MADISON, Wis. – Lydia Dutcher went into labor with her first child Feb. 3, 2024.
Her pregnancy had been healthy, and her labor wasn’t unusual, according to Dr. Danielle Hartwig, Dutcher’s primary care provider at UW Health, who also planned to deliver Dutcher’s baby at UnityPoint Health – Meriter.
“Lydia was doing great, but she had a prolonged labor,” Hartwig said. “When that happens, sometimes patients can get an infection called chorioamnionitis, which happened with Lydia, but we treated it quickly with antibiotics.”
Ultimately, an OB-GYN team managed her delivery, and on Feb. 5, 2024, Theo Dutcher was born. Lydia and her husband Matthew took their healthy baby home to Sun Prairie a few days later.
Little did they know, it was those couple of complications Dutcher experienced in labor that would lead to a very rare cancer diagnosis.
On Feb. 14, 2024, Hartwig received a voicemail from the pathology lab at UW Health. She learned that Lydia’s placenta had been sent to pathology for testing, which isn’t common, but standard practice following an infection, she said.
“They found a tumor on her placenta, which I’d learned about in medical school, but had never seen before,” said Hartwig, who is also a clinical assistant professor of family medicine and community health, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
The cancer, called choriocarcinoma, is a fast-growing tumor that can develop from the cells that help embryos attach to the uterus to form the placenta.
“Matthew and I were making cheesecake for Valentine’s Day when Dr. Hartwig called me,” Lydia said. “I thought it would be about Theo’s newborn screenings, never in a million years did I think she was calling to tell me I had cancer.”
In the days following the call from Hartwig, Lydia underwent several tests directed by Dr. Lisa Barroilhet, gynecologic oncologist, UW Health | Carbone Cancer Center, and associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, UW School of Medicine and Public Health. One test she needed, uncommon for cancer detection, was a pregnancy test.
“As this tumor grows on the placenta, it releases the same hormone pregnancy tests detect, human chorionic gonadotropin, or hCG levels,” she said. “If a blood test for pregnancy shows high levels of that hormone in a case like Lydia’s, when she has just given birth, it’s a sign the cancer has spread and wasn’t just on the placenta.”
A non-pregnant woman would have hCG levels typically below 5 mIU/mL, or milli-international units per milliliter. While a woman who recently gave birth would have levels slightly higher than that, they decrease in the weeks postpartum.
“When I was tested the first time, it was at 1,000,” Lydia said. “Five days later, it was at something like 25,000.”
Lydia then underwent a CT scan, a brain MRI and ultrasound scans to determine where the cancer had spread. The results showed countless spots across Lydia’s lungs, making the formal diagnosis – Stage 3 choriocarcinoma.
Barroilhet, who trained with some of the leading experts on choriocarcinoma and has researched the disease herself, has seen it many times before, but it is a rare cancer, likely only affecting about one in 100,000 pregnancies in the United States in a year, she said. And, she’d never seen it present like this, without any previous evidence or history of disease.
“With this cancer, it’s common to see it spread through the blood to the lungs,” Barroilhet said. “Luckily, it’s also highly treatable with chemotherapy.”
Theo also needed to be checked out to ensure the cancer had not spread to him before he was born, which is rare, but not impossible, according to Hartwig, who is also Theo’s primary care provider.
“We quickly connected him with pediatric oncology to be certain he was okay,” she said. “One of the first steps was to give Theo a pregnancy test, because if an infant boy shows hormone levels that only come from a placenta, it’s a sure sign he also has tumor growth that stemmed from the choriocarcinoma.”
Thankfully, Theo’s UW Health Kids care team determined he had no signs of cancer.
On Feb. 26, 2024, Lydia started a 10-week regimen of intravenous chemotherapy. While most infusions didn’t require a hospital stay, there were several weeks when she needed to stay overnight at University Hospital for her treatment.
“They let Matthew and Theo stay with me every time, they were so sweet,” Lydia said. “They always had a bassinet made up for Theo.”
The whole family was more than welcome, according to Barroilhet,
“We don’t get a lot of babies in University Hospital or in gynecologic oncology,” she said. “Theo was a little celebrity on the unit.”
On April 29, 2024, Lydia had her last round of chemotherapy. Now, she gets monthly blood draws to ensure there is no new cancer growth.
“From the early newborn days to starting chemotherapy, those first months with Theo were a blur, but the experience made me appreciate my life and being a mom that much more,” Lydia said.
One year later, she’s still cancer-free, and she wants to share her story for others who might be in a similar circumstance.
“I felt such amazing support from my husband, our parents, our family and friends,” she said. “And I also found community with a few people online who’ve experienced this, so I hope to be that support for others.”
In February, the Dutchers celebrated Theo’s first birthday and commemorated Lydia’s start of chemotherapy a year ago with a party and a trip to Florida.
As they look forward to what’s next, Lydia’s care team told her that while the chance of recurrence in another pregnancy is higher than for someone who never had choriocarcinoma, it’s still low and should she want to have another baby, they would monitor her closely to ensure everyone was healthy.
“I’ve learned so much about myself and what really matters,” she said. “I’m thankful for everything my care team did for me and their commitment to supporting our family’s future.”
