Tina Calderone-Roth survived ovarian cancer | bilateral oophorectomy | avastin | ascites |lynparza
- Aug 4
- 11 min read
DESCRIPTION
In May 2022, Tina Calderone-Roth felt terrible. She was experiencing fatigue, shortness of breath and nausea. She also gained close to 15 pounds in three days. Nurses she knew suggested she go to the emergency department. Two paracentesis procedures resulted in the removal of 6.5 liters of fluid. Doctors initially noticed a large abdominal mass, but further tests indicated ovarian masses of 7cm and 10cm. Tests also showed Tina had the BRCA-2 gene mutation. She opted to, all at once, undergo a hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy. A week after the procedure, it was learned there had been Stage 1B cancer in both ovaries. Tina was next put on six rounds of chemotherapy with carbo-taxol, avastin and the PARP inhibitor, lynparaza. Because of the BRCA-2 gene mutation and with it, the possibility of breast, she decided to get a bilateral mastectomy. Tina reached survivorship and these days, while she can no longer run, she can jog and power walk.
Tina had been working for more than two decades in the care management sector of health care in 2022, when her health took a sudden turn for the worse. She was feeling unusually tired, had shortness of breath and her weight shot up by 15 pounds in three days. She had no idea what was going on, but consulted friends who were nurses, and they suggested she go to the emergency department, which she did in the middle of a workday.
Tina underwent a CT scan, ultrasound, electrocardiogram, blood work and genetic testing. A subsequent pair of paracentesis procedure removed a combined 6.5 liters of fluid, which explained her sudden, sharp weight gain. Those tests also showed she had a large abdominal mass. Further tests were conducted and they revealed two large ovarian masses, measuring roughly 7cm and 10cm. Meanwhile, the genetic testing revealed Tina had the BRCA-2 gene mutation. She did not want to have multiple surgeries, so she elected to have a hysterectomy along with the removal of both ovaries. About a week later, it was determined the ovaries were cancerous.
She and her care team settled on a six-round chemotherapy regimen of carbo-taxol, avastin and the PARP inhibitor, lynparaza. Like many dealing with chemotherapy, Tina was fatigued, had nausea and suffered hair loss, but got through it. She was still concerned about the possibility of being diagnosed with breast cancer because of the gene mutation, so she decided to undergo a bilateral mastectomy.
If Tina Calderone-Roth’s health before her diagnosis could be considered 100 percent, these days she considers her health to be at 90 percent. While she can no longer run, Tina says she can jog and power walk.
Additional Resources:
Tina’s Book:
“Where Fears Meets Faith,” available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, in paperback and Kindle
TRANSCRIPT
Bruce Morton: Greetings. This is the @CancerInterviews podcast and I’m your host, prostate cancer survivor Bruce Morton. For our guest on this episode, testing revealed two large masses that became a diagnosis of ovarian cancer. What made a difficult situation worse was the detection of the breast cancer gene-two mutation. Tina Calderone-Roth of Buena Park, California not only survived her diagnoses, but she has written an award-winning book to aid those on a cancer journey. Now is the time to hear her story, and Tina, welcome to Cancer Interviews.
Tina Calderone-Roth: Thank you so much. I am so happy to be here.
BM: Before we get to your cancer journey, let’s learn more about you. If you would, tell us about where you are from, what you have done for work and what do you do for fun?
TCR: I live in Buena Park, California. I have been in the field of health care for over 25 years, specifically in the field of social work and care management. My goal has always been to support others in their medical journey and to help provide support and resources. For fun, this is going to sound funny, but I really like to re-purpose old furniture that has been discarded and create something new out of it. Then I end up gifting things away, and it is fun, a great way to relieve stress and to just be creative.
BM: Your cancer journey with a floodtide of symptoms asserting themselves all on the same day. Tell us about what happened on that day.
TCR: It was in May of 2022. For a couple of days before May ninth, I hadn’t been feeling well. Nothing very specific, just general malaise, a little shortness of breath, then the big thing was significant weight gain over a two-to-three-day period. It was quite bizarre and I couldn’t figure out what it was. What ended up happening was, I talked to my nurse friends and they said I needed to go , to the emergency room.
BM: And what happened when you went to the ER?
TCR: I went there after working part of the day, just strolled over there. I was there for quite a while. They couldn’t quite pinpoint what was going on. There were multiple tests, CT scan, blood work, other scans, EKGs, and finally they revealed I had a large abdominal mass. That’s what we initially saw, but in addition, there was a significant amount of ascites. I started to fill up with fluid in the abdomen, which explained why I had gained so much weight. I found that there were about 2.5 liters of fluid that had accumulated in the abdomen area.
