Steps Toward “In the Pink”

With a month and a color assigned to all forms of cancer, October indisputably has become known as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and its color, pink, is currently everywhere. Even the White House became the Pink House for a day.

This year 1.5 million people worldwide will be told they have breast cancer[1], and over 40,000 American women will lose their life to this disease. But beyond generating awareness perhaps we should also take a few moments this month to applaud the efforts being made to make the lives of breast cancer survivors easier. Are we making progress towards bringing breast cancer survivors closer to being “in the pink”? Let’s take a look:

• Breast cancer is no longer an automatic death sentence. A woman diagnosed with breast cancer sixty years ago had a 25% chance of living ten years after diagnosis.[2] Today up to 98% of women survive at least five years when their cancer is detected early and more than 85% survive ten years.[3]
• Five-year survival rates have been rising since 1975.[4]
• After rising from 1975 to 1990, death rates from breast cancer have steadily declined.[5] This is largely attributed to early detection, including self-breast exams and mammography screening, and improved treatment protocols.
• Breakthrough treatments include the anti-HER2/neu antibody, trastuzumab, for late-stage patients with HER2 over-expressing cancers.
• Recent research could lead to the first targeted treatment for ‘triple negative’ breast cancer, which tends to affect younger women with high mortality rates.[6]
• For early-stage breast cancer, breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy) followed by local radiation therapy is now in many cases a preferred treatment over mastectomy.[7]

In short, there has been substantial improvement in our ability to detect breast cancer early and treat patients.  In fact, just this month, the US Congress announced the first, annual National Previvor Day to call attention to the many individuals who have not developed cancer but have an inherited predisposition to the disease. This day of recognition was brought about in no small part by the efforts of FORCE (Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered), a non-profit organization that supports individuals and families affected by hereditary breast or ovarian cancer or a BRCA mutation. For these women, many of whom are young, an informed, proactive approach is showing some promise in preventing breast and/or ovarian cancer. All of  these developments are certainly laudable and with advances in the field of cancer genomics we have good reason for continued hope.

One area in which I personally know there’s been progress is helping breast cancer patients and survivors maintain their self-image as they adjust to the aesthetic changes resulting from cancer treatments such as mastectomy, breast-conserving surgery, reconstruction or hair loss.  For starters, better discussions are taking place before surgery and chemotherapy to inform breast cancer patients about aesthetic options after treatment. This allows patients time to make desired preparations for post-surgery products or wigs that complement their unique style and preference. There is also a more widely accepted holistic approach of treating the patient and not the disease, which allows patients to be more open to assistance outside of clinical treatment.

When today’s products, technology and understanding of breast cancer patients’ and survivors’ needs are combined with a personal consultation, specially trained mastectomy fitters can help these women achieve ideal shape and symmetry, whether surgery was recent or many years ago. In most cases, with a physician’s prescription, a significant portion of the cost of these products is covered by insurance and/or Medicare throughout a woman’s lifetime.

After losing both my parents to cancer I came to understand the anxiety and stress that a cancer diagnosis brings with it. That is why I decided to support cancer patients and survivors in my own way. In 2008 I opened Second Act, a unique place where cancer patients and survivors, who are facing significant changes to their body and self-image, can find the guidance, post-treatment products and inspiration to look forward to the next act of their lives with confidence. We are proud of how we have helped our many clients better understand their options and find the products that best suit them.

It is common for our customers to walk in scared, uncertain and apprehensive. And there is no greater reward than seeing them walk out with their head held high, shoulders back and a smile on their face. In the pink, so to speak.

[2] Voice of America News, October 14^th, 2010.

[3] Chicago Tribune, October 11^th, 2010 .

[4] Cancer Trends Progress Report – 2009/2010 Update, National Cancer Institute, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, MD, April 2010, http://progressreport.cancer.gov.

[5] Cancer Trends Progress Report – 2009/2010 Update, National Cancer Institute, NIH, DHHS, Bethesda, MD, April 2010, http://progressreport.cancer.gov.

[6] Telegraph.co.uk, Sept 3^rd, 2010.

[7] Twenty-year follow-up of a randomized trial comparing total mastectomy, lumpectomy, and lumpectomy plus irradiation for the treatment of invasive breast cancer. New England Journal of Medicine, 347(16): 1233–1241