Recently, the world learned that a famous morning
news personality was facing a health challenge. The moment she spoke my heart
drop and tears start running down my face. As, I watched the television she
looked healthy, beautiful, and professional. This is what she shared….
“As
many of you know, five years ago, I beat breast cancer,” said a shaky Robin Roberts on Good Morning
America Monday morning. “Sometimes treatment for cancer can lead to other
serious medical issues and that’s what I’m facing right now.”
Clutching George
Stephanopolos’s hand on the sofa next to her, Roberts announced that she has myelodysplastic
syndrome (MDS), a relatively rare blood
disease that Roberts herself said she’d never heard of until she was diagnosed
with it. Likely even more unfamiliar for many viewers than the name of her
condition was Robert’s startling remark that cancer treatment can result in
other serious health problems, including different forms of cancer, several
years after the initial cancer is in remission.
But in the medical world, it has been known for
decades that cancer treatment carries with it the risk of causing another kind of
cancer to develop. “We always think of the drug as a double-edged sword, where
there is a benefit from the drug and there is harm from the drug,” says Otis Brawley,
chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society. “It’s actually one of the
reasons why I’m one of the folks who have been very outspoken about being
conservative and only using chemotherapy when we absolutely need chemotherapy.”
The link between
treatment with chemotherapy and the development of a second kind of cancer
stems from the very nature of chemotherapy’s effects. To fight the spread of
cancer, chemo targets the DNA of cancer cells. But in the process, it also
impacts noncancerous cells, including stem cells, located in the bone marrow,
that produce both red and white blood cells.If their DNA is damaged at exactly
the right place, they start behaving abnormally,” says Brawley. “When I say
exactly the right place: you have to have a hit inside one of these genes that
either promotes growth or suppresses growth. And that’s how you can get
myelodyplesia.”MDS is a relatively rare condition that can lead to a depletion
of red or white blood cells, anemia, heavy bleeding. Brawley estimates there
are 10,000 cases per year in the United States; other estimates put that number
closer to 20,000. Of those, according to Brawley, roughly one third are what’s
known as secondary MDS—that is, MDS caused by a chemical, whether a
chemotherapy drug or an environmental toxin, like benzene, found in gasoline.
MDS is by no means the only form of secondary cancer
that can spring from cancer treatment. Carcinomas—the most common kind of
tumors--can result from radiation treatment of prostate cancer. Certain kinds
of chemotherapy, administered to patients with lymphoma and breast cancer, can
produce secondary bladder cancer. Brawley himself says that of all secondary
cancers, the one he seems to hear most often about is lung cancer in women who
have received radiation for breast cancer.And while secondary cancers, when
they appear, often do so roughly five years after chemotherapy, the timeline is
shorter when the toxin is radiation. “That’s why I suspect there’s a lot of myelodysplasia
going on in Fukishima right now,” Brawley says.
Certain
chemotherapy drugs may have greater risk than others, says Dr. Lewis Silverman,
the director of Myelodysplastic Syndrome Center at Mount Sinai School of
Medicine. But while the risk may lead doctors to adjust treatment, it doesn’t
necessarily lead them to abandon treatment altogether. “As an oncologist, if
you’re looking at a patient with breast cancer, and you know that without
treatment, there’s a 40 percent change that the tumor can recur, and when it
recurs, and it has spread, the ability to cure the disease at that time is much
more limited,”says Silverman. “In the scheme of things, it’s a small
consideration compared to the treatment to cure somebody when they have
early-stage disease.”
In Roberts’s case,
doctors reportedly will be treating her new cancer with more chemotherapy, as
well as with a bone marrow transplant from the anchor’s sister later this year.
Dr. Richard Besser, the chief health and medical editor at ABC News, has been
advising Roberts and explaining her condition to the public. In someone as
young and as otherwise healthy as Roberts is, he says the goal is nothing short
of a cure.
When Robin
concluded her statement she encouraged anyone who had been affected by Breast
Cancer to share their story, whether it was on a Blog, Website, or Video.
Personally, I don't have Breast Cancer, but have family members and friends who
have endured and survived.
What she did was encouraged me to stay focus as the Founder & CEO
with the Pearls Foundation for Women and our mission and vision of preventative
healthcare education awareness for the CURE of many diseases whether its Heart,
Stroke, Depression, Diabetes, Domestic Violence, Breast Cancer and so many
other diseases that effect women and healthcare and join forces with the Army
of Women.
