Alicia Alexander was basking in the baby bubble when she was thrust into the fight of her life.
“It was like someone threw a hand grenade into our family. It was just like a bomb going off,” she told 9News.
The tumour was aggressive, it had spread to her lymph nodes.
“The lump was almost impossible to feel so I was quite shocked.”
Alicia underwent emergency surgery to remove the affected lymph nodes, chemo and radiotherapy.
“Having a small child, a baby, it was just really hard to come to terms with what I’d have to have done. So surgery chemo, radiotherapy. It was quite shocking and very unexpected.”
Half of women diagnosed with pregnancy-associated breast cancer lose their battle within five years. And breast cancer survival rates fall from 80 per cent to 50 per cent if the woman is pregnant.
Over the past decade, researchers have been looking at hormone changes as a trigger, but that’s only part of the story.
They’ve now found inflamed tissue surrounding the tumour also plays a role. If a tumour is present during breastfeeding, the inflammation actually causes the cancer to spread faster.
Dr David Gallego-Ortega from the Garvan Institute explained: “we’ve found an inflammatory mechanism that fuels cancer cells to spread and metastasise.”
The study will help scientists improve therapies and develop more targeted treatments.
Researchers hope to now look at whether treating the inflammation around the tumour with a common over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug might reduce or even stop the spread of the cancer.
“So using common drugs such as Ibuprofen or just broad spectrum anti-inflammatories may reduce the inflammation and in turn change the outlook for the patient,” Dr Gallego-Ortega said.
Alicia is excited by the prospect of young mothers not having to tread the same path as her own.
“Maybe it wouldn’t have spread to my lymph nodes and that would have been a good thing.”
But she’s still doing well, it’s now been four years since she was first diagnosed, and she’s in the clear.
This content first appear on 9news