Las Vegas sisters both battle breast cancer

Battling breast cancer is tough enough, but two Las Vegas sisters got through it by helping each other in the fight of their lives.

Flor Gomez, 48, and Ema Gomez, 55, were diagnosed one year apart with two different types of breast cancers. Today, both are cancer-free, and their prognosis is good.

Ema Gomez was diagnosed first in April 2019 with HER2 in stage 2 after she found a lump. After a mammogram, her cancer was confirmed through a biopsy. She later underwent a bilateral mastectomy.

“I was overwhelmed and scared and thought about the future of my family,” she said. “I was afraid of dying. The cancer I had was hard to treat.”

Flor Gomez was diagnosed in December 2020 with triple-negative breast cancer after a mammogram came back abnormal. A lumpectomy came back as positive in stage 1. She did a bilateral mastectomy this year because she didn’t want to take any chances with cancer recurring. Like her sister, she underwent chemotherapy.

“Thank God that I have been strong,” Flor Gomez said. “I know the importance of getting mammograms when you feel something abnormal. My hair was falling out, and I felt a little more tired than I used to. People should do the testing because it’s a life-and-death situation. Thank God that mine was in the early stages. Now, I feel great and have more energy.”

Flor Gomez, an esthetician who plans on having breast reconstruction surgery this fall, said she got through it with the help of her sister, who was strong when she battled her cancer.

“I saw what she went through, and I wasn’t that scared,” Flor Gomez said. “I just did my best and followed the doctor’s advice.”’

She also credited Souzan El-Eid, the sisters’ breast surgeon at Comprehensive Cancer Centers, for addressing the problems immediately.

“She gave us hope and made us feel safe and not to worry that ‘you would be taken care of, and hope for the best,’” Flor Gomez said. “She said we’re going to get this and to stay positive.”

That’s the message Flor Gomez tells other women who face the same threat she did: Don’t panic, stay positive and know it can be treated.

Flor Gomez said she never expected to get breast cancer like her sister because when Ema was diagnosed, it wasn’t found to be genetic. She also didn’t have the gene that predisposed her to breast cancer, and there was no history of breast cancer in the family.

“I was so worried about my little sister,” Ema Gomez said after Flor’s diagnosis. “Because when you think of cancer, you think you’re going to die. Flor helped me, and I think that helped her when she was diagnosed. She was there with me when I was diagnosed and got chemo. I was preparing her not to be scared. When they told me she was positive, I went with her.”

They have two more sisters, but neither has been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“But I am worried about them too,” Ema Gomez said.

The sisters are leery about breast implants because Ema and Flor had them.

El-Eid said there’s no evidence, however, that their implants cause breast cancer but acknowledges the cause remains unknown. The one concern about implants is they can block mammogram findings, she said.

“Many things can cause breast cancer,” El-Eid said. “It’s obesity, diet and environment, alcohol and hormones.”

That’s why it’s important for women to be aware of their bodies and examine themselves even if they get a mammogram every year. While some medical groups tell women to wait until 50 to get a mammogram, El-Eid said there are others who say 40 is the starting point and call for it to be done yearly instead of every two years.

If women have genetic markers, they should get them every six months. And as women age, they should keep getting mammograms into their 70s and 80s, she said.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and No. 2 killer with 43,000 deaths expected this year, El-Eid said.

“We have made advancements and death rates have decreased because we have earlier detection and better treatments,” El-Eid said. “We have three-dimensional mammograms for screening so we catch it earlier.”