Martha Carlson

August 30, 2022

I’m giving cancer’s “battle language” an update and focusing my survivorship plan on emotional wellbeing and honesty.

July 22, 2022

This year, I returned to the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting, where I heard about the latest advancements in cancer care, as well as met with fellow patients and advocates.

July 08, 2022

I typically don’t use cancer labels, such as “survivor” or “thriver,” but when I heard about COVID-19 “long-haulers,” the term resonated with me.

June 10, 2022

Cancer and its treatments can affect oral health, though when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, the thought of seeing the dentist slipped my mind.

June 02, 2022

I’m not going to worry that I’m changing my own health by saying out loud that this cancer stuff is hard and scary and kills way too many people every single day.

May 26, 2022

When I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, I was comforted by a simple phrase my oncologist told my husband.

May 09, 2022

When it comes to both COVID-19 precautions and life with cancer, I feel like I have to sacrifice some privacy to gain understanding from the people around me.

April 15, 2022

When I was first diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, I did not know there were so many other people like me until I attended Living Beyond Breast Cancer’s Conference on Metastatic Breast Cancer.

March 02, 2022

I’ve recently joined the masses in catching up with routine health care that was put off during the COVID-19 pandemic.

February 08, 2022

After my cancer diagnosis, I was thrust into a world where I rarely understood what was happening to me. An easy-to-understand “cancer vocabulary” would have surely eased my confusions.

December 22, 2021

A patient with cancer writes about trying acupuncture as another potential tool to lessen the effects of chemo-induced peripheral neuropathy and offers advice for other patients on how to possibly deal with the debilitating side effect.

November 30, 2021

A woman with metastatic breast cancer simplifies common terms used in guidelines for privacy of patients in clinical trials. “If we want to take down cancer, we have to find confidence in a system that wasn’t designed to protect us,” she writes.

November 04, 2021

Seven years into a diagnosis of stage 4 breast cancer, one woman has also nurtured hope.

October 26, 2021

Even in the doctor’s office, the words patients hear can cover up the realities of stage 4 breast cancer. “He thought he was offering hope but what he was doing was denying my reality and minimizing the deaths of so many people,” writes a woman with metastatic breast cancer.

October 19, 2021

A woman with metastatic breast cancer looks back on the happy memories she made this summer and how she uses them as strength in the face of cancer. “Sometimes, when we’re lucky, the scale tips toward the good,” she writes.

October 13, 2021

I am in awe of what scientists have been able to discover, but we don’t know enough for those 119 women who will die this Metastatic Breast Cancer Awareness Day, nor for the 43,881 others who will die before the next Breast Cancer Awareness Month rolls around. We deserve more.

September 01, 2021

A woman with breast cancer writes about how patient advocates are pushing for better research into optimal treatment in metastatic breast cancer.

July 27, 2021

“Each of us has our own way of marking what cancer brings to our lives, sometimes in a simple three-letter word,” writes a woman with breast cancer.

July 19, 2021

A patient reflects on the comfort and grief within the world of metastatic breast cancer.

May 27, 2021

“Understanding and taking action against racial differences in cancer care and clinical trial participation are made more powerful when we listen to patient voices,” writes one patient with breast cancer.

May 20, 2021

A patient offers advice on getting patient portals, electronic medical records and technology organized and functioning correctly.

April 23, 2021

A patient discusses her experiences with long-term side effects from cancer treatment and details her frustration with the lack of focus on chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in patients with advanced cancer.

March 30, 2021

A patient with metastatic cancer writes about how the unknowns of her disease have shaped her life and health experiences, and how she has learned to live with that uncertainty.

March 23, 2021

A patient with metastatic cancer writes what it has been like to face the dilemma of receiving an effective cancer therapy that may put her heart at risk.

February 22, 2021

Vaccine eligibility forces this metastatic breast cancer patient to confront the value society places on her life.

February 15, 2021

To honor National Cancer Prevention Month in February, one patient with cancer offers people some tips on how they certain medical and societal choices may help reduce the risk of cancer.

January 17, 2021

The Breast Cancer Recurrence Project aims to revolutionize and bring accuracy to what we know about who’s living with metastatic breast cancer.

January 04, 2021

Living beyond the statistics and finding a way to celebrate a “cancerversary” with metastatic breast cancer.

December 30, 2020

Sometimes it’s hard to bring up the many side effects of cancer treatment, but talking about them can help your doctor provide the best care.

December 21, 2020