October 2024
October 18, 2024 - Breast Cancer Awareness Month and "Wear it Pink" Day (10/18/2024)
This month is dedicated to raising awareness by promoting screening and prevention of the disease.
1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lives and it is the 2nd leading cause of death in woman in the United States. In Massachusetts, breast cancer was the most common type of cancer diagnosed among women at 30.2% between 2015-2019. In 2023, 2800 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and approximately 530 will die from it. About 1 in 726 men will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. By raising awareness, we hope to empower women to take control of their health by performing self-exams, understanding risk factors such as family history, genetics, and lifestyle, and scheduling mammograms every 2 years starting at age 40 -- or sooner depending on your family history.
Types
"A breast cancer's type is determined by the specific cells in the breast that become cancer." Breast cancer can be categorized as ductal carcinoma in situ or invasive. Ductal carcinoma is pre-cancer and starts in the milk duct that has not spread to the rest of the breast tissue. Invasive breast cancer is spread to the rest of the breast tissue and is present in 70-80% of breast cancer diagnoses.
Some types of invasive breast cancer include "triple negative breast cancer" which is aggressive. The cancer cells lack the receptors for estrogen or progesterone and don't make the protein HER2. Tiple negative accounts for about 15% of all breast cancers. Another types is "inflammatory breast cancer", which inhibit the lymph vessels in the skin, resulting in the breast to look inflamed. This is rare and accounts for 1-5% of all breast cancers.
Less common types include Paget disease of the breast which starts in the ducts and moves to the skin of the nipple and the areola. Is it found in 1-3% of all breast cancer cases. Another is angiosarcoma which beings in the cells that surround blood vessels or lymph vessels. Some are related to radiation in that area. It is less than 1% of all breast cancers. Furthermore, phyllodes tumors can grow in the connective tissue or stroma of the breast. Most are benign, but can be malignant.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Cerianna is imaging that detects estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
Other advancements include targeting cells that hibernate after initial treatment.
The HER2DX test allows doctors to find out which patient can avoid chemotherapy safely.
Dato-DXD therapy, which is currently under evaluation, specifically aims at targeting a biomarker to target specific cancer cells instead of healthy ones.
Lasofoxifene is a potentially new treatment to help people that are prone to mutations in the estrogen receptor gene after initial treatment.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month Event at Lynn Public Health - October 18, 2024
References
https://mbcc.org/be-informed/breast-cancer-statistics/
https://www.breastcancer.org/
https://www.fda.gov/consumers/owh-resources-stakeholders/pink-ribbon-guide-mammography-matters
https://www.cancer.org/
https://www.komen.org/
https://www.bcrf.org/