>>> Dr. Harness: One of the most important concepts that I share with patients who have
invasive breast cancer is the fact that after the cancer stops being in situ (in situ meaning,
inside the ducts and starts growing through the walls of the ducts and start shedding
off, floating away cancer cells), once that process begins, we know we have to treat the
whole body.
So even with early breast cancers, is there a potential that those early cells, as they
float away, can go to other parts of the body, set up shop and be what we called distant
metastasis and the answer is yes.
Now in general, the more favorable the grade of the tumor and the smaller size of the tumor
and the lymph nodes being negative and being estrogen receptor positive and all the sorts
of things that put a breast cancer sort of on the good side of the curve, in general
that worry of cancer setting up shop in your lungs, in your liver, in your brain, and in
your bones is less of an issue.
Does it mean it cannot happen?
Does it mean that even with the smallest cancer that shedding off early cannot set up cells
elsewhere in the body that, particularly in estrogen receptor positive breast cancers,
we do not find out about for 3 years, 5 years, 7, 10 years later.
How these cells get out into other parts of the body and potentially lie there dormant
is a real focus of research about the environment in which cancer cells are living, and if you
will, elsewhere in the body.
A lot of research is going on now about inflammation and in processes in the body that increase
inflammation, including a life stressful, sort of event like the death of a spouse or
husband or close friend or child or traumatic things like that.
So cancer not only involves the cells that are shed off or the cells in the local environment
in the breast but also the environment, if you will, that the cells are living in.
So I have made this point many times, I going to make it again, when you present with an
invasive breast cancer, we are talking about in most cases having to treat the whole body,
the most common thing for at least five years in estrogen receptor positive breast cancers
is an antihormonal pill and then chemotherapy is about treating the whole body as well.
We have talked repeatedly about what the indications for chemotherapy are.
So, yeah, unfortunately, from the earliest times there is that potential but what is
the good news, the good news is the smaller the cancer, the earlier it is detected, the
lower the grade, the fact the lymph nodes are negative, all those positive things, the
chance of that happening is certainly much more.
*****
Hi, I am Dr. Jay Harness and I want to share with you an important information that I believe
that every newly diagnosed patient with breast cancer needs to know.
Susan Denver: “I am a breast cancer survivor.”
Katherine Stockton: “I am a breast cancer survivor.”
Coree: “I am a breast cancer survivor…”
Susan Denver: “…and I want every woman to know…”
Katherine Stockton: “…about personalized breast cancer treatment…”
Susan Denver: “…and the Genomic Test.”
Coree: “A test that helps guide a woman and her doctor…”
Katherine Stockton: “…to the best treatment options for her.”
Susan Denver: “Pass it on!”