From Stage 4 to Cancer-Free: A Mom’s Fight Against Triple-Negative Breast Cancer

LET’S BEGIN WITH THE HAPPY ENDING, which—as most happy endings are—was really a beginning. In 2018, Stephanie McConnell and her son lounged poolside in St. Lucia. She sipped a cocktail while he snacked on cookies, and people kept telling them how happy they looked. No wonder: Stephanie just learned she was cancer-free.

Stephanie’s cancer journey began six years earlier, when she was diagnosed at age 37 with stage 3C triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). After three years of standard therapies—chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation—the cancer still spread and progressed to Stage 4. A doctor advised her to stop treatment, begin palliative care, and go home to enjoy the time she had left, likely a year or so.

Her son was five at the time; she refused to stop treatments.

“I used to say that I’d never do a clinical trial, that I’m nobody’s guinea pig,” Stephanie says. “But when a doctor tells you to go home and die? I have a child. That was not going to be his story.”

An oncologist recommended Carolina BioOncology Institute in Huntersville, where doctors matched her with a clinical trial. After three years on the trial, Stephanie’s scans revealed the good news: Her cancer didn’t just stop spreading, it disappeared. She packed for St. Lucia.

Today, 12 years after her diagnosis, Stephanie remains cancer-free. She returns to Carolina BioOncology Institute for maintenance treatments every six weeks, and in between, she and her son stay busy. They have a new story to write.

As breast cancer affects an increasing number of women under 50, more attention has turned to TNBC, an aggressive subtype that disproportionately affects younger women. TNBC is defined by what it lacks. While 85% of breast cancers are classified by three common markers—markers that give treatments a target to attack—TNBC has none of those, meaning it has fewer treatment options.

Carolina BioOncology Institute gave Stephanie the treatment she most wanted: immunotherapy. Immunotherapy, which trains the immune system to fight cancer cells, has revolutionized cancer research. When Stephanie enrolled in the Phase 1 clinical trial, she was among the first to use immunotherapy against TNBC. Today, it’s become a standard, FDA-approved treatment for multiple cancers.

Stephanie said that her nurses and doctors at Carolina BioOncology Institute became more like friends. They chatted with her son when he came to appointments. They helped her find ways to alleviate the pain of inflammation, such as using a heated pool. They weren’t just treating her cancer; they cared for her as a person.

Choosing a clinical trial is a risk, but Stephanie chose to be as aggressive as her cancer. She says that choosing a treatment is highly personal, and she encourages others with breast cancer to explore their options.

“It’s your body, so you need to understand what’s happening to you and what you’re fighting against,” she says. “Advocate for yourself. I can’t say it enough: I would flat-out not be here if I had not been this aggressive.”

This month, Stephanie and her son are writing a new chapter: They’re cruising the Mediterranean. “We’re doing all the things I talked about when I said, ‘If I live, this is the life we’re going to have,’” Stephanie says.

If you’re a patient or referring physician who’d like to learn more about clinical trials at Carolina BioOncology Institute, please call 704-947-6599 or visit carolinabiooncology.org.