Twins With Breast Cancer Encourage Others to Get Screened

Twin sisters from Maryland encourage women who share their common condition to get screened after their surprising breast cancer diagnoses.

“We share everything,” Alicia Sayas said. “We do a lot of things together.”

“We talk every day, all day,” Aleta Sayas said. “If it's not texting, it's on the phone.”

She was shocked when she noticed a lump in her breast just two months after passing a mammogram. She went back to the doctor and was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer.

“It's been very emotional, and mentally it's been hard,” she said. “I've done everything I was supposed to do, as far as taking care of myself. I'm going to get my mammos every year, and it still ended up happening.”

Her sister was by her side for emotional support, and because cancer can be hereditary, doctors told her she could be at risk, too.

“We're twins, so we share the same genetic material, and so I was, I was very concerned because I knew it could easily be a possibility for me as well,” Alicia said.

A surgeon recommended she get an MRI, and that’s when she found out she had cancer, too, just weeks after her sister’s diagnosis.

“Never in a million years would I think that we would be sharing this diagnosis,” Alicia said. “It totally caught us off guard.”

Both women have dense breast tissue – a condition that impacts half of women over 40 – making it harder to detect cancer.

Dense breasts have more tissue and fat, so reading a mammogram is more challenging, and cancers can get missed. Women with dense breasts have a four times higher risk of developing breast cancer.

But a new Food and Drug Administration nationwide mandate could save lives, requiring all healthcare providers to notify women of their breast density.

“Even for women with dense breasts, a mammogram is still the first-line tool we use for surveillance,” said Dr. Candace Mainor, oncologist at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. “But there are other types of imaging we can use, including breast ultrasound and breast MRI if there are any questions on the breast mammogram.”

She says women with dense breasts are encouraged to talk to their doctors to see what’s best for them and how often they should be screened.

As for the Sayas sisters, they're relying on their faith and each other as they undergo treatment, doing the best they can with the cards they've been dealt and knowing they're in it together.

“At the end of the day, we're always making sure that each other's OK,” Aleta said. “That's number one.”

“Just to know that we're there for each other, it just means a lot,” Alicia said.

The Sayas encourage other women to get screened and know their risk, especially if they have dense breast tissue.

The new FDA standard takes effect next year. In the meantime, Congress is planning to reconsider the Find It Early Act requiring health insurance plans to cover mammograms and any additional screening.

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