Imagine you’re sick. Even though you feel fatigued, nauseated, and achy, you’ve got work today. Now imagine feeling this way — or much worse — for months on end. On top of that, you're grappling with the psychological toll of living with a potentially life-threatening illness. That's what so many women undergoing treatment for breast cancer deal with each day.
As a freelance casting producer, 32-year-old Amanda Ogen built her career project by project, relying on her reputation as a creative and dependable professional to secure each next opportunity. In March 2025, she was thrilled to begin casting a new TV series, with her start date set for March 17. Although the paperwork hadn't yet been finalized, the job was hers. Then, just six days before she was due to start, Ogen received news that would change everything: She had breast cancer.
In addition to the stress of a cancer diagnosis, Ogen had to consider what it would mean for her career. Unlike some employees with traditional full-time jobs, she couldn't simply take extended medical leave. How would her body react to the stress of cancer treatment? Would she even be able to keep up with the demands of her job? If she stepped away for a year to focus on treatment, would the momentum she'd fought so hard to build disappear?
While her current contract was secure, the next job was never a certainty — and she worried cancer could make future employers hesitant to hire her. Instead, the casting director she was working with continued to hire her through nearly all of her active treatment. “She could have easily said, ‘I already have a whole staff for my next show,’ but she did not do that,” Ogen says. “I was very grateful.”
Her colleagues played an important role in helping her find balance. Shortly after Ogen had a port placed, a colleague she'd never worked with before told her, “If you need to rest or anything, just let me know. I’ve got your back.” Ogen says that attitude was typical of the people around her: “People were constantly ready to step in if I needed to rest.”
Working remotely allowed Ogen to listen to her body in ways that many roles do not allow. “If I had to take a nap midday, I felt okay about doing that because I was doing my absolute best the rest of the time,” she says. There were days when Ogen worked from bed, hiding her surroundings with a Zoom background because she was in so much pain. At one point, bone pain became so severe that she couldn’t walk for nearly a week. On another occasion, she brought her laptop to the hospital and tried to work from her hospital bed while waiting to be discharged. “There were definitely times when I kept working even though I was really struggling,” she says.
Even on her worst days, Ogen has never regretted her decision to continue working: In fact, she was often grateful for the distraction. “There were days when I would be crying or devastated about what I was going through, but at the same time, I was working on this crazy fun dating show,” she says. “On days when I wanted to sink into the dark feelings, my job got me out of it.”
Not everyone undergoing treatment has the same flexibility. “If I was required to be in-person throughout treatment, there’s no way that I would’ve been able to,” Ogen says. While Ogen felt that continuing to work ultimately helped her to cope, her experience is often not the norm, given that she was able to work from home, dictate her own schedule, and that her job didn’t require any physical labor. In fact, one small qualitative study of female cancer survivors who continued to work through treatment found that work added an additional layer of stress to their lives. Overall, participants reported that “severe physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges…affected their ability to balance work with receiving treatments.”
The NIH also reports that when cancer patients under age 65 do choose to work through chemotherapy, about half say it’s because they can’t afford not to. But financial need isn’t the only reason: other young people said they chose to keep working to maintain career momentum, spend time with coworkers, or out of a refusal to let cancer dominate their life. For those struggling to balance their job with treatment, resources like Cancer and Careers are available to help cancer survivors navigate the practical and emotional challenges of staying in or returning to the workforce.
Cancer also changed the way Ogen thought about success. Before her diagnosis, she felt pressure to constantly prove why she deserved the next opportunity. During treatment, that standard became simpler: “I just have to do what I can to keep my job,” she remembers thinking. She’s no less ambitious now, but says she’s “learned how to find balance.”
After finishing active treatment, Ogen briefly wondered whether surviving the disease was supposed to prompt some dramatic reinvention. “Now is the time when I reevaluate my whole life, including my career,” she remembers thinking. Ultimately, though, cancer helped her realize something much less dramatic: “I actually like my job.”
What she hadn’t expected was how long cancer would continue to affect her schedule even after she was declared NED (no evidence of disease). She still has frequent follow-ups, medications, injections, and appointments related to her recovery. “I really thought that after active treatment was over, I would be back to my normal life,” she says. Instead, “I still feel like this is something I’m living with, not something that happened in the past.”
That’s something Ogen wishes employers understood: A person may be finished with active treatment and still require significant flexibility. Even now, when accepting work from a new casting director, Ogen is upfront about the appointments and other cancer-related commitments that remain on her calendar. So far, she says, employers have continued to surprise her with their willingness to accommodate them.
For Ogen, continuing to work wasn't just about earning a paycheck — it was about holding onto a sense of normalcy during one of the most frightening periods of her life. But each woman's experience with breast cancer treatment is different, and the right decision depends on everything from the demands of her job to the realities of her health and finances. For those navigating the impossible question of whether to keep working, Ogen hopes her story serves as a reminder that asking for help, advocating for yourself, and accepting support can be just as important as showing up for work.
