Andrea Schaffer ’01 has made major life changes after a full-body MRI scan.
I have worked in the nutrition world since 2010, and health has been very important to me: eating organic, paying attention to chemical exposures, and incorporating exercise into my routine.
My mom had breast cancer when she was my age, so in early February 2023, as I was turning 44, I decided to get a Prenuvo full-body MRI scan as a birthday gift to myself. I also had some perimenopause symptoms, and it seemed like a great idea to get a baseline scan so that I could see changes in my body as I aged.
I had learned about Prenuvo, a private company that offers whole-body MRI scans that can detect more than 500 conditions, through my work. I have been studying oncology nutrition and metabolic therapies for several years with the Oncology Nutrition Institute, and I see clients remotely to help them change their health. If anyone was equipped to deal with what was to come, it was me.
I went in to get my scan while on a trip to the Bay Area. This was the first MRI I had ever had. When it was finished, the tech asked me about a note in my intake form about losing my sense of smell, and I explained that I lost it during a COVID-19 infection in early 2022. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this was a clue to what was to come.
Afterward, I went to work, followed by a dinner with colleagues. When I arrived back at my hotel at 9 p.m., I had a message from Prenuvo, telling me that there was something concerning in my scan, and that they needed to speak with me as soon as possible. I called back, but it was late, and the nurse practitioner who explains the results was not available. Given my work experience, my mind went to cancer, and it was a sleepless night.
The next morning, I called Prenuvo at 6:30 a.m. and scheduled time to speak with the nurse practitioner at 5 p.m. I went to work and anxiously awaited my appointment.
When the time came, the nurse practitioner started at the top of the body and with the most immediate concern: “You have a 2.3- by 2.4-cm mass in the right temporal lobe of your brain.” It was the size of a walnut! How could I have had no symptoms? I was dumbfounded. But I kept my calm as we went through the rest of the results, and I learned a few more things about what was going on inside my body.
This defining moment initiated the journey I have been on ever since. At that point, we did not know whether the mass was benign or malignant, but my oncology nutrition spidey sense kicked in. I immediately started a therapeutic ketogenic diet as my training dictates, in case it was the worst-case scenario, and I started working on figuring out other contributing factors that could have impacted this tumor.
Over the next couple of months, I was recommended to one of the best surgeons in the world to do my brain surgery in Arizona. I had surgery on April 5, 2023, at Barrow Neurological Institute. In our consultation on the day before, the surgeon said to me, “Are you sure you haven’t had any seizures? This tumor is compressing your right hippocampus nearly in half, and that can cause seizures.” I had never felt so grateful in my life. A seizure while driving could very well have killed me and/or others.
The surgery went well, the surgeon removed the whole tumor, and I was discharged from the ICU 24 hours after it ended. Two weeks later, I found out that my tumor was a grade 3 oligodendroglioma, which means it was cancerous. What would have happened if I had not done the whole-body MRI? It is impossible to know.
In the 11 months following the scan, I made great changes to my diet and lifestyle — even moving cross-country in order to be closer to my neurosurgeon and better health care options. Because the entire tumor was removed, I am currently classified as “no evidence of disease.” My surgeon thinks that I will be just fine, as long as I maintain my diet and stay in good health. I will live a much longer, healthier, and happier life, and I am grateful to have had the ability to take control of my health.
Andrea Schaffer ’01 sees clients remotely through her Mesa, Ariz., practice, Not Just Broccoli Oncology Nutrition. She helps clients personalize their diets and lifestyles to discourage cancer.