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Woman Fights Cancer Before, After Baby

Cancer Returns Months After Delivery

Friday, April 18, 2008

Kristin Hoke, a news anchor at television station WPBF, had dreamt of having a child her entire life.

Being the aunt to 10 nieces and nephews, Kristin grew up to learn the importance of family.

But while she was trying to start her own family in 2004, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After four rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation, Kristin wondered if she would still be able to have a baby.

"When she was diagnosed in '04, it was very traumatizing, and what was even more sad than the fact that she was so sick is how devastated she was thinking that she was not going to be able to have a child. That was almost more gut-wrenching than the fact that she was as sick as she was," Kristin's husband, Eric, told WPBF.

About 18 months after her cancer had gone into remission, Kristin was given the all-clear from her doctor to try again. A few months later, she was pregnant.

Isabella Margaret was born in April 2007. Then, the unexpected happened: about two months into her pregnancy leave, Kristin's cancer returned.

"You always feel devastated when a patient's cancer comes back. Then, right when someone has had the joy of having a baby, it makes it especially poignant. It is very difficult," Kristin doctor, Dr. Elisabeth McKeen, told WPBF.

Kristin underwent a new type of chemotherapy involving a drug combination usually reserved for ovarian cancer. Her cancer dramatically shrank after just a few weeks of the therapy and her doctor said that the cancer is now completely gone.

Kristin said her goal now is to make sure that she will be around to raise her daughter and be the best mother that she can be.

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