Test First. Don’t Guess: How Andrea Schaffer Used Data to Take Charge of Her Cancer Journey

We regularly share patient stories and practical tools to help you navigate metabolic health and cancer with greater clarity and confidence. To receive MTIH Updates In Your Inbox, CLICK HERE.

What if you felt healthy—but something significant was happening inside your body that you couldn’t see or feel?

That was Andrea Schaffer’s reality.

In 2023, Andrea was already working in nutrition and wellness when she decided to undergo a preventive full-body MRI. She wasn’t having seizures, headaches, balance problems, or other symptoms she would have associated with a brain tumor.

But the scan revealed a mass in the right temporal lobe of her brain.

Andrea would ultimately be diagnosed with a Grade 3 oligodendroglioma.

That discovery changed her life and reinforced a message that now guides both her own health journey and her work with others:

Test first. Don’t guess.

In a recent MTIH Community Conversation, Andrea shared how testing, nutrition, personalized care, and an integrative metabolic approach have helped her become an active participant in her healing.

Testing Gives You Information You Can Act On

Andrea’s diagnosis came through a preventive scan, but her message about testing goes far beyond imaging.

Laboratory testing can help create a clearer picture of what is happening in the body, establish a baseline, and provide a way to track changes over time.

Andrea also encourages people to look beyond whether a lab value is simply marked “normal.”

When she reviews labs, she looks at patterns across multiple markers and asks whether the results appear optimal for the individual and their situation—not simply whether each value falls within a standard reference range.

For someone navigating cancer, she sees this as especially valuable because testing can help answer an important question:

Is what I’m doing actually making a difference?

Baseline labs and follow-up testing can provide information that helps patients and their care teams evaluate how the body is responding over time.

Your Health Plan Should Be Yours

One of Andrea’s strongest cautions is against automatically following someone else’s supplement list, diet, or wellness protocol.

It is easy to see what another patient, practitioner, or influencer is doing and assume it might be right for you. But without understanding your own biology, those choices may be unnecessary, expensive, or even counterproductive.

Instead, Andrea encourages people to gather information first and then work with knowledgeable practitioners to determine what deserves attention.

That can include laboratory testing, symptoms, genetics, lifestyle, nutrition, treatment plans, and other factors.

The goal is not to do everything.

The goal is to do the things that make sense for you.

Nutrition Should Be Personalized, Too

Nutrition has played an important role in Andrea’s own journey.

Following her diagnosis, she adopted what she calls a “Super Keto” approach—a nutrient-dense, Mediterranean-style ketogenic diet emphasizing vegetables, herbs, healthy fats, and colorful plant foods.

But Andrea is also clear that keto is not necessarily the answer for everyone.

Genetics, metabolic health, stress, sleep, lifestyle, treatment, personal preferences, and even someone’s ability to prepare meals can influence what dietary strategy is realistic and appropriate.

And if ketosis is part of someone’s therapeutic goal, Andrea emphasizes the importance of testing rather than assuming a ketogenic diet is automatically producing ketosis.

Again, the principle is the same:

Don’t assume. Measure.

Build a Team That Supports the Whole Person

Andrea’s experience was not about choosing between conventional cancer treatment and an integrative metabolic approach.

She underwent expert neurosurgical care while also using nutrition, testing, lifestyle strategies, and personalized support to address her health more broadly.

A cancer care team may include oncologists, surgeons, primary care physicians, Terrain-trained practitioners or advocates, nutrition professionals, and other specialists.

The goal is to surround the patient with people who can help them understand their options, ask questions, and make informed decisions that reflect their individual needs and values.

Living With Uncertainty

Testing can be empowering, but it can also bring anxiety.

Andrea openly shared the “scanxiety” that can come with follow-up imaging after cancer.

Finding an asymptomatic brain tumor on her first major scan understandably changed the way she experiences future scans. Even after receiving good results following surgery, she acknowledges that the “what if?” can still appear.

Rather than pretending the anxiety isn’t there, Andrea finds ways to move through it. She uses music, visualization, and small rituals that help her feel strong and grounded as she prepares for scans.

Her experience is an important reminder that supporting the whole person includes emotional well-being, too.

Take Charge One Step at a Time

Perhaps one of the most reassuring lessons from Andrea’s story is that taking charge of your health does not mean doing everything at once.

Start where you are.

Ask questions. Pay attention to symptoms. Gather meaningful information. Build your care team. Use testing to better understand what your body may need and whether the strategies you are using are helping.

And resist the temptation to build your health plan around someone else’s journey.

As Andrea reminds us:

“Test first. Don’t guess.”

Watch the Full Community Conversation

There is much more to Andrea’s story.

In the full conversation, she talks about her unexpected diagnosis, the labs she monitors, genetics and detoxification pathways, nutrition, metabolic flexibility, cooking and eating out, managing scanxiety, and building a care team.

About Andrea Schaffer

Andrea Schaffer is an Oncology Nutrition Consultant, Certified Terrain Advocate, Advanced Integrative Metabolic Specialist (CAIMS), Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, and founder of Not Just Broccoli Oncology Nutrition. Following her 2023 diagnosis of a Grade 3 oligodendroglioma, she combined conventional treatment with an integrative metabolic approach and now helps others become more informed and active participants in their health and healing.

Learn more about Andrea:
https://www.notjustbroccoli.com/

About MTIH Community Conversations

Community Conversations is a free educational series from the Metabolic Terrain Institute of Health (MTIH) featuring patients, practitioners, advocates, researchers, and other voices exploring health, hope, and healing through an integrative metabolic approach.

Our goal is to help people gain the education, access, and empowerment they need to ask questions, better understand their options, connect with knowledgeable practitioners, and take a more active role in their health.

How To Find a Terrain-trained Provider

Learn about MTIH Patient Grants

Disclaimer

This content is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. It does not establish a provider-patient relationship. Individual results may vary. Always consult your qualified healthcare provider before making changes to your care. Read our full disclaimer here.