It was a picture-perfect spring day in May 2025 in the Boston Public Garden. Sabrina Lucius couldn’t help but snap a picture – though on the inside, her world was falling apart.
“I remember the bench I was sitting on. I remember hearing laughter in the background. And I remember feeling frozen, like time was standing still,” says Lucius, who had just learned she had breast cancer at age 32, only 10 months after giving birth to her first child, Ella.
Lucius and her husband Nick processed the news together as they walked through the Public Garden and into town. They remembered that a friend had been diagnosed with breast cancer a year earlier, also at a young age. Lucius reached out and her friend immediately recommended Dana-Farber.
“The minute I walked into Dana-Farber, I felt taken care of,” says Lucius, who completed treatment in August 2026. “I felt so much comfort being at Dana-Farber that it feels odd, now, to stop treatment and to be leaving them, even though that is the goal. I cried for my first two months of appointments there, which we laugh about now, because I cried when I left, too.”
Gut Instinct
Lucius first knew something was wrong in April of 2025. She felt a persistent stabbing pain in her breast. Neither she nor her primary care physician could feel a lump, but her doctor sent her for imaging anyway. The wait for a mammogram, however, was three months.
Lucius pushed for an earlier appointment, and two weeks later, the imaging confirmed there was a mass. Because of its shape and size, her provider wasn’t concerned and recommended she follow up in six months.
“Something just didn’t feel right about that,” Lucius recalls.
She pressed for a biopsy. By the time she went in for the procedure two weeks later, she’d convinced herself that it was probably nothing. The biopsy results, however, revealed that she had breast cancer that was triple-positive, meaning the cancer cells had estrogen and progesterone receptors, making it sensitive to hormone therapies, but also higher levels of HER2 receptors, making the cancer more aggressive.
Looking back now, Lucius is grateful that she advocated for herself and that her cancer was found early. She had detected a tiny, centimeter-sized lump that couldn’t be felt. Surgery also revealed the presence of precancer called ductal carcinoma in situ DCIS).
“It’s really easy to chalk things like pain up to breastfeeding or hormones, especially when you are young or postpartum, but we really have to look out for ourselves and check out anything that feels abnormal,” says Lucius. “Early detection is so important.”
Expert Guidance
Shortly after her diagnosis, in June 2025, Lucius met with breast oncologist Harold Burstein, MD, PhD, and breast surgeon Elizabeth Mittendorf, MD, PhD, in back-to-back appointments at Dana-Farber. They presented a plan that included three months of chemotherapy, a year of trastuzumab (brand name Herceptin), a targeted therapy that blocks HER2-driven cancer growth, and surgery.
“The way they spoke to each other was of the highest regard and they had a clear plan,” says Lucius. “I was able to sit back and be the patient and put my trust in them.”
The treatment regimen was developed at Dana-Farber for people with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer and tested in a clinical trial led by Sara Tolaney, chief of Breast Oncology at Dana-Farber. “Around the world, it’s known as the Dana-Farber regimen,” says Ann Partridge, MD, MPH, who later became involved in Lucius’s care. “Women who got that regimen did extraordinarily well on average in long-term follow-up.”
Lucius wore a pink sweat suit to her first infusion session and chose to use cold capping to help reduce hair loss during chemotherapy. Her husband helped her fit it properly before each infusion, and her infusion nurse, Hope Spence, RN, was there by her side.
“Hope is so amazing,” says Lucius. “She has the calmest demeanor, and I am not that way, so it was very much needed.”
While Lucius was a candidate for breast conserving surgery to remove the lump, that approach also did not sit right with her. She understood that a double mastectomy wouldn’t necessarily improve her outcome, but she preferred more aggressive treatment.
“The team supported me and I definitely don’t regret it,” says Lucius.
Thinking Ahead
Before her treatment began, the schedulers at Dana-Farber asked Lucius if she planned on having more children. If so, they wanted to give her time to freeze her eggs before beginning chemotherapy, which increases the risk of infertility.
“I very much want to have a second child, at least,” says Lucius, who took steps to prepare for in-vitro fertilization if needed. She also had questions about pregnancy after cancer. “I worried that, if I tried to get pregnant again, my cancer might come back.”
Burstein introduced Lucius to the POSITIVE study, which was designed and carried out by his colleague, Partridge. The study showed that it is safe to take a break from post-treatment hormone therapy – which is designed to keep the cancer from coming back – to attempt pregnancy. Lucius began seeing Partridge soon after for guidance.
“She is the guru for all things fertility post-breast cancer. I’m still nervous, but we have a plan, and we have data to prove the plan is okay,” says Lucius. “Her whole team has so much respect for their patients. I always feel like my concerns are being heard.”
When Lucius completed her year of trastuzumab therapy in August, she started to take post-treatment hormone therapy called tamoxifen. The plan, for now, is to take it for five years, but with a break early next year for a second pregnancy.
“Having this plan for our future is like having a North Star, something to look forward to and push me through,” says Lucius.