My breast is red and hot. OMG! Dr. Google says I have Inflammatory Breast Cancer. Do I?
Dr. Google may be brilliant, but Dr. Google never graduated from medical school, where a student learns the fine art of the physical examination. Dr. Google never learned how to perform a physical examination and has never actually examined anyone. Dr. Google doesn’t always know what he’s talking about.
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An MRI of the breast is perhaps the best method we have to evaluate your breasts for the presence of a cancer. However, breast MRIs are also the most expensive method to evaluate the breast. And therefore they are not used as a screening tool. Breast MRIs are used to either add additional information to mammography when a mammogram is unclear. A mammogram may be unclear if the mammogram is dense, that is if the report of your mammogram describes heterogeneously dense breast or extremely dense breast. Likewise, if there is an abnormality on the mammogram it may need further evaluation with a breast MRI.
Read more on How to Read Your Breast MRI Report…
Read More Breast MRI, cancer recurrence, Mammogram, Mammography
Dense breasts make the detection of small breast cancers on mammography a challenge. Breast tissue is white on a mammogram and fatty tissue is black on a mammogram. The density of a mammogram is based on the amount of black vs. white tissue and is described as fatty replaced, having scattered fibroglandular densities, heterogeneously dense, or extremely dense.
Read more on My Breasts are Dense. Now What?…
Read More 3D mammogram, Breast cancer, breast density, breast tomography, dense breasts, digital breast tomosynthesis, Mammogram
We continue to explore some of the best advances in the treatment of breast cancer; advances that help women not only kill cancer but to also live normal, healthy lives after treatment.
Read more on Life-Saving Advances in the Treatment of Breast Cancer, Part II…
Read More Aromatase Inhibitors, Awareness, Axillary Radiation for Cancer in the Lymph Nodes, Breast, Breast cancer, Breast Cancer Treatment, Cancer, Surgery, TCH and TC, The Nipple Sparing Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction
A targeted therapy is a therapy targeted to a specific biomarker to kill breast cancer. A targeted therapy can be a monoclonal antibody, or what we used to call a magic or silver bullet, directed against a specific target on a breast cancer cell. Targeted therapies are akin to a sniper with a high-powered rifle, whereas chemotherapy is akin to a hunter with a shotgun. Both can be very effective, but the sniper has a much greater chance of hitting its target and making a kill.
Read more on Targeted Therapies and Biomarkers…
Read More Breast Cancer Treatment, Cancer, Cell (biology)
Nicole and her girlfriends went for their annual mammogram. It was always more fun to do it in a group. Although they were all in their young 40s and the government is trying to tell them not to have a mammogram till they turn 50, they listened to the advice of their physicians and have been getting screening mammograms since they turned 40. Nicole’s mammogram had some microcalcifications, small pieces of calcium that are deposited from breast tissue. Most often, fibrocystic breast changes can cause calcium deposits, but on occasion, the calcium can be deposited by cancer. Nicole had a core needle biopsy and was told she had Ductal Carcinoma In Situ. Nicole had breast cancer, or so she thought. Her friend Amber, who knows everything, said that Nicole did not have cancer, that DCIS is a benign growth. Well, does Nicole have cancer? Is DCIS cancer?
Yes. DCIS is cancer. DCIS can recur after excision. DCIS can transform into a malignant tumor. Cure rates are as high as 98%, but 2% still succumb to the disease. Thus, DCIS is cancer, but benign cancer, as opposed to malignant cancer, which can spread throughout the body.
Read more on DCIS: Is it Cancer?…
Read More Angelina Jolie, Breast cancer, Breast cancer screening, Breast Cancer Treatment, cancer recurrence, DCIS, Mammography
Why is chemotherapy given to cancer patients? Because chemotherapy kills cancer.
Chemotherapy is a combination of medicines that kill cancer cells by stopping their cellular division (mitosis) and “birthing” of new cancer cells. If cancer cells cannot give birth to new cancer cells, then the cancer itself will die. Chemotherapy is not very specific to cancer cells only, as chemotherapy also kills rapidly dividing healthy cells, which leads to many of the side effects of chemotherapy.
Read more on Do I Need Chemotherapy?…
Read More Awareness, Breast cancer, Breast Cancer Treatment, Cancer, Chemotherapy
Geraldine got her mammogram every year. Her first grandchild was born six years ago she wasn’t going to miss a second of her grandbaby’s life, although, the baby’s mom, Laura, had something to say about that. Geraldine just knew that her grandbaby was God’s gift to her or raising Laura, her daughter, right. And Geraldine wanted to be there for her daughter and to play with her grandbaby. So she got her mammogram every year.
Read more on My mom has breast cancer. Is it genetic? Will I get breast cancer?…
Read More Breast, Breast cancer, Breast cancer screening, Genetics, Mammography, Real Men Wear Pink
Jane is a 36-year-old mother of three just trying to make it through the day. She has children in three different schools, and the constant driving was taking a toll on her. One day, while putting on her seat belt, her left breast hurt. She thought nothing of it as she drove around town from school to ballet to soccer and to the grocery store. Then, one morning, in the shower, she noticed a lump in her breast. No one in her family, not her mother, not her sisters, not her aunts, had breast cancer. Still, she was scared. She called her physician who recommended a mammogram and ultrasound. Jane had breast cancer.
Read more on I have breast cancer. What about my ovaries?…
Read More American Cancer Society, Angelina Jolie, Awareness, Breast Cancer Treatment, cancer recurrence, Chemotherapy, Ovarian cancer, Surgery
Judy was nearing her 35th birthday. She was excited. Her husband was going to take her to Colorado for an exciting week of rock climbing, river rafting, and fishing. Then, she was sad. She wanted romantic walks in the foothills, expensive dinners with champagne and a night in the honeymoon suite. Men will just never learn.
Read more on To Screen or Not to Screen? That’s Not the Question….
Read More American Cancer Society, Breast cancer, Breast cancer screening, cancer recurrence, emotional recovery, Health, Mammography