Tag: breast cancer

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Baptist Reveals New Breast Cancer Detection Technology

Photo: Angiola Harry on Unsplash

Baptist Women’s Health Center has become the first facility in the Mid-South to provide a service that can detect breast cancer at earlier stages: contrast-enhanced mammograms.

Health officials said contrast-enhanced mammography provides clearer and more detailed images than a standard mammogram, particularly for women with dense breast tissue. They added that contrast-enhanced mammography can not only detect cancers more efficiently, but it also generates fewer false positives and makes breast tumors easier to see.

In a statement released announcing this addition, Baptist officials cited the American Cancer Society which stated that breast cancer is the second-most common cancer in women in the United States following lung cancer. The organization said there are approximately 300,000 new diagnoses each year, with 13 percent of women developing breast cancer.

The Shelby County Breast Cancer Snapshot shows that per 100,000 women 132 were found to have breast cancer, with 26 dying. 

While people continue to be diagnosed with breast cancer, the American Cancer Society noted that the death rate has declined 43 percent since 1989 “as a result of early detection and advancements in treatment options.”

Certain factors can increase a patient’s risk of developing breast cancer. Doctor Lynn Gayden, medical director of Baptist Women’s Health Center, said half of all women have dense breasts, and it is a risk factor for breast cancer. According to Baptist, women with dense breast tissues have a “four to six times higher risk of developing breast cancer than women with no dense tissue.”

“Contrast-enhanced mammography helps level the field for detecting breast cancer early in all women,” Gayden said. “This new technology may decrease the number of breast biopsies and follow-up testing required, as well as provide more comfort and reassurance for women with dense breast tissue.”

Officials said that mammograms have been vital in decreasing mortality rates and reducing the number of “later-stage cancers.” 

While patients cannot ask for this type of mammogram specifically, physicians can refer those who are at an increased risk due to their medical and family history.

“Baptist recommends most women receive an annual mammogram starting at age 40,” officials added. “Baptist’s mobile mammography unit offers grant-funded mammograms to women who might not otherwise be able to afford screening or diagnostic mammograms.”

The nationally accredited center recently expanded its Humphreys location, and will be able to serve an additional 8,000 patients as a result of the expansion and additional services.

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Go Further: Virtual Race for the Cure Is This Weekend

CREDIT: Facebook/MaryBeth Werner Connor

This one is personal. Chances are it’s personal for you, too. According to breastcancer.org, about one in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. Most of us know at least eight women. One of those women will be affected.

Susan G. Komen is the largest and best-funded breast cancer organization in the United States. Our local chapter, Susan G. Komen Memphis-MidSouth Mississippi, makes sure that 80 cents of every dollar is directed to its mission, and of that, 75 percent remains local. The remaining 25 percent funds breast cancer research.

Facebook/MaryBeth Werner Connor

MaryBeth Werner Connor is a fighter.

Contemporary Media, the Memphis Flyer parent company, is once again participating this year. The team is racing through Central Gardens for our sisters, mothers, aunts, and other women (as well as men). Come down and cheer our small but mighty group to the finish line as we Race for the Cure. We’ll be starting at 9 a.m.

A childhood friend, MaryBeth Werner Connor, who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, recently gave us all great news.

“All of my cancer is gone,” said Connor. “The chemo worked, and the cancer has been eaten up. No lymph node involvement. I could not have made it through this without all of my family and friends who gave me the strength to handle this and kick cancer’s butt.”

MaryBeth, this one’s for you — and for breast cancer research, so that more women can say they kicked cancer’s butt.

Komen Memphis-MidSouth Virtual Race for the Cure®, komenmemphisms.org, Saturday, Oct. 31.

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A Local Nurse Fought Breast Cancer — Twice

CREDIT: Jaime Rogl Photography

Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Bridgett Spillers’ life changed on October 15, 2015.

“I was going through my nightly routine and had a slight itch on my back,” she says. “I reached around to scratch and felt something odd in my left breast.”

