LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we are shining a light on a growing problem here in Nevada. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer mortality rates are higher in Nevada compared to other parts of the country.
Recently, breast cancer hit close to home in our own Channel 13 newsroom.
We are sharing the inspiring story of KTNV Managing Editor Dree de Clamecy, who caught her own cancer early. It's a life-saving story about the critical importance of self examination and early detection.
"See this? This is my new tattoo. What is it? It's a permanent tattoo. It's a permanent marker for radiation."
Four small tattoos will forever be reminders for de Clamecy of her radiation for breast cancer, a discovery she made herself while showering.
"And this time, there was something there, and there's never been anything there ever and I just felt my heart sink into my stomach. I knew almost instantly this was not going to be good."
de Clamecy immediately went to her OBGYN to get it checked out.
"The doctor said 'I don't feel anything. Are you sure?' I said no. There's something there. It doesn't belong there," de Clamecy said. "He said 'I think that could be a gland.' I said I don't think that's a gland."
de Clamecy's OBGYN told her she knows her body better than anyone and ordered a mammogram and an ultrasound for her.
"The mammogram showed something abnormal in both of breasts and that was terrifying," de Clamecy said.
After getting biopsies, the diagnosis was early-stage breast cancer, only in her right breast.
"Being trapped in my body with a killer. That was a new one and something I wasn't prepared for."
de Clamecy called a close friend, Denise Rosch, who happens to be a Stage IV cancer survivor. She recommended oncologist Dr. Rupesh Parikh at Comprehensive Cancer Centers.
Parikh was impressed with how de Clamecy found her lump through a self exam.
RESOURCES: Cancer Prevention Tips from Comprehensive Cancer Centers of Nevada
"His first words to me were, 'so you found it yourself?' and I said yes, I found that hitchhiker myself, and we got to get it out of there."
Parikh spoke with us about the next steps de Clamecy took.
"So we found that cancer early, she had her surgery. She had a lumpectomy, so she is going to get some radiation. We know that. She gave us a little scare, she had a node that was involved," Parikh said.
After the surgery, Parikh said there was no more evidence that the cancer had spread anywhere else at all, "which is amazing, that's what we wanted to see," he said.
Parikh was then able to give de Clamecy the good news and she is cancer free.
The news was welcome to de Clamecy, who lost her only, and younger, sister Mary to breast cancer.
"I think I was really very, very lucky. it was a very early stage I," de Clamecy said.
Through gene testing, Parikh found no sign of the BRCA gene, which increases your risk of hereditary breast cancer. However, he did find something else—a variant of uncertain significance.
"Most of those turn out to be not linked at all and there's nothing to do so...but, you know—we say 'oh, you're a mutant.'"
KTNV Anchor Tricia Kean joked, "Yeah. Well, we knew there was something different about her. Yes. Now we know for sure!"
Parikh says one thing is for sure, when it comes to de Clamecy:
"I told her we were going to be friends for life, and we had already become friends for life through cancer patients, right, so we're still going to follow her even after her journey is over to make sure it doesn't ever come back."
de Clamecy is currently receiving six weeks of radiation therapy. She wants everyone, women and men, to make sure they are vigilant about self examination.
She said she also owes a good part of the success for her battle to her KTNV family, calling them her "newsroom warriors" who fought alongside her during treatment before celebrating her return in September.
Some resources for cancer treatment, detection, and awareness advocacy organizations include:
Comprehensive Cancer Centers
American Cancer Society
On Thursday, October 25 at 6:30 p.m. on Channel 13, we will be hearing more from Parikh about the escalating crisis of cancer here in Nevada for men and women, and our lack of medical personnel on the front lines of this fight.
