Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 1) Female Activism
Women of the World, take a bow. You deserve it. Look what you have done as a group to bring breast cancer to its knees.
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 2) Angelina Jolie and BRCA Testing
Angelina Jolie brought attention to BRCA (BReastCAncer) testing as nobody else could. This is a test that detects susceptibility to breast cancer as an inherited event.
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 3) Adios, Radical Mastectomy
The Radical Mastectomy procedure is a brutal, disfiguring operation. It involves removing the breast and the large, underlying pectoral (chest) muscle. It leaves the patient with an exposed rib cage. Ghoulish. Jarring to look at.
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 4) The Rise of Mammography: Getting Squished
Everyone likes to joke about mammography. It is a pretty bizarre test–having your breasts compressed between two cold steel plates while being told to hold your breath. Pretty sexy, huh?
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 5) NSABP: Research on Steroids
In the world of breast cancer it would be hard to hightlight an organization or institution more responsible for the modern treatment of breast cancer than the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast Project (NSABP).
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 6) From Marie Curie to Linear Accelerators
Can a quantum leap in knowledge and technical know how take place painstakingly and slowly over a half century?
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 7) The Gorilla in our Midst
Chemotherapy for breast cancer continues to be the six hundred pound gorilla in the room. I am sometimes amazed what patients will do to avoid it.
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 8) Information Empowering Women
For the breast cancer patient today, the days of the stuffy, paternalistic doctor, the all knowing doctor in a starchy white coat, are over. The internet has changed everything….
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 9) Band Aid Biopsies
In the early days of my surgical training, potential breast cancer patients or patients with an uncertain finding would check into the hospital the night before surgery. They would spend the night in the hospital, have surgery in the morning, stay that night in the hospital and go home the next morning.
Breast Cancer on the Run in October: (Day 10) Nixon’s Other War-The War on Cancer
The National Cancer Act of 1971 is an important milestone in our effort to control and then eradicate breast cancer.