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For Tasha Cade, finding out she was pregnant with her first child in 2022 should have brought on feelings of elation, excitement and anticipation. Instead, in her first trimester, she was delivered news no one wants to hear: “you have cancer.”

 Those words marked the end of a two-year chapter for Tasha, who initially felt a lump in her breast in 2020. With a family history of breast cancer (she lost her grandmother to it), Tasha continuously advocated for herself with health care providers near her Virginia Beach residence to no avail. Numerous trips to different providers and exams resulted in providers telling Tasha it was simply a case of dense breast tissue.

 It was not until a conversation with her OB-GYN shortly after discovering she was pregnant that a biopsy was ordered that confirmed her fears: the lump Tasha felt in her breast two years prior was officially diagnosed as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS).

What was supposed to be a bright new chapter of motherhood became much more precarious overnight.

According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women in the United States with Black women more likely to die from breast cancer than any other race or ethnic group at any age. The ACS estimates that in 2025, about 59,080 new cases of DCIS will be diagnosed among the roughly 316,950 new cases of invasive breast cancer across the country.

Following a lumpectomy that revealed the cancer had spread outside of the milk ducts into the surrounding breast tissue, Tasha faced a daunting obstacle: how to treat her cancer while maintaining a viable pregnancy.

“I had a wave of emotions,” Tasha recalled. “I was in a state of confusion, and after the lumpectomy, my surgeon said that we needed to do a mastectomy immediately.”

It was all too much, too fast. Because of Tasha’s family history, she wanted to seek a second opinion from an oncologist who could speak to a course of action beyond the recommended mastectomy. “So I reached out to one of my good friends who was married to a doctor, and she said, ‘I'm going to put you in contact with VCU (Health).’”

At Massey, Tasha met with Kandace McGuire, M.D., the chief of breast surgery and the senior vice president of the Cancer Service Line at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center.

For Tasha, McGuire’s compassion, personal attention, and professionalism brought her comfort. However, what fortified her confidence in Massey was McGuire’s experience in performing mastectomies on pregnant women.

“That just put me at ease knowing that she had done this before,” said Tasha. “And with Dr. McGuire’s personality, she just made me feel very confident in my care.”

After that she met with her cancer team - the group of professionals who would make sure this next chapter had a happy ending. This included providers from the medical oncology, radiation oncology, navigation, and social work departments. Together, this Massey team was determined to deliver the gold standard in customized care for her.

“Breast cancer occurrences in pregnant women are extremely rare,” McGuire said. “It happens in less than 1 in 10,000 pregnancies. While there are certain medications we can't give and certain interventions we cannot do, all in all, with modern medicine and surgical techniques, patients who are diagnosed with breast cancer during pregnancy do fairly well and so do their babies.”

Since Tasha’s cancer was spread out over a wide area of her breast, just removing a portion of the breast was not a viable solution. McGuire and her team recommended a mastectomy to Tasha, a standard treatment plan for a woman with breast cancer that cannot be treated with just a lumpectomy.

“The other difference about treating a woman who is pregnant is that they can't have radiation,” McGuire noted. “And so even if a lumpectomy could have been successful, she would have had to wait months for her radiation if she wanted to continue her pregnancy, which she did want to. And we supported Tasha 100%. So, ultimately, we recommended a mastectomy with reconstruction at a later date.”

In late January 2023, Tasha had her mastectomy. And while she received Dr. McGuire’s medical expertise, she also received her grace and compassion. 

“I’m on the operating table, and Dr. McGuire is holding my hand because I'm literally bawling, and she says, ‘You're going to be fine. You're going to be okay.’ And obviously, as soon as the anesthesia kicked in, I was literally out a few seconds later, and thankfully, it turned out incredibly well,” said Tasha.

After surgery, Tasha awaited further treatment until the birth of her baby boy Kaden in May of that year. Immediately following his birth, Tasha was put on tamoxifen, an estrogen blocker that helps treat and prevent recurrences of breast cancer. Tasha’s plastic surgeon, Dr. Paschalia Mountziaris, also performed a double breast reconstruction on Tasha shortly after Kaden’s birth.

Today, Tasha is endlessly thankful for the comprehensive care she received at Massey and the life it has helped to create. For the Virginia Beach resident, Massey’s unique approach to care is a big reason she is still willing to make the two-hour drive to Richmond for follow-up appointments.

“The fact that I have so much faith in VCU, I drive. And of course, in 2023 and 2024, I had a lot of appointments, but I didn't mind making that commute because I knew that I was in good hands,” said Tasha. “ Anytime I send a message through the portal, within an hour or so, they respond immediately. They're always just so caring. They call, they check on me.”

Thanks to Massey, the book of motherhood will have many more chapters for Tasha.

“I couldn't have painted a better picture for my life. I have the child that I prayed for. Kaden is so smart. He's so handsome. He's a mama's boy. So he's stuck to my side constantly. So two and a half years removed, I am just very thankful, obviously, for the care that I've been given and for Massey, Dr. McGuire, and her team.”

Written by: Bill Potter