Kira Rubiano | Breast Cancer (Bilateral) | Diagnosed at 39
About Me
I’m Kira Rubiano. At 39, I was healthy, active, and thriving as a Partner in a global payroll consulting firm and a mom of two. I walked daily, worked out on my Peloton, ate well, took my supplements, and stayed on top of routine doctor visits. A cancer diagnosis wasn’t on my radar.
How This Started
Even though I wasn’t yet eligible for mammograms, I had started doing monthly self-exams after another woman I knew was diagnosed at 38. One May morning in 2025, in the shower, I felt something unfamiliar in my left breast: a small, hard lump, no bigger than a blueberry. My stomach dropped.
What I Noticed
The lump was new — I’d had a clean clinical breast exam just seven months earlier at my OB/GYN visit. I asked my husband to check, just to be sure I wasn’t overreacting. He felt it too.
My Decisions Along the Way
I chose a double mastectomy. Pathology from the surgery revealed an additional tumor that hadn’t shown up on imaging, and my stage was upgraded; a microscopic trace of cancer was also found in a lymph node. Despite being blindsided, I made every decision from a place of clarity and urgency.
Why It Was Easy to Wait
I had no significant family history — just one grandmother diagnosed in her 70s — and I did everything “right”: ate well, exercised, stayed on top of checkups. I even half-jokingly thought my smaller breast size might mean lower risk. It would have been easy to assume a lump at 39 wasn’t worth worrying about.
The Moment Things Changed
Trusting my gut and scheduling the appointment the very next day — rather than waiting to see if the lump changed — was the moment that mattered. The “just in case” mammogram my doctor agreed to is what caught it.
What Happened Next
I scheduled an appointment the next day. My doctor thought it was likely a cyst, “90% sure,” but agreed to a diagnostic mammogram just in case. That “just in case” turned out to be everything. Within four weeks of finding the lump, I received my diagnosis: Stage 0 breast cancer in one breast, and Stage 1 in the other.
What Would Have Helped Sooner
Nothing would have found this earlier than the monthly self-exam already did — that habit, started because of someone else’s diagnosis, is what let me notice the change within weeks.
What I Learned and What I Want Others to Know
Cancer doesn’t always care how fit you are, how busy, how young, or how good your labs look. I was born near Chernobyl and was only six months old when the disaster occurred, and I’m now speaking out about environmental exposures alongside family history — though I don’t want people to use that as a reason to dismiss their own risks. Know your body. Trust that little voice when it says something’s not right. Don’t brush it off. Don’t wait. Push for answers — your life may depend on it. As the youngest in my family ever diagnosed with cancer, I became a sobering reminder of how early cancer can appear, and I’m sharing my journey openly, determined not to be ashamed.
Changes I Noticed
Felt small, hard, blueberry-sized lump in shower during self-exam, doctor initially suspected cyst.
