WICHITA, Kansas – Pregnancy is usually a time of joy, but for a growing number of women, it can also mean a fight for their lives. Because doctors are diagnosing more skin cancer at younger ages, more women are battling the deadly disease while also trying to have a healthy baby. It happened this summer to two local women and what they went through is a grim warning to others.
For 24-year-old Michele Robertson, the excitement of being a new mother is matched only by her fear that she may not survive it. While six-months pregnant with little Jayden, she discovered that a mole she’d had in her belly button since birth had turned cancerous."I cried a lot,” she said. “I had to go home that day from work.”Not only was it a melanoma – the most dangerous form of skin cancer – but doctors said it had already begun to spread – possibly because pregnancy had weakened her immune system."They believe it helped speed up the process of the melanoma in my body, but they're not sure if it was there before I got pregnant, or if it quickly turned melanoma during the pregnancy,” she said.Doctors were able to surgically remove her belly button and some lymph nodes in her leg without harming the baby. Jayden was delivered prematurely a few weeks later.It was the same time, just across town; another 24-year-old woman was losing her battle with skin cancer. Heather Carr, of Andover, had become sick while pregnant with daughter Briley, but it was only after she gave birth in July that doctors found she had a melanoma that had grown not on the skin's surface but internally. They never knew where it started or when, but Heather died six days after becoming a mother."In the past we used to think of melanoma in our 40’s, 50’s and 60’s,” said Dr. Bassam Mattar, a Wichita oncologist. “Now we're seeing it in the 20's, teenager and younger patients.”Dr. Mattar blames most skin cancer on increased sun exposure. But Heather and Michelle did not tan. Also puzzling is whether their hormonal changes made the cancer worse.“In pregnancy, there is change to the immune system, and melanoma is known to be affected by the immune system of the patient,” Dr. Mattar said.Adding to that uncertainty is the daily shot Michelle must now take to keep the cancer at bay. The medicine is experimental because she can’t take the commonly used drug, Interferon."Without the drug, I have a one in three chance of surviving,” she said. “With the drug, I have a two in three chance of surviving. It's promising, but it still bothers me. I don't want to leave my son without a mother, especially at such a young age, and I have a stepson as well.”"As much as I don't like to think about it, you have to,” said Jason Robertson, Michelle’s husband. “You have to at least be somewhat prepared, I think."So they brace for the worst as they head into another doctor’s appointment. After a month of shots, Michelle will find out if they’re working."So far, we don't have any sign of the melanoma coming back, and the treatment hopefully keeping her disease in check,” said Dr. Mattar.It is a small victory in what she knows will be a long fight."I'm really happy about it, and my prognosis is good,” she said. “That's cause for celebration."It’s also reason to spread word. As Michelle cherishes the time she has, she warns other women not to be complacent."Have a dermatologist look over you, look at anything you might find suspicious, a large mole, a mole you noticed wasn't there before,” she said.Because the sooner skin cancer is found, the better your chances are of beating it. And for Michelle, that means making memories with her children.While treating pregnant women with skin cancer is more difficult, doctors have drugs they can use that won’t hurt the baby and they say it’s very rare for the cancer to spread to the fetus.
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