thank you for joining us I'm Pam Giganti breast cancer is the most
common cancer among women in the United States after skin cancer according to
the American Cancer Society in 2017 alone they estimate more than two
hundred and fifty-two thousand new cases of invasive breast cancer among us women
and sadly more than forty thousand breast cancer deaths but this cancer not
only affects women more than 2,000 cases will be diagnosed in u.s. men with
roughly 460 expected to die from breast cancer this year but thanks to early
detection and advances in treatment breast cancer is not a death sentence in
fact new research shows us death rates from breast cancer have dropped 39%
between 1989 and 2015 joining me now to talk diagnosis treatment and survival
are breast cancer survivor Michelle Soto lungo breast cancer survivor and chair
of the Florida breast cancer foundation dr. Amy Sanchez a doc and dr. Margaret
Thompson breast surgeon at Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston ladies thank
you so much for joining us to talk about this topic today Michelle I want to
start with you for the record Michelle and I've been friends for a very long
time and I remember when one of our friends called to tell me that you had
breast cancer and I called you immediately and you picked up the phone
and the first thing you said to me was you heard didn't you listen like hi Pam
was like you heard didn't you and we had this really long powerful discussion
about what you'd been going through and I remember thinking how incredibly brave
you were so tell us your story take us through that period of time when you
were diagnosed I was perfectly healthy running marathons living life and
feeling great and I went for a routine mammogram and I was diagnosed
immediately the the radiologist came out and said you know I think we need to do
a biopsy on this and that was on a Friday and Monday I got the call that
you know it in fact was invasive ductal carcinoma and I needed surgery and I
needed chemo and I you it's full treatment what was going
through your mind at that moment because that must have just it seems so
overwhelming all those terms that he just gave you to you know the beginning
it's a whole foreign language to you that you need to learn and you need to
learn it quickly and then it's a matter of going just making a decision and
going with it you know Amy let's talk about your experience because you're a
breast cancer survival survivor as well so tell us your story pretty similar I
was I went for a six month I was going every six months my mother had breast
cancer I was I didn't have the brachot gene so that was unusual but funny
enough my daughter's pediatrician said this is what you do you check yourself
every six months so I went in May and everything was fine I went in October
and it was DCIS which is non-invasive and it was eight centimeters long and I
did not have a lump so that was a little bit of a shocker so I went in just
thinking you know basic checkup and so that that's what went on the good great
the best thing is half of support system so I was very fortunate that I had
friends in the industry that were really supportive and helpful but yeah similar
to you then you get educated very quickly okay
so doctor let's talk a little bit about that you're a breast surgeon take us
through some of what these women are going through certainly
so at Cleveland Clinic Florida we not only see a patients with breast cancer
we see patients with also non cancerous breast lesions or any kind of breast
symptoms whether it be a breast pain and nipple discharge or a breast mass or
abnormal breast imaging oftentimes when a woman has had a core needle biopsy
that demonstrates a cancer we're there to help guide them through the process
we first explained the pathology not all breast cancers are the same there are
different types there are different treatment options for patients and not
every patient with breast cancer will require removal of the breast is what we
call a mastectomy not every patient with breast cancer will require chemotherapy
and although breast cancer is a cancer it's one of the acts
be more favorable type of cancers to have and why do you say that because
once it's found at an early stage which is why we recommend annual mammograms
when breast cancer is found at an early stage and it is treated the survival is
very very high high 90 percentile which is huge yeah so let's talk about when a
woman should get that first mammogram Amy you were saying too that you had a
history of it in your family correct right so you started your mammograms at
what age 40 at 40 okay because we've heard doctor back before think those
that the age changes or a woman doesn't need to necessarily have one every year
we've heard where maybe every three years so walk us through that because
it's very confusing I agree it is very confusing and so recently as I think it
was last year the American Cancer Society did change the recommendations
for an average-risk woman we're not we're talking about a woman who has no
family history who's not high risk for breast cancer and who has no breast
complaints so formally the recommendations were that she should
start at the age of 40 for an annual screening mammogram now the American
Cancer Society recommends that she has the choice to start at the age of 40 and
definitely she should start at the age of 45 to have annual mammograms when she
reaches the age of 50 or 50 she then has the option to continue getting the
mammograms once a year or she can get it every other year okay so she really
needs to talk to her doctor and almost come up with the plan absolute herself
right Michelle take us a little bit deeper into your treatment and and what
that was like for you because I said that you were brave and I remember
having a conversation with you after chemo you did lose your hair you have
beautiful hair you've always been different had beautiful hair and been
known for your lovely hair so when you told me about that I thought wow that
must have been so hard and you faced it head-on take me through that I have to
