The Good News About Breast Cancer and Mammogram Encouragement
Good News About Breast Cancer
When is the word “good” ever associated with cancer? When there are advances in research that help with treatment!
Chances are good you know someone who has had breast cancer. My first experience with breast cancer was with my cousin and BFF Martha. Over the years I have written many stories about her and you can find a couple of them here (this one is her advice) and here. (This one is about breast cancer at the environment)
Recently some more of my friends have received this diagnosis and I want them to know there is encouraging news out there! Focus on the positive and surround yourself with positive people. You are your own best advocate and there are advances in cancer research almost weekly.
Good News
Here’s one article about a decade of advances from 2010 and 2020 from Cancer.org. It shows just how far we have come in ten years. And if this isn’t enough good news it should encourage you to know that it isn’t just America who is searching for answers….the whole world has made break-throughs, 12 Cancer break throughs of 2021 is insightful about advances made in other countries.
And Still More Good News about Breast Cancer
On August 5, 2022, the FDA approved the first targeted therapy for patients with HER2-low breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body and is unable to be surgically removed. The drug, trastuzumab deruxtecan (T-DXd), was approved based on a clinical trial led by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) breast medical oncologist Shanu Modi, who presented the findings at this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting. (She got a standing ovation, and that’s rare at these type of meetings.)
“The results of this trial are practice-changing and redefine how a large population of patients with metastatic disease will be treated,” Dr. Modi says. “Although this trial focused on patients with breast cancer, we believe that these results could also have implications for the future treatment of people with other types of cancer that express HER2 at low levels.”
Until now, HER2 targeted therapy has not been successful in treating cancer that is HER2-low. Targeted therapy works by precisely identifying and attacking certain types of cancer cells, without killing normal cells, therefore resulting in fewer side effects. (For more info about this see this article).
That is BIG NEWS
With this drug Risk of dying or disease progression was cut in half for patients in the study assigned to intravenous infusions of Enhertu. Overall, patients assigned to Enhertu were 36% less likely to die than those assigned to conventional chemotherapy. Patients assigned to Enhertu lived for a median of 9.9 months before cancer progression compared with 5.1 months for the chemotherapy group, the researchers reported. In terms of overall survival, patients given Enhertu lived for a median of 23.4 months compared with 16.8 months for those given conventional chemotherapy.
My Two Cents
I have so many friends who have had breast cancer and even though sometimes the snarky side of me gets miffed by so much pink that events sometimes seem like a birthday party rather than a way to attract attention to early detection, I do appreciate all the time, effort and money raised to fund breast cancer research. Because, sisters, we have to keep on keeping on. We have to do it for our daughters and their daughters. So if wearing pink socks or playing with a pink basketball reminds even ONE woman to get a mammogram, it’s worth it.
I know we are all busy but take 5 minutes out of your day to remind your mothers, sisters, friends and daughters to get mammograms. And if they don’t make an appointment, make one one for them and if they don’t go make another appointment and this time take them!
Please don’t think that just because you are under 40 you shouldn’t get a mammogram. Martha was in her 30s when she got breast cancer (she found a lump) and another lady I know was diagnosed at age 35. She had intermittent pain in her breast and asked her OBGYN about it. They decided to do a baseline mammogram and thank goodness they did! This is going to sound sexist (my apologies to male docs) but it’s my two cents so I’m going to say it anyway, my friend’s doctor was a woman. If her doctor had been a man, would he have sent her? I hope so but the point in saying this is to tell you to “trust your gut.” If you feel like something is wrong get a second and third opinion.
I sincerely care about each and every woman that reads this and I hope you will make your appointment today and call your friends to see if they have had theirs this year. Don’t put off to tomorrow what might be early stage breast cancer and easier to cure than after it spreads.
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