Peggy

Peggy was diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer in her 30s after finding a painful lump in her breast. Several months later, Peggy learned her cancer had progressed to Stage 4 metastatic disease. Learn more about Peggy’s experiences with breast cancer and with cancer risk that runs in families. Peggy has not had any clinical trials experience yet because the medicine she is taking “is working” and she plans to stay the course for “as long as it works.” Peggy was offered the opportunity to participate in a clinical trial but declined for several reasons. Specific to the trial, Peggy worried about the time commitment; the trial she was offered required she go in every week, and she just “couldn’t do that work-wise.” Peggy needed all her sick time for her breast cancer treatment and surgery. More generally speaking, Peggy declined participation because “that’s like being experimented on” and did not feel comfortable “trying things that they don’t know if it’ll work.”

Peggy hopes her treatment for breast cancer will continue working for a “very long time” but feels “relieved that there are other options out there.” She sees clinical trials as a “last resort” and feels she isn’t “there yet.” However, the option to participate gives Peggy hope, because if her treatment for metastatic disease stops working, it’s “not the end-all-be-all.”