According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aside from some skin cancers, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. However, experts said being diagnosed with breast cancer while you are pregnant is rare. Unfortunately, that is what happened to a Lexington woman but that did not stop her from becoming a new mother. At 19-weeks pregnant with her first child, Sarah Canovai and her husband received the news they never expected.“I think was just numb because we didn’t have any family history and later I found out that there were no genetic mutations at all so I just couldn’t believe that this random lump turned out to be so big and life changing,” Canovai said.What Canovai thought was related to her pregnancy turned out to be something much worse. “Some common things when you’re pregnant are like a clogged milk duct or things like that and she thought it was something of that nature but it did not turn out to be that in her case,” surgeon and Director of Breast Care Center at Wake Forest Baptist Health, Dr. Marissa Howard-McNatt said.With her son, Roman, growing inside of her, Canovai was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma and triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease. “He went through a right mastectomy and four rounds of chemo with me all while in the womb,” Canovai said. “That’s really when I got anxious because it wasn’t just me that we were talking about at that point it was him too.”Experts said it is rare, but once in the second trimester, the cancer is treatable and not harmful for the baby. “We see probably about three or four women a year who are pregnant who have breast cancer,” Howard-McNatt said. “It’s best to treat these people while they’re pregnant because if you wait until they deliver, breast cancer loves extra hormones of pregnancy so their cancer will get far worse quicker, so you have to do something while they’re pregnant.”Canovai said she stayed positive not only for herself, but for her son as well. “It’s possible to do both. You can fight cancer, you know, by day and be a mom by night,” Canovai said. “It ended up being a lot easier just to take the positive route because you can stay in a whole and shut yourself off from the world but if you really just kind of open up yourself to the support that’s there. I was just blown away from all the support I had, from my family and church.”She finished all her treatments in July and now Canovai is cancer free. As for her son Roman, he’s doing just fine.“He’s 9 months old and he’s the happiest baby I’ve ever met and that’s what everyone tells me that meets him that he’s so happy and just full of life and we just love him so much,” Canovai said.Canovai will have checkups twice a year for the next two years to ensure the cancer has not come back. “It’s OK to feel scared. It’s OK to feel all of those negative emotions but, you know, just to stay positive because it can end well,” Canovai said.She and her family just moved into a new home and she said she is excited and looking forward to this new chapter in life. “We just moved so I’m just looking forward to starting that new chapter of my life and really being able to put 110% into being a mom,” Canovai said.To read more about her journey, click here.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, aside from some skin cancers, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women. However, experts said being diagnosed with breast cancer while you are pregnant is rare. Unfortunately, that is what happened to a Lexington woman but that did not stop her from becoming a new mother.
At 19-weeks pregnant with her first child, Sarah Canovai and her husband received the news they never expected.“I think was just numb because we didn’t have any family history and later I found out that there were no genetic mutations at all so I just couldn’t believe that this random lump turned out to be so big and life changing,” Canovai said.What Canovai thought was related to her pregnancy turned out to be something much worse. “Some common things when you’re pregnant are like a clogged milk duct or things like that and she thought it was something of that nature but it did not turn out to be that in her case,” surgeon and Director of Breast Care Center at Wake Forest Baptist Health, Dr. Marissa Howard-McNatt said.With her son, Roman, growing inside of her, Canovai was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma and triple negative breast cancer, an aggressive form of the disease. “He went through a right mastectomy and four rounds of chemo with me all while in the womb,” Canovai said. “That’s really when I got anxious because it wasn’t just me that we were talking about at that point it was him too.”Experts said it is rare, but once in the second trimester, the cancer is treatable and not harmful for the baby. “We see probably about three or four women a year who are pregnant who have breast cancer,” Howard-McNatt said. “It’s best to treat these people while they’re pregnant because if you wait until they deliver, breast cancer loves extra hormones of pregnancy so their cancer will get far worse quicker, so you have to do something while they’re pregnant.”Canovai said she stayed positive not only for herself, but for her son as well. “It’s possible to do both. You can fight cancer, you know, by day and be a mom by night,” Canovai said. “It ended up being a lot easier just to take the positive route because you can stay in a whole and shut yourself off from the world but if you really just kind of open up yourself to the support that’s there. I was just blown away from all the support I had, from my family and church.”She finished all her treatments in July and now Canovai is cancer free. As for her son Roman, he’s doing just fine.“He’s 9 months old and he’s the happiest baby I’ve ever met and that’s what everyone tells me that meets him that he’s so happy and just full of life and we just love him so much,” Canovai said.Canovai will have checkups twice a year for the next two years to ensure the cancer has not come back. “It’s OK to feel scared. It’s OK to feel all of those negative emotions but, you know, just to stay positive because it can end well,” Canovai said.She and her family just moved into a new home and she said she is excited and looking forward to this new chapter in life. “We just moved so I’m just looking forward to starting that new chapter of my life and really being able to put 110% into being a mom,” Canovai said.To read more about her journey, click here.
