Maggie Loucks, diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer at age 28, reflects on how the diagnosis affected her dreams of motherhood. As a nursing student, her immediate thoughts turned to the possibility of not being able to have biological children after treatment. Traditional cancer therapies, which often damaged ovaries, are being replaced by more targeted treatments due to medical breakthroughs. These advancements enhance survival rates while preserving quality of life for patients, allowing them to make informed decisions regarding their futures, including the option of motherhood.
Even as a child, Maggie Loucks believed being a mom was her destiny. "It was always inherently who I was," says Loucks.
After the initial shock of the diagnosis, that was the most present thing on my mind," says Loucks, who was a newly married nursing student in Boston.
Medical breakthroughs are enabling new drugs to better target specific subtypes of cancers, improving chances of survival and spares the body collateral damage.
Medicines that improve the quality of life in survivorship are the new frontier in treating cancer, says Dr. Ann Partridge, acting chair of oncology.
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