breast cancer

BRCA: Who Should Be Tested?

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MARISOL ROSAS ​was 8 years old when her mother, Celia Bazua de Rosas, died from ovarian cancer in 1981. It was her mother’s second cancer diagnosis. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer at age 42, shortly after Rosas, her sixth and last child, was born. For Rosas and her brothers and sisters, who were all raised in Baja California, Mexico, “there was always a concern,” she says, “that this could happen to any of us.” ​

As the siblings got older, their worries grew as three cousins on their mother’s side of the family were diagnosed with cancer. “One had breast cancer that spread to her brain,” says Rosas. “Another had breast cancer and then had a recurrence. Another had breast and ovarian cancer and then died of pancreatic cancer. I knew there was something going on, but I didn’t know what to do about it.”

Then, in 1998, Rosas got a call from a cousin who had moved from Mexico to California. Her cousin explained that her doctor had told her about a new blood test that could look for signs of an increased risk for breast or ovarian cancer. Her test had come back positive. She was calling to tell Rosas that she and her siblings should get tested, too.

Read the full story in the Winter 2019/2020 Issue of Cancer Today.

Breaking the Blood-Brain Barrier

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During the past five years, oncologists have reported an uptick in cancer patients with brain metastases—and it’s not clear why. I explored the impact of this development in my feature story “Breaking the Blood-Brain Barrier” in the Fall 2015 issue of Cancer Today.

Here’s an excerpt:

As the calendar turned to September 2014, Leslie Falduto was feeling at the top of her game. The cancer survivor was running six miles, three days a week. Her oncologist had recently told her she was doing great. And at work, Falduto, a registered nurse, was returning to her favorite post, the neonatal intensive care unit.

BrainMets_175x175Talking about her diagnosis of stage III breast cancer in September 2008 still made her feel anxious. But in the world of cancer, five-year survival is one of those measures that is supposed to make you think, OK, maybe now I can pop the champagne. And Falduto, a mother of two from St. Paul, Texas, has passed that marker the year before. 

But on Sept. 7, when she went to leave the neonatal unit, an odd thing happened. “I couldn’t remember how to open a door,” recalls Falduto, 38. After that, “I couldn’t remember how to walk.” Her right leg started shaking uncontrollably. Then, she passed out. When she awoke, Falduto was in the emergency room, where she was told she’d had a seizure. A neurosurgeon requested an MRI. The scan revealed a tumor the size of a pingpong ball—metastasized breast cancer–deep in her brain.

Read the full story.

The DCIS Dilemma

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Yesterday’s news was filled with seemingly conflicting interpretations of and responses to a new study in JAMA Oncology that looked at breast cancer deaths following a diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), alternately referred to as a precancer or stage 0 breast cancer.

25-DCIS-600x200The varied take-aways to the study by reporters aren’t surprising. They reflect the state-of-the-state when it comes to treating DCIS.

With mammography’s introduction as a screening tool in the late 1970s and early 1980s, DCIS diagnoses began to increase rapidly. Today, DCIS is the fourth most common cancer diagnosed in women. If left untreated, some DCIS lesions will go on to become invasive cancers, while others will never leave the duct. But despite decades of effort, doctors can’t yet tell a woman which type she has. As a result, breast specialists recommend all DCIS be treated with surgery, often followed by radiation and hormone therapy.

You can learn more about DCIS in my article The DCIS Dilemma in the summer issue of Cancer Today.