St. Charles woman conquers breast cancer, now fights brain cancer

Michelle Wilcox had breast cancer beat.

Wilcox, 65, of St. Charles, said she inherited the PALB2 gene– Partner and Localizer of BRCA2– known as one of the breast cancer genes.

“I got the gene from my mom,” Wilcox said. “My mom died at 39 from breast cancer because we didn’t have the chemo then.”

Wilcox was diagnosed in 2017, had chemo, radiation, a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy.

“Basically, I was good for seven-eight years,” Wilcox said. “It came back in 2024 as brain cancer.”

A funeral home, a casket and a dress

It wasn’t just any old brain cancer.

The eventual diagnosis was leptomeningeal disease, a rare aggressive form of metastatic cancer that spreads to the cerebrospinal fluid, affecting the lining of the brain and spinal cord.

“When someone tells you that you have a month to live, you better live it,” Wilcox said.

Michelle and Keith Wilcox are retired and have a second home in Naples, Fla., where they were on March 2024 when Michelle became nauseated and dizzy.

An emergency room doctor said it was not flu or COVID-19 – and he ordered an MRI.

“He said, ‘You can’t travel. You have to go in an ambulance to the University of Miami Hospital,’” she said. “I had a two-hour ambulance ride from that local hospital near my house to where they could handle a brain tumor.”

Surgeons removed 95% of a golf-ball-sized tumor that was pressing against her cerebellum.

She continued with chemo.

“I was good until the tumor came back,” she said.

New symptoms were double vision and numbness in her sacrum, which led to the leptomeningeal disease diagnosis in January 2025.

“They told me if I do not do anything, I would be gone in a month. That’s not a lot of time,” Wilcox said. “I picked out a funeral home, a casket and a dress. When they tell you that you have a month to live, you better live it. If you got things to do, you better do them.”

‘Fifteen months later and I’m still here’

The window of opportunity to treat this type of cancer is short.

The couple returned to St. Charles and met with Dr. Robin Buerki, a neuro-oncologist at Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva who specializes in complex central nervous system tumors.

Buerki started her on two types of chemo through two ports – one in her brain and the other in her chest.

A port was implanted under the skin to allow for chemo infusions, also reducing the number of needle sticks for blood draws and other injections.

“Dr. Buerki insisted we put that port in during that short window before the cancer increased,” Keith said. “Since she has been diagnosed with the cancer, we’ve had three more grandchildren already.”

Michelle said she wanted to share her story so others who are diagnosed with leptomeningeal disease can have hope.

“Fifteen months later and I’m still here,” Michelle said. “Northwestern Medicine saved my life ... I’m doing everything they said, getting both of those chemos. ... I did make it to see my sixth granddaughter for Mother’s Day.”

Her side effects are nausea – for which she takes medicine – and fatigue – for which she takes naps.

“I want them to know it’s not necessarily doom and gloom,” Wilcox said. “Most people are dead before they get it diagnosed. There’s a small percentage of people where there is hope. I’m still here.”

New treatments available

Buerki said Michelle Wilcox is not unique in having a metastatic progression of breast cancer years after successful treatment.

But the type of her cancer, leptomeningeal, is rare.

For Wilcox, the regular chemo infusions into her chest and brain port are for the rest of her life. If treatment is stopped, he said, the cancer will come back.

“ Leptomeningeal cancer is quite rare and historically – meaning four to five years ago – oftentimes a patient would not even be offered treatment, as we did not have much to offer other than hospice,” Buerki said.

Treating Wilcox as they are shows more patients can benefit from newer treatments that don’t necessarily make people very sick and affect their quality of life.

“She is a fantastic example of this,” Buerki said. “Michelle has had a fantastic response. Her spinal fluid no longer shows the abundant cancer cells that were present before treatment. Her MRIs show no continued disease.”

Without treatment, leptomeningeal disease can be fatal within weeks, with many patients surviving only eight to 12 weeks after diagnosis.

Based on Michelle’s initial diagnosis, he would have expected her to survive only a few weeks.

“Now, more than a year later, she is thriving,” Buerki said. “Seeing a patient not only respond to treatment, but continue to enjoy life, spend time with grandkids and travel – that is absolutely wonderful.”

Buerki said he hopes to offer this therapy to other patients.

“It is something that is very time sensitive,” Buerki said. “For some patients, there can be a window of opportunity. And when we are able to start quickly, as we did for Michelle, it is critical and I think helps with these good results.”

Not only are Michelle and her husband Keith looking forward to their seventh grandchild in November, they’re also looking to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary May 24.