BM: All this is very daunting, but at this point, you had not learned you had cancer. What led to your diagnosis?
TCR: So, after that, after paracentesis that day, I then directed to connect with a primary doctor and an oncologist, which I did, and I had amazing care and was able to get in rather quickly. This was quite a blessing. At that point we did additional testing and we also did genetic testing, which is where I found out about the BRCA-2 genetic mutation. At that point it was determined that I probably have to have surgery for hysterectomy and possibly ovariectomy of one ovary at that point. We had discussion about that and I indicated that I did not want to have multiple surgeries, so I elected to have the full hysterectomy and bilateral ovariectomy all at once, and then we would determine if there was cancer or not, with pathology, and that came about a week after the surgery. We found a week later that there was in fact cancer in both ovaries, so Stage 1B is what we found.
BM: Everybody is different in terms of how they react to this horrific news. Given your diagnosis and your makeup, how did you handle learning of this diagnosis?
TCR: As you know, it is not something anyone wants to hear, and I still remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting in a parking lot and received a phone call, and the results came in over the phone. It is strange, but in my heart on that day of the emergency room visit, I knew that it was cancer. I was hoping for the best, so when the call came, I don’t think I was shocked, but it did hit me. It hit me hard and it was very emotional and I still remember that day in the parking lot with my husband, just sobbing.
BM: By the way, we hope you find time to like and subscribe to our channel. And if you click on the bell icon, you will be notified anytime we post an interview. We also want to remind you that Cancer Interviews is not a distributor of medical advice. If you seek medical advice, please consult a licensed healthcare professional.
Tina, you have now been diagnosed. Did you have treatment options?
TCR: Yes, we talked about it. There were a few things, and one of course was the decision to remove both ovaries instead of just one. That was quite a process and took a couple of visits to actually finalize, but then there was the discussion of chemotherapy. We had discussed treatment types with them, and it was determined the best way to go for me in my situation was to move forward with the chemotherapy treatment and that’s what we decided to do.
BM: Do you remember the various ingredients in your chemotherapy cocktail?
TCR: Yes, I remember that very well. I had carbo-taxol for six rounds and in addition, I had avastin during those rounds. Upon completion of those rounds, I did the PARP inhibitor, lynparza. That’s an oral pill. It seemed like that went on forever, but we made it through the six rounds and the six months of the lynparza.
BM: Looking back on your chemo regimen, what was the toughest part?
TCR: Generalized weakness. Y’know, I am a doer, rounding at clinics, visiting patients, but I had no strength. As we progressed through the sessions of treatment, I started to have neuropathy in both legs, both feet, so I couldn’t feel my feet. It was really challenging because you are at risk for falls or tripping, or things like that. That was hard. There was nausea and a little bit of unsteadiness of my gait. I did have the hair loss and that was an adjustment, being that I ran medical clinics, I was very self-conscious of that just because I did not want to make anyone feel uncomfortable, but it was an adjustment. All of those adjustment phases were things you just had to work on. Thank goodness, I went through all different types of therapies. They really help me trying to cope and adjust.
BM: During this time, you have learned about the BRCA-2 mutation, you had the surgery with your ovaries, you have gone through everything that is entailed in the chemotherapy regimen, through all this, while you are going through this, what did you learn about yourself?
TCR: There was just so much going on, and I just kept pushing through. I was going through the second leg of my second Master’s degree and people asked if I was going to take a leave of absence. I said no, I am not going to take a leave of absence. I said I needed to see this through. I pushed forward and I had incredible professors that let me turn in my assignments early so that I could have my surgeries. I knew more than ever that I had to advocate and support others that were going through similar journeys, so I had to finish this degree and also be present for my daughter that was just ten years old at the time. So, I just learned about being tough. I wanted to have that grit to push forward.
BM: And while you are going through this, after the chemo, there had to be a point in which you felt you were making tangible progress and moving toward survivorship. How exciting was that?
TCR: That was incredibly exciting. I didn’t really know how to accept that because my journey wasn’t quite over yet. Even though I had completed the six rounds and it was a victory for my whole social network and support system because they were all there with me, I couldn’t have done it without them, but the whole issue with the BRCA-2 genetic mutation kind of looming and the odds of me possibly getting breast cancer were very high, I elected to do bilateral mastectomy. That was about a year after the completion of the whole chemotherapy treatment, so we were kind of busy for a while. This was a decision I made with confidence, the best thing for me, the best thing for my family.
BM: Now, as you look back to where your health stood prior to your diagnosis, let’s call that 100 percent. These days, how would you quantify your health? Would you call 50 percent? 75 percent? 90 percent?
