‘I got all-clears but probably had cancer since 2008’

A WOMAN who was diagnosed with cervical cancer despite repeatedly getting the all-clear from smear tests is now waiting on results to see if the cancer has returned.

The woman, who only gave her name as Orla, was diagnosed with cervical adenocarcinoma in late May 2016, despite having received clear smear test results all her life.

She said she first began experiencing symptoms in August 2015, but since she had a clear smear history, the possibility of it being cervical cancer-related was dismissed.

‘I was put on a 15-month waiting list because I was non-urgent – mainly because of my clear smear history,’ said Orla, ‘I went privately and on May 30, 2016, when the gynaecologist went to examine me, she had to stop after a few seconds because she could see a really large tumour.’

She was immediately referred to an oncologist in Dublin’s Mater Hospital who requested an audit of Orla’s previous smear tests.

Orla, whose case was first highlighted on RTÉ’s Liveline programme, explained that the type of cancer she was diagnosed with affects approximately 20% of cervical cancer patients but won’t necessarily show up on a smear test.

However, she pursued the results of the audit into her previous smear results, which took roughly nine to ten months.

In May 2017, she received the results, which showed that her two previous smears, which took place in 2011 and 2014, were now considered abnormal when they were originally reported as normal.

‘When I got the audit results back I actually was even more shocked because the fact that mine showed up abnormal despite the type [which] meant that it was much more advanced,’ said Orla. ‘Squamous [cancer] cells grow on the surface so you can pick it up quite early. What we actually believe is that my cancer probably started around 2008-2009. So, it was probably there for seven years or so when I was diagnosed,’ she added.

After undergoing treatment and beating cancer, she received the allclear from her doctors last summer. However, in September, she started experiencing problems.

‘In the middle of September something changed. I was very fatigued and I went back to my consultant and said there was something not right. So I had an examination, a CT [scan] was booked, but the day before the CT I ended up in emergency admission to hospital,’ said Orla.

It turned out that she had cellulitis and lymphedema as a result of radiotherapy, but the issue of cancer recurring was brought up while she was in hospital. She said: ‘I had a CAT scan in December, it was inconclusive. I had another CAT scan last week and the results will be out next Tuesday.’

Orla said that she knows that next week she could be in the same boat as Emma Mhic Mhathúna.

‘She could see a really large tumour’