The Breast Way Forward

So, the oncologist has confirmed the diagnosis: breast cancer. Once you’ve absorbed the initial shock, what are your options? In this Breast Cancer Awareness month of October, VERNE MAREE finds out more from two doctors and several survivors.

- Verne Maree

This is the month to celebrate the advances made in breast cancer treatment, and to continue to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research and development – hugely important endeavours.

As I’ve mentioned before on these pages, there’s a direct correlation between the money spent on R&D and a cancer patient’s life expectancy.

Little research has been done on lung cancer, for example – just US$1,200 per patient death – and that’s because there is little popular empathy for it. The reason for that? It’s too closely associated in people’s minds with smoking.

Breast cancer, on the other hand, has received a lot of research funding in recent years due to intensive campaigning – US$27,000 per patient death. It’s no coincidence that a lung cancer patient still has only a 15 percent chance of survival after five years from the date of diagnosis, whereas a breast cancer patient has a whopping 90 percent chance.

No two alike

No two breast cancers are identical, says breast surgeon DR GEORGETTE CHAN. For a start, tumours can occur in different parts of the breasts. They can also differ in size, grade and subtype.

“What’s more, hormone receptor and gene mutation expressions between different breast tumours can also vary greatly. So it’s extremely important for your breast doctor to tailor the surgery and subsequent therapy – be it chemotherapy, radiotherapy or both – to you as an individual patient, as that will ensure the best outcome for you.”

My former expat friend Kathy Dunderdale (a 61-year-old American) is relieved to now be able to describe herself as “in remission”. After a suspicious routine mammogram in November 2015, followed by two biopsies, her breast cancer was diagnosed at Singapore’s NUH (National University Hospital) in January 2016.