tell you that my two biggest worries upon being diagnosed was number one how
am I gonna tell my girls mmm how am I gonna tell my girls and not fall apart
and the second one was oh my god I'm gonna lose my hair and I have to tell
you that you worry so much more than you need to
once you're faced with the moment losing your hair is not so bad it grows back a
there's so much kindness in the world from your doctors nurses random
strangers that come up to you on the day that you need it the most and will just
say hey you're gonna be okay and the whole process wasn't quite as
frightening as I thought it would be so in many ways it's a mindset and I know
you're very spiritual and you prayed about it and you said that's helped you
a lot - absolutely absolutely I don't think I could have done it without my
faith but we you know this is a journey that everybody everybody has their own
personal journey and you've got to do it on your terms and what you're
comfortable with so you know if it's yoga if it's praying if it's running if
it's whatever it is that calls to you I think that's what you need to do I don't
think any one person has the right answer of how to go through this journey
Amy was it that way for you to that mindset of getting through it definitely
I in fact I adopted a Tinker Bell as my go-to because she was a fixer and my
daughters were 12 and 14 at that time so you know I really wanted them to see it
as something that was gonna be fixed so everything even my hospital gowns were
all Tinker Bell but what you said was exactly on the money because our state
of mind is crucial I think that's the beginning and sometimes we can't think
we can't trust the way we think because we really get creative yeah and we have
to get out of our heads and that's what I that's one of the advocacy issues of
like let's let's think straight and that's your support system that's
crucial doctor do you talk about that with your
patients the whole mindset absolutely I agree with both your guests a positive
my mindset is very important it's going to help with the recovery process also
eating a healthy diet is going to help stayin active will help avoid things
such as a cigarette smoking heavy alcohol usage will also help with the
recovery avoidance of heavy heavy alcohol usage will help with the
recovery process and we hear stress - I mean stress plays such a heavy role not
only in breast cancer but in so many other ailments but try to avoid
stressors right or meditation something like that would help absolutely whether
it's through avoiding it either through meditation or having a good support
system whether it's just a one-to-one with somebody our group support system
yoga helps Pilates help just a walk on the beach or just walking with your pets
your family that's that can be very helpful yeah I'm hearing the support
system is really really important it may take us through the Florida Breast
Cancer Foundation which you are the CEO of or in charge of the director of tell
us more about them I I found home when I found I was just talking to Michelle
earlier and we were you know we were discussing on how people approach you
because now you have breast cancer you have a story and you can help with your
story so once I was introduced a good friend of mine who was also diagnosed
said you know I really want you to meet this group and I think it'll be great
for you and what they focus on is research advocacy and education and we
work in giving grants to people one of the things that the scientific committee
is really working towards now is using new researchers and there's so many
grants and that's really powerful because there's great minds they're not
used to handling the grants but they really have amazing ideas so we're
really looking into that we're looking at the educational portion of it
teaching young girls about breast health your we were talking about that so
they're not calling it a breast exam what are we calling it now so that the
young people can really or younger women can really understand what they need to
do right what we're focusing on right now instead of self exams we're focusing
on breast health and basically understanding your body and we know when
something's office females we have that intuition too that we know something's
not right so we're trying to bring in the psychosocial the the physical which
is really important know your body and then putting it all together and the
breast the key is that all the funds say here in in Florida which is really
powerful and we really need it and how do you raise funds I know there are many
ways one of them is the license plate right the license plate is phenomenal
and it's it's an easy way to to plus it's it's it's such as strong
significance so we have the the license plate we have contributors they
the national marine supplier there one of our great benefactors and they've
been providing for five years at the moment and a lot of great research has
come from that so we've been working with Moffitt um and we've been providing
grants and funding to them through their grants Michelle what's the final word on
advice you would give to women who find themselves with a diagnosis hope hope
there is always hope I mean we beat it you know we're here we have great
wonderful lives and there's always hope ladies thank you so much thank you so
much for being here we really appreciate it very important topic to discuss
especially not just this month but all the time and for more information on
breast cancer doctors treatment and research throughout florida visit
cleveland clinic org slash florida and to learn more about the work of the
florida breast cancer foundation including events throughout october
visit florida breastcancer.org as always we'll have these links and more for you
on our facebook page at yourselff FL and if you are a breast cancer survivor and
want to share your story or you have a comment on this or other topics we would
love to hear from you please send us your take you can reach us on Twitter
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hearing from you