Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

It was a routine shower for Tanna Bishop-Kinsey, of Washington, until she lifted her arm to shave. She could feel a lump near her left breast. Considering she had been experiencing tenderness in her breasts for the last two weeks, Bishop-Kinsey immediately did a self-examination. 

At first, Bishop-Kinsey “didn’t think anything of” the tenderness, because she thought it was “age-related or pre-menopausal,” she said. 

The self-examination was on a Saturday, Bishop-Kinsey met with her doctor on Monday, had an ultrasound the next day where a suspicious mass the size of a lemon was discovered. A biopsy on the mass and biopsies on her lymph nodes were done. On Feb. 16, Bishop-Kinsey was diagnosed with stage one, triple negative breast cancer. 

Triple negative breast cancer is an aggressive form of breast cancer that accounts for about 10-15% of all breast cancer patients, according to the American Cancer Society. The most common symptom of breast cancer is a new lump or mass (though most breast lumps are not cancer). 

“A painless, hard mass that has irregular edges is more likely to be cancer, but breast cancers can be also soft, round, tender, or even painful,” the American Cancer Society shares. Other symptoms to be mindful of include asymmetry of the breasts and nipple changes like discharge or peeling skin around the nipple. 

Bishop-Kinsey was 38 when the lump near her breast was found. At 38, she was too young to start annual mammograms. This means that after noticing the lump, she had her first mammogram. Both the American Cancer Society and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends biennial screening mammography for women beginning at age 40.  

Bishop-Kinsey would like to see the mammogram age lowered to 35. 

“In my opinion, 40 is too late,” Bishop-Kinsey said. “I feel like they need to back it down to at least maybe 35, 30 if you have a family history.”  

“I feel like if I had a routine mammogram, or if it started at a younger age, you would be following up yearly and if something looked funky or there was shadow or whatever, it would be caught,” Bishop-Kinsey said. 

Yale Medicine reports that “more than half of the time, women detect breast cancers themselves when they notice an unusual breast change.”  Bishop-Kinsey tries to do a self-examination at least once a week, she said. 

Bishop-Kinsey does not have a family history of breast cancer; however, she believes that taking oral contraceptives for the last 20 years may have contributed to her cancer diagnosis. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists states that  “patients who are considering hormonal contraception can be counseled that a recent study showed that women who use hormonal birth control methods may have a small increased risk of breast cancer, but the overall risk of breast cancer in hormonal birth control users remains very low. Hormonal birth control is very effective in preventing pregnancy and may lower a woman’s overall risk of cancer by providing protection against other types of cancer. There are non-hormonal methods of birth control that are also good options.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Yale Medicine report that about 11% of all breast cancers occur in women under the age of 45. 

“​​An estimated 26,393 women under 45 are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. And every year, more than 1,000 women under age 40 die from breast cancer,” Yale Medicine shared in April of this year. 

On March 1, Bishop-Kinsey started chemotherapy and had a port placed in her chest. She has finished chemotherapy. She had a partial mastectomy in September and later received a clear pathology report. She is doing radiation treatment at the Marion L. Shepard Cancer Center in Washington, and will continue immunotherapy at Physicians East Hematology and Oncology in Greenville until March of 2025. After March, she will receive regular PET scans. 

Breast cancer is not 100% preventable; however, there are “several proven risk factors for breast cancer – including many that are potentially modifiable,” the Breast Cancer Research Foundation states. Those potentially modifiable risk factors include maintaining a healthy weight and diet with reduced amounts of red and processed meats, limiting alcohol, quitting smoking, increasing activity levels, breastfeed (if able) and evaluating the use of hormone-based contraceptive methods and menopausal hormone therapy and knowing family history of breast cancer. 

Just as many people with cancer have a community of family, friends, neighbors and survivors rallying behind them, so does Bishop-Kinsey. In addition to her family and friends, she has found support from her co-workers at Urgent Care Down East in Washington. Every Monday, her co-workers wear “TannaStrong” t-shirts. It has become a tradition they’ve kept since March. 

“I do have a large support system as far as friends and prayers. I really think the prayers have really gotten me through,” she said. 

This article is part of the Shepard Cancer Center’s initiative, Spotlight on Cancer. Spotlight on Cancer focuses on highlighting the importance of cancer screenings and early detection.