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NO WOMAN
wants to
be told she has breast cancer.
Yet, if this year is typical, doctors
will break this news to more than
250,000 women in the U.S.
Perhaps you will know one of
them. She might be your mother,
daughter, wife or close friend. Or
perhaps you will be the woman who
suddenly finds herself asking, “Will
I survive this disease?”
More than ever before, the an-
swer to this question is a reassuring
yes. Every year since 1990, death
rates for breast cancer have dropped
steadily. Today, about 98 percent of
women with early-stage breast cancer
are still alive at least five years after
their diagnosis.
Why is the outlook for breast
cancer so improved?
The widespread use of mammo-
grams—and their ability to detect
tiny tumors that often respond well
to treatment—is one likely reason for
this trend. Another reason is better,
more personalized treatment.
In 2010, Stanly Regional opened
doors to The Breast Center with a
About two-thirds of women with
breast cancer have tumors that
are fed by estrogen. Doctors have
successfully treated these tumors
for years with the anti-estrogen
medicine tamoxifen. But a newer
type of medicine, called an aroma-
tase inhibitor (AI), is also available for
women with estrogen-sensitive tumors
who are past menopause.
Depending on the characteristics of their cancer, women may also be treated with:
Targeted therapy
This type of treatment attacks specific
abnormalities in cancer cells. For
example, the drug trastuzumab
(Herceptin) is now routinely given to
the roughly one out of five women with
breast cancer cells that test positive for a
protein called HER2. Breast cancers with
too much of this protein tend to grow
and spread aggressively. Trastuzumab
helps slow this growth.
Here doctors use drugs that travel
through the bloodstream to fight cancer
cells in most parts of the body. Even in
the early stages of cancer, cells may break
away from a breast tumor and spread
elsewhere. These cells don’t cause symp-
toms or show up on imaging tests. If it’s
likely that these hidden cells have a high
chance of establishing tumors outside the
breast, doctors advise chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy
Hormone therapy
patient-centered approach to breast
health. Decreasing anxiety and
wait times for women diagnosed
with breast cancer was a priority.
The Center’s patient navigator is an
experienced nurse and breast cancer
survivor herself. Because of her suc-
cessful efforts, Stanly Regional has
now expanded the nurse navigator
program to include lung and other
various cancer patients.
John Green, MD, a board-certified
radiologist and The Breast Center’s
co-medical director, developed
a database software solution to
streamline the navigation program
and provide communication among
a patient’s healthcare team.
“Together, these enhance-
ments have standardized patient
care and helped Stanly Regional to
dramatically decrease the interval
from diagnosis to definitive surgery,
with a target of less than two weeks for
the average patient,” says Dr. Green.
“We feel two weeks is too long for
a patient to worry about her next
step in fighting breast cancer,”
Dr. Green adds. “As a national aver-
age, this time can range from 8 to
10 weeks, and we’re just not com-
fortable with that statistic.”
As personalized as treatment
now is, surgery is still standard for
women facing breast cancer. It’s of-
ten their first treatment, says Dennis
Devereux, MD, board-certified gen-
eral surgeon and co-medical director
of The Breast Center with Dr. Green.
But even so, not all women will have
the same type of surgery to fight
their cancer.
Today, most women with early-
stage breast cancer can safely choose
between a mastectomy (removal of
the entire breast) and a lumpectomy
(removal of only the cancerous
tumor plus some nearby healthy
tissue). Doctors can help women de-
cide which option is right for them.
Mammograms can find breast
cancer early, when treatment can be
most effective. Schedule yours
by calling
(704) 984-4259
.
BREAST CANCER
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