As an FNP — and with sites like WebMD at our fingertips — Spillers knows it’s easy to self-diagnose. “Sometimes too much knowledge is a curse,” she says. But she was sure what she felt was a lump, despite having a clinical breast exam done two months prior and receiving a negative result on a breast cancer gene risk test. It would be two weeks before she could get in to see an oncologist, but “after a battery of tests,” Spillers says, “I was diagnosed with HER2-positive breast cancer.”

Jaime Rogl Photography

Bridgett Spillers

The earliest stages of a cancer diagnosis are often the most arduous, she adds. “There are more questions than answers, and no matter how hard you try, it’s difficult not to think the worst.” HER2 is an aggressive cancer. She thought about her husband and three young children — would she be there for them? What would happen to her career? What about a mastectomy, chemo, radiation? Spillers says her emotional turning point came after meeting with an oncologist and formulating a plan because “every day of waiting was delaying the fight and hurting my chances of a successful outcome.”

Spillers went through six rounds of chemotherapy, but after the fourth, the treatment plan “was validated,” she says, “because the tumor was undetectable via ultrasound.” After chemo, she underwent a double mastectomy, followed later by reconstruction. A follow-up biopsy showed she “had a pathological complete response — no detectable cancer.

“For about six months, my life was back to normal, cancer was in my rearview, or so I thought,” Spillers says. But, like before, it started with an itch … The cancer came back.

The second time around, Spillers had a lumpectomy, followed by 12 weeks of chemo, six weeks of radiation, and another year of antibodies. “My hair had just grown back,” she says, “so I was determined to try to preserve it. I’d heard about cold caps, so I researched and decided to give it a try. It was cumbersome but preserved my newly grown hair.”

Cold caps are worn by some cancer patients to help reduce hair loss by decreasing the amount of chemo medicine that penetrates the hair follicles.

Today, Spillers is an advocate for others going through the breast cancer experience. Her oncologist refers patients interested in doing cold caps to her to guide them through the process. “It usually turns into more as they find out I have been through everything,” she says. “I often talk to them several times, helping them through their journey. People will send others my way just for encouragement.”

Spillers, 41, and her family relocated from Abilene, Texas, to the Memphis area two years ago after her husband, now a FedEx pilot, retired from the Air Force. Shortly after the move, she went through that second breast cancer journey and was treated at West Cancer Center in Germantown. “Today I have an excellent prognosis,” Spillers says. “I’ve been cancer free for a year.”

Statistics suggest one in eight women will develop breast cancer. And Spillers says, “Early detection is key. Having routine check-ups important, but doing self-exams is just as important. Periodic exams help you get used to how your breast tissue feels, so that you can feel when something is different.”

If you or a loved one receives a breast cancer diagnosis, Spillers says to talk with your health-care provider to learn about treatment options and devise a plan of attack that’s best for you. But perhaps most importantly, remain positive. “It is a long journey,” she says. “Approaching it one step at a time makes it more bearable. I have a saying: Keep your faith, have hope, and choose joy. I make an effort to choose joy, even when I struggle.”

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October Is Breast-Cancer Awareness Month — and It Strikes Blacks Earlier

The American Cancer Society estimated more than 19,000 black women would be diagnosed with breast cancer this year — the second-most common cancer among black women, surpassed only by lung cancer.

And while the incidence of breast cancer is about 12 percent lower in black women than in white women, with black women, it often strikes at an earlier age, and the mortality rate is higher.

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, many women schedule their annual mammograms during the month to make it easier to remember. Others make mammogram appointments on or near their birthdays.

According to the American Cancer Society’s “Cancer Facts & Figures for African-Americans 2007-2008” booklet, “Factors that contribute to the higher death rates among African-American women include differences in access to and utilization of early detection and treatment, risk factors that are differentially distributed by race or socio-economic status, or biological differences associated with race.”

As Netwellness.org reports, “Statistics show that overall, when African-American women are diagnosed, they have larger tumors and their breast cancer has spread further (i.e., to the lymph nodes and to other parts of the body).”

The five-year breast-cancer survival rate for black women is 69 percent, compared with 84 percent for white women. And while there has been an increase in the number of women getting mammograms, black women still tend to have fewer mammograms and are more likely to be diagnosed after the cancer has spread.