Good News_____________________________
The Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and the Avon Foundation, a global
leader in breast cancer research, joined forces to launch the Army of Women.
ARMY OF WOMEN
The Dr. Susan Love
Research Foundation, an accredited 501(c)(3) public charity, (formerly the
Santa Barbara Breast Cancer Institute) was founded in 1983 to eradicate breast
cancer and improve the quality of women’s health through innovative research,
education, and advocacy.
The Dr. Susan Love
Research Foundation is dedicated to educating the public about breast cancer
risk assessment, detection, prevention, and treatment. We are also committed to
advocating for expanded breast cancer research funding and for programs that
will ensure all individuals have access to free or low-cost breast cancer
screening and high-quality treatment.
Some
of the Army of Women recent projects include:- The Army of Women Program, giving all women, with or without breast cancer the opportunity to partner with researchers and take breast cancer beyond a cure.
- The development of an inexpensive and easy to use Band-Aid-like test strip that can assess whether a premenopausal woman is at risk of developing breast cancer.
- A study exploring the effect of previous pregnancy on the physiology of the breast ducts.
- A study investigating whether pregnancy causes permanent molecular changes in breast tissue that reduces breast cancer risk.
The
Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation is dedicated to educating the public about
breast cancer risk assessment, detection, prevention, and treatment. They are
also committed to advocating for expanded breast cancer research funding and
for programs that will ensure all individuals have access to free or low-cost
breast cancer screening and high-quality treatment.
THE
AVON FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN
The
Avon Foundation for Women, an accredited 501(c) (3) public charity, was founded
in 1955 to improve the lives of women and their families, and more than half a
century later this mission is brought to life through a focus on breast cancer
and domestic violence. Through 2007, Avon philanthropy has raised and awarded
more than $580 million in over 50 countries worldwide.
While
advances have been made, breast cancer remains the most commonly diagnosed
cancer among women worldwide, and there is a new diagnosis every three minutes
in the US. Since 1992, the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade has raised and awarded
more than $525 million worldwide to advance access to care and finding a cure
for breast cancer, with a focus on the medically underserved. Funding supports
five areas: awareness and education; screening and diagnosis; access to
treatment; support services; and scientific research.
Beneficiaries
range from leading cancer centers to community-based non-profit breast health
programs, creating a powerful international network of research, medical,
social service, and community-based organizations focused on defeating breast
cancer and ensuring access to care. Programs have been supported in 50
countries, and key achievements in the US includes:
- More than $120 million awarded since 2000 to support 10 Avon Foundation for Women Breast Centers nationwide that provide exceptional research and care.
- Over 1,000 grants to community-based nonprofit breast health organizations, including support for approximately 145 organizations annually.
- Funding for more than 95 safety net hospitals that ensure quality care for the poor.
- Investment of more than $100 million in research to understand potential causes of breast cancer and develop new treatments.
- Educating more than 15 million women about the importance of breast screenings and early detection.
- Facilitating access to mammograms for one million women.
LOOKING FOR SURVIVOR ANGLES:
Are YOU a survivor or are you currently diagnosed
with breast cancer?
a million women against breast cancer
Tell YOUR story about how you beat the odds or how
you are currently FIGHTING the odds and battling it out every day to overcome
breast cancer.
We want to highlight your real life stories of being touched by breast cancer and to unveil two distinct moments of realization for each: When was the moment you knew breast cancer had changed your life? And when was the moment you knew your life could change breast cancer?
We encourage ALL of you to share your stories with us. With each story, you are helping us build a stronger and more powerful voice.
Here’s what we want
you to do:
- First, tell us about the moment you knew breast cancer had changed your life.
- Then, tell us about the moment you knew your life could change breast cancer.
Remember, there is not any right or wrong answers—just you, sharing your story and empowering others by letting them know that they have the power to help eradicate breast cancer!
SHARE - You can share your
story in a letter or video.
SEND your story and
video to ARMY OF WOMEN
Log onto the ARMY OF WOMEN
website http://www.armyofwomen.org
and JOIN the Movement Against Breast Cancer
The Pearls
Foundation for Women mission is to communicate and educate healthcare prevention through
advertising, educating campaigns, informational websites, health screenings,
women conferences, workshops, food and nutrition and training in raising
awareness, providing people or the community with knowledge and skills, and
create supportive communities to help people make healthy decisions and healthy
lifestyles.
For more information, please visit our
website https://sites.google.com/site/sonyayoungcompanyand blog http://pearlsfoundationforwomen.blogspot.com.
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