MATT LAUER, co-host:
Back now at 8:10. And this morning on
TODAY'S HEALTH
, a very brave
little girl
who at just three years old was diagnosed with a rare type of
breast cancer
. We'll talk to her and her mom in a moment, but first
Natalie
has their story.
NATALIE MORALES, anchor:
Well,
Matt
, every year more than 10,000 children get the devastating diagnosis of cancer, but what this
little girl
has gone through shocked both her family and her doctors. It looks like a typical group of
children playing
like most kids do. But one of these young children is a
breast cancer
survivor.
Ms. MELANIE HUNTER (Mother of Toddler Who Had Breast Cancer):
I noticed when she was two and a half, she had a small lump on her
left breast
.
MORALES:
A few months later came a diagnosis that few parents of a
three-year-old have heard before:
Alicia Hunter
had an extremely rare form of
breast cancer
known as juvenile
breast carcinoma
.
Dr. NANCY DOWN (Surgical Oncologist, North York General Hospital):
This is a pathology slide of
Alicia
's cancer, which was a secretory cancer, and that's a very rare type of
breast cancer
.
MORALES:
As the tumor grew, it became very painful.
Ms. HUNTER:
She wasn't eating. She wasn't sleeping.
MORALES:
With her mom and her
teddy bear
Ash
at her side, three-year-old
Alicia
had a radical mastectomy.
Dr. DOWN:
That meant removing the entire breast and the lymph nodes under the arm.
MORALES:
Six months later
Alicia
is now cancer free.
Miss ALICIA HUNTER:
MORALES:
But she does understand and remember what she went through.
Miss HUNTER:
I had
breast cancer
.
MORALES:
She will eventually need
reconstructive surgery
on her breast, but for now she's simply enjoying preschool.
Ms. HUNTER:
She's extremely brave, she's extremely strong, and she's happy. She's a bubbly little four-year-old.
Unidentified Woman:
Get your wings up.
MORALES:
And she already knows what she wants to be when she grows up.
Miss HUNTER:
I want to be a doctor.
MORALES:
Perhaps someday helping other children just like herself. A remarkable girl dealing with an extraordinary situation. According to the
American Cancer Society
, just 5 percent of all breast cancers occur in women under the age of 40.
Matt
:
LAUER:
All right,
Natalie
, thanks very much.
Alicia Hunter
is now four years old. She's here along with her mom
Melanie
and Dr.
Nancy Down
, deputy chief of surgery at
Toronto
's
North York General Hospital
.
Good morning to all
of you. Hi,
Alicia
. How you doing?
Miss HUNTER:
Good.
LAUER:
You doing OK? It's great to have you here.
Melanie
, before the proper diagnosis, which I think was a year or so ago, what were some of the other things doctors were guessing were wrong with
Alicia
?
Ms. HUNTER:
They said it was a lymphatic malformation.
LAUER:
Did they think it was extremely serious, or did they tell you it wasn't going to be much of anything?
Ms. HUNTER:
They didn't think it was serious.
LAUER:
While you were going for these other doctors' appointments and they were all looking at it, did the word cancer ever cross your mind?
Ms. HUNTER:
No.
LAUER:
Never?
Ms. HUNTER:
No.
LAUER:
So when you got this diagnosis it had to be just completely life altering.
Ms. HUNTER:
Yeah, it was.
LAUER:
Doctor, this is not -- we want to stress -- the same kind of
breast cancer
that we often hear about in adults, correct? How's it different?
Dr. DOWN:
Well, you can see this type of
breast cancer
in adults, but it is one of the more rare types of
breast cancer
. The usual type of
breast cancer
in adults tends to be more aggressive. This one, fortunately, tends to be slower growing, tends not spread as aggressively, and the outlook is good.
LAUER:
And yet it still required dramatic surgery, a modified radical mastectomy.
Dr. DOWN:
That's correct.
LAUER:
I mean, how does a three-year-old get through something like that?
Dr. DOWN:
Well, I think there were a couple of things. First of all, the tumor by -- it was quite large by the time the diagnosis was made. And given its location and the size, it really did require removal of the whole area, which meant the breast. And we always have to check the lymph nodes because we wanted to find out whether or not it had spread. But one of the things was that
Alicia
was in a fair bit of pain.
LAUER:
Right.
Dr. DOWN:
Because the tumor was stretching the tissue. And so it actually came somewhat as a relief in the sense that her pain was gone after the surgery. So...
LAUER:
Alicia
, do you -- you have no pain anymore? You feel pretty good? Yeah? I know your
teddy bear
helped you get through all this. Is this
Bear
or is this
Ash
? Which
teddy bear
is it?
Miss HUNTER:
Bear.
LAUER:
Oh, this is
Bear
? Yeah? Pretty good friend to have.
Melanie
, you have a different perspective now in terms of misdiagnosis, I would imagine, and what other parents might often go through.
Ms. HUNTER:
Yeah, I mean, you just have to trust your instinct and go for it.
LAUER:
And does she still have obstacles to go through? Maybe
reconstructive surgery
, things like that?
Ms. M. HUNTER:
Yeah. When she's older she'll have
reconstructive surgery
.
LAUER:
Her prognosis is good though, right?
Dr. DOWN:
Yeah, in her case we think it's going to be very good.
LAUER:
Oh.
Alicia
, it's nice to have you and
Ash
here. It was a pleasure.
Melanie
,
thank you for coming
in. We appreciate it. Doctor, thanks for the information. Appreciate it. Up next, we're going to lighten things up and show you what happened when
Ann
went back to high school and actually tried to join the marching band.
That's right
after this.
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