If that’s not enough to get you into a doctor’s office, consider this: Black women are also disproportionately prone to a rare, particularly virulent form of breast cancer that tends to strike women under the age of 35.

According to a study published in June 2006 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, black women under the age of 50 have a 77 percent higher mortality rate from breast cancer than other women of the same age group.

The study, led by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, said that younger, pre-menopausal black women are more prone to an especially aggressive type of cancer.

In addition to the UNC study, researchers at Emory University and the University of Chicago are trying to determine the root cause of the cancer and why it strikes young black women decades before menopause, when most breast cancer develops.

And don’t forget to check the medical history of your father’s family. In June, JAMA published the results of a study that revealed that a pattern of hereditary breast cancer may be hard to detect because a family is so small or has so few female members that it doesn’t appear to be prevalent. However, the cancer gene can be passed on from the father’s side of the family, as well as the mother’s, because every person inherits half of her genes from her mother and half from her father.

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What You Should Know About Breast Cancer

CREDIT: Gary Woodard | dreamstime.com

Flyer: What is breast cancer?

Dr. Blakely: It’s a disease where there are cancerous cells from the breast tissue itself. Most of the time this occurs in women; however, men can also have breast cancer.

What are the signs of breast cancer?

Many times there are no signs at all, and there are abnormalities found during routine mammogram testing.

Signs include:

• a mass or “knot” in the breast

• dimpling of the skin

• inverted nipple that is new

• bloody or other discharge from the nipple

• thickening of the skin

• redness of the skin

• changes in the size of the breast.

What causes breast cancer?

There are no known direct causes of breast cancer; however, there are several known risk factors which include:

• Family history — usually considered to be a first-degree relative (i.e., mother, sister, daughter)

• Personal history of breast cancer

• History of abnormal breast biopsies

• Known genetic abnormality

• Younger age with first period (before age 12) or later menopause (after age 55)

• Never having a baby or having your first child later in life (after 30 years old)

• Never breastfeeding

• Older age (there is a higher incidence in women over 50 years old)

• Postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy

• Alcohol use (drinking more than one drink daily)

• Decreased exercise (even limited exercise decreases the risk of breast cancer)

• Obesity and high-fat diets.

When should a woman first get a mammogram?

Most agencies recommend a baseline mammogram at age 35 with yearly mammograms starting at age 40, assuming no significant risk factors for breast cancer.

Are there any risks involved in having a mammogram?

There is some discomfort with having a mammogram. There is also some small radiation exposure associated with a mammogram; however, the risk from this is very small and decreases as a woman ages.

What questions should a woman ask her doctor about breast cancer if diagnosed with the disease?

There are several questions that should be asked. Some of those include:

• Do I need to see a specialist? A surgeon or medical oncologist?

• Do I need to have any genetic testing?

• What are the specifics about my pathology?

• Tumor size

• Are there any lymph nodes involved?

• Receptor status (ER/PR/Her2)

• Grade

• Do I need chemotherapy and, if so, what type and what are the side effects (short-term and long-term)?

• Do I need radiation?

• What stage am I, and do I need any additional testing (PET scan or CT scan)?

What are the different stages of breast cancer and what does it mean to be diagnosed at one stage as opposed to another stage?

The stages of breast cancer are I-IV. Stage I-II is early and can be cured with appropriate treatment. Stage III breast cancer almost always requires chemotherapy and radiation for cure. Stage IV means that the cancer has spread distantly from the site where it started.

If a woman is young , with no family history of breast cancer, should she still do self-exams and/or have a mammogram?

She should do monthly self breast exams and yearly mammograms if she is of age. If she feels any lumps or masses or other abnormalities, she should seek medical attention.

Dr. Johnetta Blakely is well-published and participated as a lead researcher in a study investigating the effects of pregnancy on cancer outcomes. She joined the West Clinic in July 2004.

Blakely is a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Hematology, the Connective Tissue Oncology Society, and the Herb Fred Medical Society. She graduated cum laude with a bachelor of arts in biology from David Lipscomb University in Nashville and received her medical degree in Memphis at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Blakely completed her fellowship in oncology at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas.