In May 2025, Marissa noticed a lump in her breast. At age 31, cancer was the last thing on her mind, but when it hadn’t gone away after a few weeks, she visited her nurse practitioner, who referred her to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute’s South Shore location for a mammogram. A biopsy confirmed she had invasive ductal carcinoma, a type of breast cancer.
Marissa, who loves to travel, was in Canada with her sister, Annie, when she heard the news. When she got home, she met with her team at Dana-Farber, who scheduled her for a lumpectomy in September to remove the tumor. Testing after surgery revealed her cancer was estrogen-receptor positive and had a high chance of recurrence without chemo, so Marissa began a 20-week cycle of chemotherapy, followed by four weeks of radiation this spring.
A high school science teacher, Marissa was devastated to learn she needed further treatment after surgery, which kept her away from the classroom for all of last year. She is excited to get back to her students this fall.
Aug 19, 2026
