The math teacher in Faye Ruopp loves to look at life in equations. One of her favorites after she was diagnosed in June 2014 with breast cancer was “lumpectomy + radiation = mastectomy.” She would notice this theme of “less is more” often during her treatment at Dana-Farber’s  Ruopp, 64, was preparing to welcome her son and daughter-in-law back to Boston with their new daughter, Ruopp’s first grandchild, when she received the call no one expects.

“You experience a range of emotions when you get news like that,” she says of her diagnosis of stage I, ER+ breast cancer. “Even though I was shocked and surprised, when you’re a mom and a grandmother you think of your children and grandchildren first, and I wanted to protect them.”

Ruopp had seen her sister and many friends undergo chemotherapy through the years, and was nervous about the impact it would have on her quality of life – particularly her ability to work and spend time with her new granddaughter. Luckily, due to the nature of her tumor, Ruopp was able to forego both chemotherapy and the more invasive mastectomy in favor of a lumpectomy followed by targeted radiation therapy and hormone therapy.