NYPD ready to act on any threats made to the Jewish community for the High Holidays

Red Cross volunteers deploy to hard-hit North Carolina

Frank Fritz of the reality TV Show 'American Pickers' dies at 60

Many Verizon customers across the US hit by service outage

NBA Hall of Famer Dikembe Mutombo dies at 58 from brain cancer

Kris Kristofferson, singer-songwriter and actor, dies at 88

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News 12 Staff

BEWELLDRREYESCORRECTION

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And research has shown that the advancements being made in breast cancer care is improving rapidly. That's right. I recently visited the Northwell Health Cancer Institute where medical experts discuss some of the new breakthroughs being made to help save lives. Breast cancer is treated in so many different ways and there have been so many different advancements. So talk to me a little bit about how you treat someone once they get that diagnosis. So once they get that diagnosis first, we wanna look at um exactly which type of breast cancer it is um different types uh may require more aggressive treatments, um like chemotherapy upfront and others may require surgery first, bigger surgery is not always better. We've learned that other options such as radiation can really replace that in certain situations. And um and so we're really able to offer less and less surgery um for, for women, this machine, we can take what's called a cone beam CT scan. So we're looking at an image of the tumor in real time on that day and we can match that with the films that we've used to do our treatment planning and with the six degree of freedom table, we're able to move that table in six directions to be able to get an exact match. And now for somebody who's a breast cancer, um patient specifically, if they have something on the left side of their body, you wanna make sure that there's no damage happening to the heart or, or any anything else. Really? Exactly. Exactly. So now we have options for smaller fields, treatment for uh shorter duration of treatment. And all of that really is made possible because our imaging is so much better as we can do with this machine so that we're able to protect normal tissue while we're able to give the same biological dose to the area that we want to treat. So that these days we're able to plan to protect heart and lung from the effects of radiation. So it's more targeted exactly where we need it than it was able to be in the past. But unfortunately, we know that everyone, you know, looking at the statistics, everyone is not getting the same care. And also biologically, we've noticed there's differences. So it's not all about access, it's not all about social structure, um, or racial structure. We found that even within different ethnicities, um there are certain genes that can put um some women at more risk of more aggressive types of breast cancer such as African American women, um specifically from like the western part of Africa um there were certain genes that at one point were protected from malaria. And so they were more inherited with those types, but yet that also can put them at risk for a triple negative type breast cancer. And so there's lots of different factors that play into why we see a difference in why um black women diagnosed with breast cancer have higher rates of, of higher death rates or lower survival rates um than, than white women. Um, some of it is, you know, when they showed up for their mammogram, um, but some of it is also biology and we're just learning more all the time. Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. And there's a lot of research being done to learn more about these biological factors and also social factors that we can make a difference.

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1017BeWellBreastCancer_2023-10-17-09-53-03

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and it's a time of the year devoted to educating everyone about breast cancer and how early detection is critical at saving lives. That's right. I recently visited the Northwell Health Cancer Institute where medical experts gave helpful and life saving information. Obviously, because it is October, there's so much, you know, of a spotlight on breast cancer. But I guess for everyone at home, what would you like them to know during this time or conversations they should be having? So I think the most important thing to know about breast cancer is that it's not something that you can wait until you feel it. Um That's why we do mammograms. That's why we emphasize mammograms for early detection. But to go over, maybe what some of the symptoms are would be um you know, feeling a lump in your breast. Usually it's more of a hard lump, not the type of lump that like you can move around. Um There are some benign things like cysts that can appear like that, that you can move around. But cancer itself is usually more of a fixed um hard mass. If you feel some uh lumps under your arm. That would be another thing. Um Sometimes uh cancer can, breast cancer can pull some of the breast fibers in. And so you might all of a sudden notice some dimpling or, or the nipple might be retracted where, you know, we're, we're not always looking at that. And so all of a sudden it's, you know, that, that, that's something new, right? Um So anything new that you're feeling also discharge, if there's nipple discharge, find bloody discharge in the bra, um, that would be something you absolutely. Ok. But the truth is that 90% of the cancers that we find, um, have no symptoms associated with it. And I think part of that may be because we're doing a good job of catching them early. Right. You know. Now what about knowing risk factors, I would think right away, you know, a family history. But there are a lot of other things that you can do to, to try to help yourself maintaining a healthy body weight, eating greens, eating green vegetables that, you know, can help, uh increase your uh immune system. Um, not drinking too much alcohol. Now, what about someone who's told that they have dense breasts? What does that mean? And why does that change, you know, the imaging and all those sorts of things when your breasts are dense, the X ray can't really penetrate through so well. Um, and, and it, it can't pick up uh it looks a little bit more cloudy. Now, this is where surgical oncology is, but right down the hall is actually where they do the breast imaging. So you guys are very closely connected. Absolutely. And that's really one of the best things about working in a cancer center, um, especially, you know, that specializes in women's health because they know how integrated we are. So, uh I'm a surgeon. I rely on my radiologists to tell me exactly where I need to cut, where uh how much I need to take. Now this is actually inside one of your mammography rooms. But you're really going for a calming effect from the lighting to the images that you see. Why, why do that? It's not just about um breast imaging, it's about the patient. So we try to hit all the senses and make sure the patients relax and try to calm them during a high anxiety exam. Well, such important information there. Remember to get checked often.

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125LINewNormalBreastDensityCancerMain_2023-01-25-09-57-24

we do want to get to the topic of breast density because there's new information out there. This new study shows that women with dense breast tissue are up to four times more likely to get breast cancer. I you know, this was just published in Jama and I think for people who have dense breasts, this might be a real wake up call. This is a great topic and I'm glad that we're addressing that today. I think when we think about risk factors for breast cancer, we think about whether or not we have a family member who has breast cancer, whether or not we are overweight or obese as that increasing our risk. But often times we're not talking enough about how dense breast tissue could increase your risk factor. As Elizabeth mentioned by four times and that's a pretty large number. This is a real great opportunity to educate the public about this. If you see dense breast tissue in your mammogram report, even if your doctor doesn't mention anything more to you. I think it is a reason to bring up a conversation about, do I need to get another study done like an M. R. I. Of my breast or an ultrasound? The reason why is because when we do mammograms, breast dense breast tissue shows up as white and so does cancer show up as white. So oftentimes we might not find that cancer because it's masked in all of that dense breast tissue, which is bright white. So this is an important reason to talk to your doctor about whether or not you need further screening. Um and to realize that this is just one unique opportunity to help prevent breast cancer.

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Most adults in the U.S. recognize a lump as a potential warning sign of breast cancer but less than half can identify most of the other red flags associated with the disease, according to survey commissioned by the Ohio State University comprehensive cancer center.

5 inflammatory breast cancer signs you may not know about

Most adults in the U.S. recognize a lump as a potential warning sign of breast cancer but less than half can identify most of the other red flags associated with the disease, according to survey commissioned by the Ohio State University comprehensive cancer center.

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