TCR: I would say I am at about 90 percent. I have worked on a lot of strength, a lot of endurance, a lot of physical therapy, a lot of counseling therap. I would be lost without that, but I have become stronger and I do feel myself to be more resilient. One important thing I have to say is that I am more in tune with my body. When something feels off, I look at it. I try and dissect it. I ask myself if this is normal and what is different here? Is this something I have to share with my doctors? I am very much in tune with that now.
BM: These days, is there anything you can’t do that you could do, pre-diagnosis?
TCR: I can’t really run that well, but I can jog, I can power walk and do things like that. I just have to take things at a little slower pace now. I will get there. It just takes me a little bit longer.
BM: Tina has written a book aimed at helping others. It is “Where Fear Meets Faith.” First off, what inspired you to write this book?
TCR: Along my journey of going through treatment, the diagnosis and the recovery after all of these things, I started to experience these really beautiful acts of kindness and human connection. Even though things were extremely hard and there were some really dark times full of fear, I was capturing these things, and they were things I just couldn't explain that were really beautiful. People stepping forward, the community coming forward to help support my family and I was so grateful because I had not experienced anything like that before. Usually, I am the one that wants to help other people and now I was on the receiving end. So, in speaking to a good friend of mine, she said I had an amazing story and that I needed to write it down. Then she told me I would need to write a book. We laughed because we thought that was funny at the time. Lo and behold, she was right, so I gathered these stories about human connection and about faith and about how you can pull through during challenging times. Someone can lift you up with a bowl of soup, helping to run an errand, just sitting there with you and those things really do make a difference. I wrote this book with these stories and I posed questions at the end of each story to help the reader think about ways he or she can lift others up. It is a way to give back. Some of the proceeds from this book are going back to those support groups that helped my family. It’s a way of giving back.
BM: The name of the book is “Where Fear Meets Faith,” and Tina, if somebody wanted to purchase this book, they wanted to read this book, give us some directions.
TCR: The Book is available on amazon.com as well as barnesandnoble.com. It is available in paperback and Kindle versions. I hope if you read it, you will talk to others and discuss things. Engage in conversation. That’s what I really love.
BM: Tina, that’s a tremendous story, what you have gone through and what you are doing. Thank you so much for being with us on Cancer Interviews.
TCR: Thank you so much. It was an honor.
BM: And we want to remind you as we always do when we wrap up, that if you are on a cancer journey, you are not alone. There are people out there like Tina Calderone-Roth who have a wealth of information that can ease the cancer journey. So, until next time, we’ll see you on down the road.
Additional Resources:
Tina’s Book: “Where Fear Meets Faith,” available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, in paperback and Kindle
SHOW NOTES
TITLE: Tina Calderdone-Roth, Ovarian Cancer Survivor – Buena Park, California, USA
In May 2022, Tina Calderone-Roth felt terrible. She was experiencing fatigue, shortness of breath and nausea. She also gained close to 15 pounds in three days. Nurses she knew suggested she go to the emergency department. Two paracentesis procedures resulted in the removal of 6.5 liters of fluid. Doctors initially noticed a large abdominal mass, but further tests indicated ovarian masses of 7cm and 10cm. Tests also showed Tina had the BRCA-2 gene mutation. She opted to, all at once, undergo a hysterectomy and bilateral oophorectomy. A week after the procedure, it was learned there had been Stage 1B cancer in both ovaries. Tina was next put on six rounds of chemotherapy with carbo-taxol, avastin and the PARP inhibitor, lynparaza. She reached survivorship and these days, while she can no longer run, she can jog and power walk.
Additional Resources:
Tina’s Book: “Where Fear Meets Faith,” available on amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com, in paperback or Kindle
Time Stamps:
03:00 In May 2022, symptoms including fatigue and weight gain led to her going to the emergency room, where tests revealed a large abdominal mass.
04:17 What led to her cancer diagnosis.
06:04 How she handled the news of her diagnosis.
08:31Tina is asked if she had treatment options.
10:07 Recalls the toughest parts of her chemotherapy regimen.
11:45 Is asked what she learned about herself during the cancer journey.
13:00 Tina saw she was making progress against ovarian cancer but decided to get a bilateral mastectomy as a hedge against breast cancer because of the BRCA-2 gene mutation.
15:02 Compares her health, post-treatment to what it was, pre-diagnosis.
KEYWORDS (tags):
ovarian cancer
paracentesis
carbo-taxol
brca-2 genetic mutation
avastin
lynparza
ascites
bilateral oophorectomy
bilateral mastectomy
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