BreAnn’s Story: “Keep Fighting. Find Your Path, and Just Live.”
BreAnn’s journey with epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) began with a moment that seemed almost ordinary at first — lifting her 1-year-old daughter out of her crib.
“It all started with a broken back after lifting my then 1-year-old out of her crib,” BreAnn said. “I felt pain shoot through my arms and heard the pop, but thought nothing of it for 3 weeks.”
At first, the pain felt bearable. But when her husband encouraged her to go to the doctor, an X-ray revealed something shocking: BreAnn had a broken back. Additional imaging, including an MRI and CT scan, confirmed the fracture and uncovered something even more concerning — masses and tumors that doctors initially suspected might be breast cancer.
A mammogram showed abnormalities, but not breast cancer. As more scans were performed, doctors found disease in BreAnn’s lungs, liver, and spine. Before they could move forward with back surgery, she needed a liver biopsy. Because no one in her area had encountered anything like it before, the biopsy was sent to three different labs for review.
“I finally got the call over a month later, in July 2024, that I had EHE,” she said.
By then, the disease had already caused significant damage. BreAnn explained that the tumors began in her T10 vertebra and eventually destroyed it completely.
“It eventually destroyed that vertebrae and exploded it — that was the pop,” she said.
She underwent extensive spinal reconstruction, including replacement of the damaged vertebra, placement of eight screws, a rod, and spinal fusion. After a difficult week in the hospital, she returned home, only to be rushed back the very next day after developing seizures.
Doctors later determined that BreAnn was experiencing severe stress- and PTSD-related seizures after everything her body had endured in such a short time.
“My husband advocated for me to be transferred to another hospital,” she said. “They did not expect me to walk out of the hospital, let alone survive. My family was preparing for the worst.”
A few weeks later, BreAnn began radiation to her spine, followed by AIM/MAI IV chemotherapy. The treatment was incredibly hard on her body. She endured severe nausea and vomiting, struggled to eat or drink for weeks, developed an allergy to an anti-nausea medication, and was later hospitalized with a staph infection in her esophagus related to treatment.
“My body couldn’t handle it,” she said.
Knowing they needed to explore other options, BreAnn and her husband sought additional opinions from Johns Hopkins and UPMC. Those consultations led to a new treatment approach with Mekinist, which she began in December 2024.
Although the medication brought difficult side effects, including heart issues, it also brought one of the first encouraging moments in her journey.
“Scans were showing stabilization and some shrinkage,” BreAnn said. “I was, for once, thinking positively.”
That became one of the clearest high points in her EHE experience.
But EHE continued to bring challenge after challenge. BreAnn later faced severe stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, gallstones that could not be surgically treated because of a nearby liver tumor, acute colitis, sepsis, and C. diff. After undergoing a hysterectomy in February 2026 for severe endometriosis, she restarted treatment, only to learn at her next CT scan that three liver tumors were growing.
“When they found 3 of my liver tumors were growing, it was instant fear and feeling of failure,” she said.
Her oncologist told her to stop treatment immediately while her case was reviewed with the broader oncology team to determine the next step.
“I now await the next step,” BreAnn said.
Through it all, BreAnn says her husband, daughter, and family have been the reason she continues to fight.
“My husband and my young daughter are the reason I fight every day,” she said. “I have a large support team behind me, including my family.”
Like so many people living with EHE, BreAnn carries fear alongside determination.
“I fear tumor growth constantly and losing my battle before seeing my daughter grow up,” she said. “I constantly have the feeling and thoughts of why me and why are there limited options and resources.”
Some of her lowest moments came in the aftermath of IV chemotherapy, during periods of tumor growth, and on the days when she simply did not feel well enough to imagine continuing.
“I occasionally felt like I could not continue with this fight,” BreAnn said.
And yet, in the middle of all that hardship, she discovered something important about herself.
“I learned my strength and determination to survive,” she said.
BreAnn describes her journey with an image that reflects both the disruption of diagnosis and the hope that still remains.
“I view my journey as if I were living my life on a road,” she said. “My cancer diagnosis is just as if I took a wrong turn and just need to get back on the right path to my road.”
For anyone newly diagnosed with EHE, her advice is simple, powerful, and hard-earned:
“Keep fighting,” BreAnn said. “Find your path, and just live.”
