They likely don’t know the stage until surgery at least. I hope your co-worker finds out she caught it early. It’s still a beast to deal with, but the earlier, the better.

My grandma on my dad’s side died of breast cancer before I was born. My cousin on my mom’s side had it at around 43. My mom just had it. But none of us have genes for it, none that they know of. My doctors told me that’s just bad luck and that 1 out of every 8 women will have breast cancer and it’s not that strange to see.