Life Interrupted: Telling Breast Cancer Stories

Director Paula Mozen, a breast cancer survivor, shares stories of women who have received the same diagnosis, concentrating on two in particular. Mozen, who lives in Montana, was diagnosed at the ages of 49 and 53. As an Ashkenazi Jew, she carries the BRCA gene, which gives her a greater chance of developing breast and ovarian cancer (her mother was diagnosed at 66). Mozen describes breast cancer as an equal rights disease, since no one is immune. Pat Bear, a Gros Ventre tribal member in Montana, was diagnosed at 59. As a teenager, she was shipped off to a boarding school. Unlike many Native American kids, Bear enjoyed the experience, but her home life was wracked by poverty and alcoholism. Debi Wood, who lives in Pennsylvania, was diagnosed at 34 and 48. Wood was an active child, who participated in cheerleading for 15 years, and became a flight attendant. Her diagnosis came as a shock. "I guess in my mind it was an older person's disease," she says. As it turns out, younger women tend to have more aggressive cancers and a lower survival rate. Her tumor was triple negative (which means that the three most common types of receptors known to fuel most breast cancer growth—estrogen, progesterone, and the HER-2/neu gene—are not present in the tumor), which is more common among African American women, and she had to undergo chemotherapy, so she froze her eggs beforehand, so that she and her fiancé would be able to have children (fortunately, she was able to become pregnant without medical intervention). All three women underwent radiation treatment, and Mozen also had two lumpectomies before opting for mastectomy, followed by an arduous nine-surgery reconstruction process. While three women obviously don’t represent every breast cancer experience, their stories are informative and illuminating. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)