A University of Miami PhD student has powered her way through breast cancer treatments and is now using her power lifting workouts as part of a research study.
LaShae Rolle was a competitive power lifter who realized the lump she felt in her breast needed to be checked out.
“I was in the middle of my PhD in cancer prevention research, funny enough, and that kind of led me to figuring out that the lump that I had in my breast could potentially be cancerous,” she told CBS News Miami.
Rolle was 26 years old when she was diagnosed with HR+, HER2- breast cancer last year and invasive ductal carcinoma. The news came as a shock, but not just because of her age — she has no family history of the disease.
“At age 26, it was just insane for me,” Rolle said. “I didn’t think it was realistically possible.”
She decided early on that she would not just fight the disease, she would power lift her way through it.
“Just out of nowhere and I immediately said, ‘I was going to fight it, regardless of the stage. Anything.’ And that’s what I did,” of powerlifting, she said. “So for me, powerlifting has made the biggest difference. It was the one thing that I had that was my normal.”
She worked with her doctors at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Institute, as well as her mentor, Dr. Tracy Crane.
Crane, the Director of Digital Health and Lifestyle Medicine for Cancer Survivorship, helped Rolle throughout her cancer journey and through her research.
“We learned so much because she was willing to… she was committed to what she was talking about with exercise and then having the science behind it and documenting it in rigorous fashion,” Crane said. “It allowed us to learn a lot.”
The team at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center designed a strength training program that lined up with her chemotherapy cycles. High-intensity days of squats, bench presses and dead lifts were scheduled before her infusions. More moderate days were scheduled mid-cycle. Her recovery days were scheduled for after her infusions.
Rolle’s dedication to documenting her journey and using it for research means she will be helping others on their own cancer journeys.
“She was able to continue on, and the benefit to the research she did was that she really was able to document, as I mentioned, and you know rigorously keep track of her symptoms when she had her chemotherapy and her treatment,” Crane said.
Rolle maintained most of her strength and she inspired others with her social media posts. Her followers are now an inspiration to her to keep pushing.
“You have to have a lot of strength inside you, so you just have to pull it out and keep going,” Rolle said.
Rolle will be finishing up her PhD soon and she plans to become a researcher in the cancer prevention field to focus on risk factors like diet and exercise. She told CBS News Miami she plans to be living proof of what she studies.