of cancer her mother, Maria Reyes, was diagnosed with six years earlier.

Veach, a neonatal intensive care (NICU) nurse at The Hospitals of Providence Memorial campus, knew she had cancer week’s before having a biopsy done.

“I could see on the sonogram that the area looked completely different,” she said. “I was devastated. I stayed in the car for 20 minutes crying. I called my husband and he said, ‘You don’t know how to read an ultrasound.’ He was right, but I could tell something looked different.”

Veach, 32, was scheduled to have a bilateral mastectomy (removal of both breasts) last Wednesday.

“It’s more difficult to see my daughter go through this than when I went through it myself,” Reyes said. “You never want to see your children go through any pain and to see her so sick and swollen, it just kills me. I felt horrible that I could have given it to her.”

In this case, the BRCA gene test - a blood test that uses DNA analysis to identify harmful changes in either one of the two breast cancer susceptibility genes, BRCA1 and BRCA2 - was negative.

“This is a very unique case,” said Dr. Ines Sanchez, the oncologist for both women. “Usually when we have these cases, it’s because they are positive for BRCA but they were not. (The cancer) was not genetically driven.”

Invasive ductal carcinoma refers to cancer that has broken through the wall of the milk duct and begun to invade the tissues of the breast. Over time, invasive ductal carcinoma can spread to the lymph nodes and to other areas of the body.

According to the American Cancer Society, more than 180,000 women in the United States find out they have invasive breast cancer each year. About 80 percent are diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma.

HER2-positive breast cancer is breast cancer that tests positive for a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes the growth of cancer cells.

“It makes up about 20 percent of all cancers,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said despite Veach having a more aggressive treatment plan, she seems to have handled it better than her mother.

“She saw what her mother went through and experienced it with her,” Sanchez said. “She was more up beat going through the chemo. She had dance videos with her co-workers and was more upbeat about it even through she was sicker than her mother.”

Veach, her co-workers and family dance before each of her chemotherapy treatments and post them on YouTube.

“Everybody kind of looks forward to my chemo treatments because they want to see the videos,” Veach said with a huge smile.

“The first one was ‘I Will Survive,’” she said. “It was just me jumping around by myself. The second one was with my coworkers, we did the Nae Nae. The third one was the Hokey Pokey with my daughters. We did a dance compilation with my mom and the last one we did ‘Thriller’ with my brothers.”

Reyes, 58, had a mastectomy on her right breast six years ago. She has been in remission for five years.

“I was working so hard that I forget to take my mammograms,” said Reyes, who is an oncology nurse at The Hospitals of Providence Sierra campus. “If I had been doing my check-ups we could have picked it up earlier. I try to encourage everyone to make sure they get their mammograms, get checked and do their exams.”

The only reason Veach went in to get checked was because of a New Year’s resolution she made with her husband.

“Our New Year’s resolution was we were going to start going to the doctor regularly and eat healthier so I went to my OBGYN to have my annual and he wanted to get a baseline mammogram,” she said. “I never thought it was going to come out positive.”

Just as Veach was there for her mother every step of the way, Reyes has been there for her daughter.

“She has been so strong,” she said. “Everybody has been very supportive of her. I just try to give her encouragement. I know some days she feels horrible but I tell her not to worry, it will get better.”

Veach simply laughs.

“I feel like a big wuss,” she said. “My mom was so awesome. Every time I would go and see her, she was awesome. She was still working like if it was nothing, she was amazing. I feel like I just cave in all the time.”

She did say it was nice to know that she has her mother to lean on through these difficult times.

“Even if she hadn’t gone through the experience I know she would be there for me,” Veach said. “My mom is just that type of person. She is always there for anybody whether it’s me or people that she knows.

Source from : http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/2/mother-daughter-battle-same-type-of-cancer-in-west/?page=all#pagebreak