Most BC cases are curable article

Poppy

 Sooo... the chief of breast surgery at Mount Sinai says this. She's not a whack-a-doo who doesn't "know" BC yet this goes against everything we've been told about BC! 

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2010/05/12/2010-05-12_get_the_facts_on_breast_cancer.html

Most breast cancer cases are curable, but mammograms are still a must

BY Katie Charles

Wednesday, May 12th 2010, 4:00 AM

Braganti for News

Dr. Elisa Port says doctors are aiming to match treatments to patients based on markers found in the tumors.

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THE SPECIALIST: DR. ELISA PORT ON BREAST CANCER

The chief of breast surgery at Mount Sinai and co-director of the forthcoming Dubin Breast Center, Elisa Port is a surgeon who has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer for the past 12 years. She operates on 400-500 patients a year, the vast majority of whom have breast cancer.

WHO’S AT RISK

About 1 in 8 American women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime, making it the second most common cancer among women, behind skin cancer. “Approximately 200,000 American women are diagnosed with the disease each year,” says Port, “The majority of these cases are treatable and curable, and much of that treatability and curability depends on early detection.” According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer rates have been slowly decreasing for the past 10 years, after 20 years of steady increase.

Breast cancer is a malignant tumor that originates in the breast, usually in the milk ducts. “Breast cancer involves cells in the breast that have made changes, and the changes include loss of control of growth,” says Port, “If the tumor is contained in the milk duct, it’s considered non-invasive cancer, but once it breaks through the milk duct and invades the surrounding breast, it’s invasive cancer.”

Though young women can develop breast cancer, the majority of cases are diagnosed in post-menopausal women in their 50s and 60s. Men can also develop breast cancer, though it is 100 times more likely to develop in women. Other risk factors include: having a family history of the disease on either your mother’s or father’s side of the family, taking hormone replacements, and certain breast conditions like atypia or LCIS.

“What we call the softer risk factors are having children at a later age, not having children, and having early periods or late menopause,” says Port. “So many of the risk factors for breast cancer are out of a woman’s control.”

SIGNS AND SYMPTOMS:

Thanks to increased awareness, most women today are diagnosed by mammograms before they develop symptoms. “Mammograms can pick up calcifications which are sometimes a sign of early breast cancer or a very small lump,” says Port. “Because of screening, about 25% of breast cancer is caught early at the stage of non-invasive cancer, which is very treatable.” Studies show that mammography reduces the risk of death from breast cancer by 15%.

Doctors recommend annual mammograms for women over the age of 40, or starting earlier if you are at elevated risk. “It’s still alarming how many women don’t get mammograms or skip for years at a time,” says Port. “Mammograms are essential.” Mammograms involve 2 pictures of each breast, and getting a mammogram is usually a short process that involves the compression of the breasts for a few seconds while the pictures are taken. In most cases mammograms aren’t painful, and they are safe. “The radiation exposure is relatively small, and does not constitute a significant risk even over the life time,” says Port.

Sydney6

Poppy - I actually saw this woman for a 2nd opinion, but at Memorial Sloan Kettering, not Mt. Sinai.  Pretty much everything in this article was what I was told by her and the surgeon who I chose to do my surgery.  What are you disputing?  The only time I felt things were not as cut & dry as presented here was when I went to the oncologist & by that I mean the whole lymphovascular aspect of my cancer.

Sue

Leah_S

I suspect the cancers she calls "curable" are the ones that are DCIS (according to this article, 25% of breast cancer).

Leah

Poppy

I think my issue with this article is exactly what Madalyn wrote, the word "curable." I don't consider remission to equal "cured." If women want to consider themselves cured to make themselves feel better, that's fine by me, but IMO it's misleading for a doctor to tell women they're cured when the reality is that a BC at any stage CAN come back.

crazy4carrots

Well, she IS a surgeon, and many surgeons feel that once they've cut out the malignant growth, they've essentially gotten rid of the cancer, and, ergo, patient is cured and all the rest (chemo and rads) is just insurance.

Do I agree?  Nope!  NED does not equal CURE.   Just ask our Stage IV sisters, especially those who started out at Stage I or II.

iodine

I take issue with the "cure" as well.  At 7.5 years out, I know that I can be rediagnosed with bc, either a new one or mets.  I agree with the "surgeon" assessment as well: who says all of them return to the same breast surgeon with recurrance?  It would be interesting to determine that as well.