In this series, we capture the bravery, strength, honesty, hope and resilience of Albertans living with cancer.
As told to Olivia Piché
In 2004, days before her 50th birthday, Andrea McManus (right) was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Nearly 20 years later, at the end of 2023, her daughter Alexandra was also diagnosed with breast cancer at age 33.
Two decades ago, Andrea joined the MA41 clinical trial, where she received dose-dense treatment. This involved a higher dose of chemotherapy, given more frequently. It was eventually deemed a successful trial with dose-dense chemotherapy becoming a common treatment. Today, Andrea is cancer-free. While Alexandra is still in active treatment to lower the risk of recurrence, she has had no detectable cancer following her mastectomy. In 2024, she went through eight rounds of chemotherapy, where she, too, received dose-dense treatment, though it was much more refined compared to her mother’s clinical trial treatment. Within two generations, the McManus family has seen first-hand remarkable improvements to cancer care, particularly through enhanced patient experience.
Andrea: “I wish that Alex had not had to deal with it at all, but I’m grateful that I was able to contribute something to her care. I’ve always believed in the value of research. I considered myself to be paying it forward. I just never thought that it would get put forward in quite this way.
“My chemo treatment was a blanket treatment; everybody would have gotten the same thing [at the time], whether you were in a clinical trial or not. Alex’s treatment is tailored to her tumour pathology. They know so much more now.
“Watching her treatment, how it was delivered and how it had been refined [since I received it] was a window into the value of how important research is.”
Alexandra: “Now, there’s a big focus on what’s available with your treatment experience. I remember my mom feeling quite nauseous and sick, and that being a big thing. In comparison, my nausea was very well controlled, which was huge. For my chemotherapy, I also did cold capping, which is when you wear a cold cap to try to preserve your hair. It’s just amazing that stuff like that is offered for patients.
“Having a mother who’s gone through breast cancer and a grandmother who went through cancer three times, you definitely feel the generational connection, not in a negative way of it being passed down, but in the sisterhood of the women who’ve come before and what they’ve dealt with.
“It’s a stark visualization of the improvements that have been made. Often, in cancer care and treatment, it can feel like the pace of research is slow. It’s different for different cancers, but I think, as a whole, it’s easy to look at it and say, ‘Why aren’t we moving faster?’ or ‘We hoped we’d be further ahead in 2025.’ But actually, if you compare our experiences, there have been significant improvements.”
