‘I did everything right but docs took 10 years to diagnose my cancer’
DEIRDRE Parr is, by her own admission, a one-tit wonder.
Sitting in the living room of her home in the Auckland suburb of Pt Chevalier, the 57-year-old lets off a peal of laughter.
There’s nothing else to do, really, when you had breast cancer for more than a decade before anyone noticed it.
Parr counts herself incredibly lucky that an industrious surgeon insisted on more invasive tests to detect her cancer and remove it – not relying on textbook-perfect mammograms and ultrasounds dating back 16 years.
Parr has always had what are described as ‘‘dense’’ breasts. When viewed on a mammogram, dense breast tissue appears as white – which means it is difficult to see through, and to read the results clearly.
Research suggests women with dense breasts are four to six times more at risk of getting breast cancer. It is also more likely that cancer will go undetected, with BreastScreen Aotearoa clinical leader Dr Marli Gregory saying women wouldn’t be told if they had ‘‘dense breasts’’ because ‘‘the harms of extra imaging, such as causing anxiety, unnecessary needle biopsies, over diagnosis and cost, are likely to outweigh the benefits’’.
But Parr cannot believe the Health Ministry would consider not advising women with dense breasts they are at higher risk.
‘‘Ignorance is not bliss – knowledge is power. They are scared of frightening people with too much information, but if you don’t have the information you can’t actually act on it if you wish to do so.’’
Parr first discovered a lump in her breast at 27 but a doctor declared it benign.
Mammograms and ultrasounds kept coming back clear every couple of years as Parr’s breasts grew harder.
‘‘I was doing everything right – I was having my mammograms, I was having my ultrasounds. I wasn’t a heavy drinker and I led a healthy lifestyle.’’
In 2002 her GP insisted on a physical exam, and referred Parr to a specialist. Parr’s mammogram, ultrasound and three core biopsy results came back clear – but the diligent doctor persevered with a surgical biopsy, which detected a 4.5cm tumour in her right breast.
‘‘I was very frightened, there was a part of me that was very disbelieving, and I was angry,’’ Parr says. ‘‘I had been doing everything I was told to do and this had still happened. If I had known that the density itself was a risk factor I would have been more aware, I would have known I was high risk.’’
Surgeons told her the Stage 2 cancer had likely been there for 10 years or more and she underwent chemotherapy, radiotherapy, a mastectomy, breast reconstruction and hormone therapy before being cleared.
In 2014 doctors found the LAWRENCE SMITH / FAIRFAXNZ tumour had regrown. Part of her pectoral muscle had to be removed, along with her reconstructed breast. Then last year, a lentil-sized regrowth was found in the scar of her previous surgery.
Parr now accepts she will live under the shadow of breast cancer her whole life. ‘‘My life has changed forever, I can’t go back.’’
‘ Ignorance is not bliss – knowledge is power.’ DEIRDRE PARR