TAMPA, Fla. — Mendy Michalec went in for her regular mammogram when something unexpected popped up.
“If I had not gotten the mammogram, I would’ve never have found it,” she said.
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When she got the news, she said it knocked the wind out of her.
“After that, I went in for a biopsy. That’s usually the next step, and of course, that came back as positive,” said Michalec.
Earlier this summer, Michalec was diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s now going through radiation treatment.
“It is definitely not a sprint,” she said. “It is a journey.”
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
This year, the American Cancer Society (ACS) estimates more than 316,000 women are expected to be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in the U.S.
In 1985, the organization said it helped lead an effort to start Breast Cancer Awareness Month as a week-long campaign to educate women on the importance of early screening and routine mammograms.
2025 marks 40 years.
“Our advancements in detection and our knowledge of who needs this early detection has changed completely,” said Dr. Kyle Bowers, a surgical oncologist with AdventHealth Tampa and Wesley Chapel.
Dr. Bowers said we’ve come leaps and bounds in four decades.
“The treatment modalities we have available today are literally changing day by day, hour by hour,” said Bowers. “We continue to progress in research both in treatment, medication, surgical advancements. The options our patients have today never even were on the radar 40 years ago.”
According to the ACS, the breast cancer death rate has dropped by 44 percent since 1989 because of advances in treatment and earlier detection.
“In the early 2000s, immunotherapy became a thing,” said Dr. Bowers. “In fact, the first immunotherapy which was directed for HER2+ cancer came out in that time and took what was essentially a death sentence to have triple-positive cancer and turned it into something that was very treatable successfully.”
Michalec said she’s gotten a lot of support from people in the community, including the Breast Cancer Foundation of Central Florida.
For the countless patients who will walk her same path to recovery, she wants them to know this.
“Just be patient, give yourself grace, and love and rest,” said Michalec.
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