Breast Cancer

My Beef With Sex and the City 2

June 3, 2010 at 10:52 am , by Julie Bain

I was lucky enough to attend the premiere of Sex and the City 2 at Radio City in New York last week. The red carpet was lined with paparazzi and crazed fans, the stars looked glamorous and almost every scene in the film got raucous cheers from the passionate audience. I had a blast. Sure, the clothes, the locations, the action were all completely over the top. But hey, it’s been a long recession, and the movie provided pure escapism, just like Fred and Ginger did during the Great Depression. Still, one thing about the film bothered me, as it did my friend Courtney Bugler.

Courtney had just turned 29 four years ago when she heard the bad news: she had breast cancer. But she fought it hard. That included having her ovaries removed, although first she preserved some of her eggs. She suffered the symptoms of instant menopause, but later had one of her frozen embryos implanted. Now, four years later, she’s healthy and has a 1-year-old baby boy named Aidan, along with her husband Alan and four very large dogs. She has also become an advocate for young breast cancer survivors and runs the Atlanta affiliate of the Young Survival Coalition. I invited her to write a guest blog here and explain why one aspect of the movie really ticked her off. Read more

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Have We Found A Vaccine For Breast Cancer?

June 2, 2010 at 11:36 am , by Emily Chau

It’s not October yet, but Melina Kanakaredes (CSI: NY) wants you to “Think Pink” right now. The actress recently designed three shirts for Hanes to support their efforts with Susan G. Komen for the Cure , and now you can too! (Check out my interview with her above.)

Hanes—the same folks who provide race day t-shirts for the Komen walks—has a cool tool that allows you to make your own breast cancer awareness shirts. The apparel company has also pledged to make a $500,000 contribution to the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Series.

In fact, we might already be one step closer to beating breast cancer. Everyone’s been buzzing about the promise of a new breast cancer vaccine. Researchers from the Cleveland Clinic tested a preventive vaccine on mice that were susceptible to cancer, and it had a 100 percent success rate. All of the vaccinated mice remained tumor-free, while all of the controls developed breast cancer. A vaccine for women might not be that far off—human trials may begin as early as next year.

Want to hear more good news about cancer?

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Dr. Lisa Checks In

February 4, 2010 at 8:00 am , by Julie Bain

Lisa M. Masterson, M.D., stopped by our office yesterday (that’s her in the middle with me and Emily Chau, my fellow LHJ Health Lady) to fill us in on some of her latest adventures and causes. She was just back from Haiti, where she and her fellow physicians from the TV show The Doctors arrived with 7,000 pounds of much-needed supplies—and treated a number of victims. A specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Masterson helped a pregnant woman with a leg injury find the care she needed. See clips from that episode here.

Dr. Masterson, who’s based in L.A., was in New York for an event promoting screening for human papillomavirus (HPV) and cervical cancer. She says that for women over 30, combining a pap test with an HPV test is the best way to prevent this cancer, which still kills some 4,000 women every year.

The good doc also got on her soapbox about the recent changes in screening guidelines for breast cancer. She’s afraid that many women will stop getting mammograms, especially if their insurance won’t pay for them to be done annually. She also wants to encourage women to continue to do self-exams, or at least “get to know their own breasts,” she says. “I’m seeing breast cancer more in younger women.” Feeling something and having it checked out by your doctor could save your life.

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New Mammogram Guidelines: Should You Wait Till 50?

November 18, 2009 at 5:20 pm , by Julia Kagan

UPDATE December 2, 2009
The mammogram debate continues. If we screen only “high risk” women, we’ll miss 75-90% of those get breast cancer, says Daniel B. Kopans, M.D., professor of radiology at Harvard Medical School and director of breast imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, at a Radiology Society Of North America press conference.

Earlier this week, the distinguished U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announced its new breast cancer screening guidelines, reversing many of its 2002 recommendations. In a move that has already become a point of controversy, USPSTF now recommends that women start getting mammograms later in life and less frequently. But after years of preaching  “prevention, prevention, prevention,” what should we do now?

What changed:
1. USPSTF advises women to start getting routine mammograms at age 50—not 40—until age 74.  However, those between ages of 40-49 who are at high risk for breast cancer should talk to their doctor whether to begin regular screenings sooner.
2. USPSTF suggests getting a routine mammogram every two years, instead of every year—again, women in high-risk groups may need a greater frequency.
3. USPSTF recommends that doctors should not teach women how to do breast self-exams.

The reasoning: USPSTF found that among women ages 40-49, mammograms save one cancer death per every 1,904 people screened for 10 years.  Among those ages 50-74, this number increases to 1 in every 1,339 women, and to 1 in every 337 women ages 60-69.

Based on these findings, the USPSTF concludes that for women ages 40-49, the risk of overtreatment (unnecessary biopsies, stress) from a mammogram outweighs its benefits.  There is also data showing breast self–exams don’t find cancers in a more treatable stage or decrease deaths (read a Q&A with Susan M. Love, M.D. about this topic from our October 2009 issue after the jump, below).

The controversy: Not everyone agrees with USPSTF’s interpretation. “The panel acknowledges that screening mammography for women in their 40s saves lives, but considers it too costly in dollars per woman saved and in false positives. This seems inappropriate to me and would be to most women in their 40s, I think,” says Etta D. Pisano, M.D., Kenan Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering and Director of the UNC Biomedical Research Imaging Center at UNC School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  “I do think the data support less frequent screening for older women,” she adds—but whether that should “start at 50 or later when women have fatty breasts…would be important to study.”

Moreover, the American Cancer Society still recommends women get an annual mammograms starting at 40. And so does Susan G. Komen for the Cure. And in terms of limiting mammograms from age 40 to 50 to just those with identified high risk factors: It turns out, according to Komen, that most women diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S. do not have any risk factors aside from being female and getting older, and breast cancer that occurs in younger women is often more aggressive than breast cancer in women in their 50s or older.

The bottom line: Right now you still get to choose which recommendation you want to follow.  And for women who hate mammograms, this is medical confirmation that you can have them much less often. But if you want to keep being tested according to the old standards, be prepared that insurance companies and Medicare may look at whether they should reduce the number of mammograms they are willing to cover.

Read more

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Cheat Sheet: 5 Things You Missed While Living Your Life

October 2, 2009 at 11:19 am , by Catherine LeFebvre

1. 15 Strangest Breast Cancer Awareness Products
Breast cancer is no laughing matter, and of course we want you to be as educated as possible when it comes to preventing the disease, but some of the products out there promoting awareness are a little, well, weird. They’re not going to save your life, or remind you to do a breast self-exam, but they might come in handy if you need to shoot someone or want your floors cleaned. Read the full list.

2. Tonight, We Are the Greatest

Herb Brooks’ pre-game pep talk before the famous 1980 “Miracle” hockey game against the Soviet Union, as performed by “Rizzo,” a 4-year-old.

3. Say It with Bacon
Grateful Palate has a Bacon of the Month Club which delivers a package of artisan bacon to your home every month. The membership also gets you a t-shirt, a membership card and a pig nose! Personally, I always thought there was only one kind of bacon – delicious – but the membership could prove me wrong.

3. Building Windmills in Malawi

Inspiring story of the week: a boy in Malawi who couldn’t afford to go to school checked some books out of the library and built a windmill to provide electricity for his village.

5. David Letterman Admits Affairs with Employees, Extortion Plot

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