On July 20, 2009, Michele Milso was leaving the gym when she received a call from her radiologist. That call changed her life.
“He told me I have breast cancer,” says Milso, who lives in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. “It was the last thing I thought I’d hear.”
To maintain a healthy lifestyle, Milso ate well, exercised daily, and attended preventative medical visits, such as mammograms. On the day of that phone call, she acted immediately by calling her doctor for the next steps.
Within three months, she underwent a mastectomy, followed by eight rounds of chemotherapy. When scans revealed cancer in her lymph nodes, she then had 35 rounds of radiation. By November 2011, Milso completed her primary therapy and initiated adjuvant endocrine therapy — medication used to reduce the risk of breast cancer recurrence — for seven years.
“I have a lot to live for,” says Milso. “I have a beautiful family and I’m going to do whatever I can do to fight this because my disease doesn’t own me.”
An unexpected recurrence
In 2020, about 11 years after her diagnosis, Milso thought something was wrong when her chin suddenly became numb. After a thorough evaluation, including visits to her dentist, an oral surgeon, and a neurologist, she underwent a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan of her head.
That same day, she got another call from her care team: She had multiple areas of cancer in her skull. It was later determined that these findings indicated that Milso had metastatic breast cancer.
“My original breast cancer had metastasized my skull, spine, clavicle, sternum, hip and femur,” Milso says. “I needed to start treatment again, and that was pretty scary because there was so much happening at one time.”
Upon receiving this news, Milso was unsure of how to proceed — and what lay ahead. Then, she reminded herself that “cancer wasn’t everything,” and she decided to take one step at a time —whatever that next step would be.
“It’s not the path,” adds Milso. “It’s how you walk the path. It’s not what happens to you. It’s how you respond to it.”
Putting hope and science to the test
Since her diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer, Milso received standard cancer therapies. With her health and her drive to be there for her family in mind, at the next fork in the road for decision-making, Milso enrolled in a clinical trial — the evERA study — led by Erica Mayer, MD, MPH, director of Breast Cancer Clinical Research in the Breast Oncology Center at Dana-Farber.
The global phase 3 evERA trial studies a new next-generation oral endocrine therapy called giredestrant used in combination with everolimus, an oral medication targeting mTOR — a regulator of cellular functioning — in patients with metastatic estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/human epidermal growth receptor 2-(HER2) negative breast cancer.
“Although we’ve made great progress in treating metastatic ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer, these cancers can become resistant to existing therapies, making them difficult to treat, such as in Michele’s case,” explains Mayer, who presented data from the evERA study at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress in Germany in October 2025.
Milso was one of the 373 patients who received either the giredestrant and everolimus combination or standard-of-care endocrine therapy plus everolimus. The primary report from the trial was a success, demonstrating a significant improvement in how long the giredestrant-based therapy was able to control the breast cancer in comparison to the standard of care choices.
After having successful cancer control on the trial, Milso is now enrolled in a clinical trial of a triplet combination of endocrine therapy with two targeted therapies, led by Adrienne Waks, MD, in the Breast Oncology Center.
Milso says the new treatment protocol has had its challenges, but she is thankful she can continue to fight.
Paying it forward with research
Knowing firsthand how challenging a cancer diagnosis can be, Milso does whatever she can to help Dana-Farber researchers make discoveries in the lab.
“Cancer is challenging,” says Milso. “It impacts me and my family, and I want to help other patients in the future. Whenever I go into Dana-Farber for treatment, I offer to provide additional blood samples to the research team so they can do additional testing.”
Mayer says her research team at Dana-Farber can continue to deliver new therapies to patients because of contributions that Milso and others like her have made. Mayer hopes that the evERA treatment could soon be a viable option for patients with metastatic breast cancer upon FDA approval.
Compassionate care
Once Milso came to Dana-Farber in 2009, she hasn’t looked back.
“Patients are going to get the best care possible here,” she says. “Since day one, I’ve felt safe and cared for when I come to Dana-Farber. Life is to be lived and enjoyed, and even though I have this medical journey, I know it’s not who I am. It’s a part of my life and a part of my journey. I do what I can and press on.”