Meet Amanda, Colorectal Cancer Survivor and Signatera Patient
Amanda credits her pregnancy for detecting her stage IV cancer earlier.
“We did all the routine genetic screening tests and the first test came back with a high probability of a rare chromosome in the baby. Within a week, we found out that the baby was completely fine.”
Amanda’s team knew that cancer cells could cause false positives in genetic screening tests, and sent her to get an MRI to err on the side of caution. The scan revealed growths on Amanda’s liver.
“I kind of thought we might be dealing with ‘the big C,’ but I didn’t know in what capacity. Then my oncologist gave me a stage IV colon cancer diagnosis.”
Within days of her diagnosis, Amanda had a chemo port placed and started inpatient chemo while still pregnant. Her son was born in July, and Amanda had colon and liver surgery in late September. After her surgery, she received the news that she was hoping for - her pathology report came back clear, and she was declared in remission with No Evidence of Disease (NED). Following surgery, Amanda completed an additional five rounds of chemo while balancing life with a newborn.
“In terms of Signatera, my oncologist [asked], “do you want to do this?” Amanda said, “sign me up.”
The ease of scheduling the test, having a mobile phlebotomist come to her home, her place of work, even her parents’ house, all made the difference for Amanda as a survivor and a new mom.
“It was really good to have two forms of surveillance because going into survivorship, you realize you’re living with so much uncertainty.”
Amanda knows that the rates of recurrence with stage IV cancer are high, and feels reassured knowing that she has Signatera as a tool in her toolkit should her cancer recur. After chemo and her surgery, Amanda was able to return to work full time, keep up with her active toddler, and get back to her passion – running.
“I want to know that if there’s something that comes back positive, that I will be watched more closely so that we can take action when we need to.”