Female Speaker: Terri Jefferson is an 18-year-old senior at Law, Government & Community Service Magnet high school in Queens, New York. Like most girls of her age, she's looking forward to graduation and her senior prom. But Terri has had more than the usual milestones to mark her passage into young adulthood. That's because she's had to overcome a life-threatening obstacle one that her mother, Darlene, remembers learning about vividly.
Darlene Ellison-Jefferson: About 11 o'clock in the morning I get a phone call from the doctor and he goes, Ms. Jefferson I need for you to come in to talk about Terri's tests.
Female Speaker: Imagine being told your daughter has stage three ovarian cancer. A diagnosis quite rare, because ovarian cancer is usually associated with older women not teenagers. Dr. Eva Chalas is a gynecologist who practices at two medical centers on Long Island, New York.
Dr. Eva Chalas: Ovarian cancer rarely occurs before mid 30's typically the incidents or the number of patients who are diagnosed increases from mid 30's on and begins to level off only after the woman has reached the age of 85.
Female Speaker: Darlene would have to break the devastating news to her only daughter.
Darlene Ellison-Jefferson: I said to her, I said Terri, It says that you have cancer, she looked at me and she goes, I have cancer what are you talking about?
Terri Jefferson: It was basically a normal day until she told me and then, you know I had to deal with it.
Female Speaker: Terri first went to the doctor because she was experiencing bloating and unusual fluid in her abdomen. She had no idea these symptoms pointed to the existence of cancer. Overnight, her life changed dramatically. Before, it was homework and hanging out with friends, now it was doctor's appointments and medical tests. Dr. Chalas had to prepare Terri for the profound impact her disease and its treatment would have on her future.
Dr. Eva Chalas: That surgery was likely to result in having to remove her tubes in ovaries, having to go through premature menopause, and then also not being able to ever have any children, so as you can imagine that was a very lengthy visit and a very trying one for everyone.
Female Speaker: Terri had an emergency hysterectomy. Doctors had to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes in order to extract the cancer. Her recovery from surgery was tough and complicated by her bout with premature menopause.
Terri Jefferson: If your body says that you're going to go through, you're going to go through it no matter what you take.
Female Speaker: She missed the second half of eleventh grade, but fought to keep up on her homework with tutors. In September she returned to school, just in time for her senior year.
Terri Jefferson: I was kind of happy just to be able to get out of my house and start trying to live a normal life even though my life will never be normal again.
Female Speaker: Terri is grateful to the doctors for saving her life, but she can't help but reflect on what the cancer has robbed her of.
Terri Jefferson: Yeah I am happy that I am alive but there are so many things that I could have been happy about but because of the fact that I had cancer it took that choice away. I'm trying to deal with that.
Female Speaker: But Terri's struggle is not over because she developed cancer at such a young age, chances are she has a genetic mutation that puts her at high risk for other types of cancer.
Dr. Eva Chalas: Women with ovarian cancer and women with breast cancer are both at an increased risk for the other type of cancer.
Female Speaker: Only a small percentage of cancers are hereditary, caused by an inherited genetic mutation. Two genes that are identified in most hereditary breast and ovarian cancers are known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. Both genes are instrumental in regulating cell growth and when one or both becomes abnormal, cells may grow into cancer.
Dr. Eva Chalas: If a woman is thought to have more than a 10% risk of having a genetic mutation it is considered medically appropriate for her to be tested.
Female Speaker: Terri's mother suspected her daughter did inherit a gene mutation from her cancer family tree. She had two aunts with breast cancer and a grandmother with ovarian cancer. So, when Terri was genetically tested, the result was no surprise.
Terri Jefferson: She just told me that I did have the gene in it didn't really affect me, because, honestly to tell you the truth, I already knew that I did have it. There's no way you can get ovarian cancer at 16 and not have some sort of trait in your family that will give you cancer.
Female Speaker: Doctors say Terri will have to be carefully monitored for breast cancer or other cancers all her life. But she seems incapable of feeling sorry for herself.
Terri Jefferson: I mean everybody has to keep the eye out for something, I have to have both eyes like wide open being aware of every little thing.
Female Speaker: In the mean time, Terri is getting on with her life.
Terri Jefferson: I'm just glad to be here and go to my senior prom and graduate and go on to college and do everything else I want in life because there was a point in time in my life that nobody was sure whether I would be able to do all those things its like okay, well I can do all that stuff but also I had to overcome a lot of things to get to this point.
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