When women are diagnosed with breast cancer, they face new questions they never thought they’d need to answer. One of the first questions they need to answer together with their oncologist is which type of surgery would best suit their situation and whether it’s optimal to keep or remove the breast.
Read more on Making The Choice To Keep or Remove A Breast…
Read More Hidden Scar surgery, lumpectomy, Mastectomy
Surgery is usually the first step in treating breast cancer in order to remove the tumor and any surrounding tissue that may be cancerous. Understandably, it’s a daunting situation for any woman to have to face, and one that brings up a lot of questions even after your care team has determined the kind of surgery that’s most appropriate for you based on the stage and type of cancer. The most important thing to know is that you’re not alone—we’re here to answer all your questions and make sure you feel fully informed of your options and expected outcomes.
Read more on 7 Common Questions About What To Expect After Breast Cancer Surgery…
Read More Breast Cancer Treatment, lumpectomy, Mastectomy
Real Men Wear Pink.
Pink is a color of health, as in “pink cheeks.” Pink is also a fighting color, as in a softer form of the warlike red. Real Men Wear Pink is a group of men uniting together to eradicate breast cancer and restore the health of millions of women.
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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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Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is the next frontier in the march towards finding a cure for breast cancer. Most breast cancers we can treat, because most breast cancers have a target we can exploit: the estrogen receptor, the progesterone receptor or the Her2 receptor. In these breast cancers, we can shut down the receptors with targeted therapies, such as tamoxifen or Herceptin (trastuzumab), stop growth and kill the cancer. Triple Negative Breast Cancers do not express these receptors and therefore, early detection and surgery become the mainstays of therapy for Triple Negative Breast Cancer.
Read more on Triple Negative Breast Cancer…
Read More Breast cancer, Breast Cancer Treatment, Chemotheraphy
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
Angels do exist. I encounter their presence often. Angels are with me in the Operating Theater, looking over my shoulder, guiding my hand, relaxing my patient as we remove the tumor. Angels are with me in the office, focusing my thoughts and comforting you as we sketch out a plan to save you from cancer. Angels are with me when I study and read my journals, opening my mind to safer and more effective ways to get rid of breast cancer.
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Read More Cancer, Surgery
Chemotherapy prior to surgery can tell us whether your tumor responded to chemotherapy. If your tumor is gone after chemotherapy, then we can feel good that any tumor cells hiding elsewhere in your body were killed.
Read more on Chemotherapy Before Surgery? But I Want My Cancer Gone! Part II…
Read More Breast cancer, Breast Cancer Treatment, Chemotheraphy
Breast cancer belongs in the garbage can. Period.
Breast cancer needs to be cut out and thrown away. Done. The end.
If only it were that simple. Many surgeons will tell you that it is that simple. Just cut out the tumor and be done with it. But breast cancer is a very complex disease that requires a mosaic of treatments from a multidisciplinary team dedicated to the destruction of breast cancer.
Read more on Chemotherapy Before Surgery? But I Want My Cancer Gone! Part I…
Read More Awareness, Breast cancer, Chemotherapy, mets, Surgery
First, let’s review what you went through to survive breast cancer. You had a mammogram, which radiates your breasts. You had surgery and a Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy, which puts radiation into your breast and lymph nodes. You may have had Whole Breast Radiation Therapy, which put lots of radiation into your breast. You probably had chemotherapy. And you are currently taking tamoxifen, an anti-estrogen pill.
Read more on Breast Cancer Survivors and Pregnancy: Be POSITIVE!…
Read More Breast cancer, cancer survival, Pregnancy, pregnancy after cancer, Tamoxifen