10/26/2009 2:45:00 AM
New research highlights Breast Cancer Awareness Month
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BY KIRK DOUGAL
Times Bulletin Editor
kdougal@timesbulletin.com
It might be a little out of place to see a pink hat or wristbands on NFL players these days but the big, burly men are wearing pink for a good reason.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and the gestures by NFL players, Major League baseball players, NASCAR drivers and other public figures - even the front cover of Sports Illustrated - are all helping to bring the plight of millions of women to light. The first NBCAM event started in 1985 as a week-long program to provide information to the public about the disease. At the time there were still lots of misconceptions about the illness and many women were still not aware of the importance of early diagnosis and treatment. Now on its 25th anniversary, NBCAM has grown to a month-long event that has the help of national public service organizations, professional medical associations, government agencies and thousands of public figures who help to draw attention to the program.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer among women in the United States after skin cancer. The American Cancer Society expects just under 200,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year. They also report that although there are 2.5 million breast cancer survivors living in the United States, 40,000 more women will succumb to the disease this year and die.
The disease is a malignant tumor that develops in the ducts or lobules of the breast and can occur in one or both breasts of the victim. Although it is about 100 times more common in women, men can also be afflicted with breast cancer.
Breast cancers can be divided into two main categories - noninvasive and invasive. Noninvasive breast cancers are present in only the ducts or lobules and have not yet spread to surrounding tissues. Ductal cancers are found only in the milk ducts of the breast and, if not treated, may eventually become an invasive cancer. Lobular cancers are found in the lobules of the breast and is often referred to as an early warning signal. Lobluar cells do not develop into invasive cancers in many women, however, they do show that there is an increased chance of developing cancer in the other parts of the breast of women.
Invasive breast cancers infiltrate through breast tissue and expand into the surrounding areas. If not caught in time, they can also move to other parts of the body such as the bones, liver or brain.
Although the term "breast cancer" is used routinely as a single disease name, there are actually several different types. Not all of them are the same, either. The size of the tumor and whether or not it has spread to other tissues or parts of the body all figures into what a doctor and patient will choose when looking at treatments. As if often the case with any disease, the earlier breast cancer is detected, the more options that will be available to choose from.
Oncologist Chris Rhoades, a Van Wert High School graduate who is now at Mid-Ohio Oncology in the Zangmeister Cancer Center in Columbus, says that those options are always changing. Dr. Rhoades is a breast cancer specialist who is involved with treatment research as well as seeing patients.
Surgery has always played a role in the treatment of breast cancer but the types of surgery is changing. Rhoades said that there is now 20 years of statistical compilation on a mastectomy, the full removal of a breast and possibly even some chest muscle, and a lumpectomy, the removal of only the tumor and some of the surrounding tissue. He said that when combined with radiation treatments, a lumpectomy has the same survival rates over a 20-year period as a mastectomy. That is important because the surgery is much less invasive and does not carry nearly the same amount of psychological trauma for some women of having a full breast removed.
Rhoades is excited about the research being done in what is called "molecular signature." An offshoot of the Human Genome Project that attempted to map the entire DNA makeup of humans, work on the molecular signature is identifying the differences in cells of the varying types of cancer. Researchers are looking at the cancers on a molecular level to see if they are an aggressive or non-aggressive cancer and basing treatments upon those factors. They can also look at the genome when there are no symptoms or cancer and see the likelihood of problems years in the future.
"They've been able to identify genes that if mutated are at a high risk for breast cancer," said Rhoades. "The most common and well-known two are BRCA 1 and BRCA 2. If there is a mutation in either one of those, then the patient has approximately a 75 percent lifetime risk of developing breast cancer." He is excited about this research because those patients can be watched more closely or be given drugs that decrease the chance for breast cancer to occur in the first place, a remarkable accomplishment for preventative medicine. Rhoades said he believes those kinds of advancements are a real future for breast cancer treatment, stopping it before it ever has a chance to happen or at least identifying it at a very early stage.
Most importantly, the survival numbers for breast cancer are increasing. Over the last five years, the number of women who die each year from breast cancer has decreased. Rhoades said the improvement involves a combination of factors including early detection and more advanced and effective treatments. As an example, a Stage 1 breast cancer is now 99 percent curable on five-year survival rates. Every subsequent stage decreases the odds of survival with a Stage 4 breast cancer patient having a 20 percent chance of survival. That number is rising because of the newer treatments being used today. Even so, Rhoades urged women to perform self-examinations, have regular doctor visits and to talk to their doctor if they have any questions.
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Posted: Thursday, October 29, 2009
Article comment by:
James Paige
It's good to know that people are wearing Rubber Bracelets in order to raise awareness.
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