Each year in the United States, approximately 264,000 women and 2,400 men are diagnosed with breast cancer. Of those people, about 30% will go on to develop metastatic breast cancer (cancer that has spread beyond the breast, often to the brain, lungs, bones, or liver). Biopsies of breast cancer tissue determine if the surface of the cancer cells...
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This past week a big announcement came from the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Steven Rosenberg, the leading authority on immunotherapy, a treatment he pioneered that uses a person’s own immune cells to fight cancer, told the world about Judy Perkins. In 2003 at age 38, Judy was diagnosed with stage 0 breast cancer. “At the time I was...
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Dr. Kelly Shanahan is a doer. As she wrote about her treatment for early stage breast cancer, “Even the four months of i.v. chemo needed because of one positive lymph node didn’t slow me down: I scheduled chemo for Thursdays, did surgery…on Fridays, threw up on Saturdays, ached from Neulasta® on Sundays, and was back in the office on...
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In From Physician to Patient, I introduced Dr. Kelly Shanahan, a mother, wife, and obstetrician-gynecologist living and working in California. Her life changed with a breast cancer diagnosis. “In 2008, I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer, stage IIB to be exact. I underwent an aggressive bilateral mastectomy, because 1) as an ob/gyn...
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November 2, 2017 Beth Caldwell died. *** “Since being diagnosed with terminal cancer, I have had one goal: to live long enough to see The Girl start kindergarten. She was 2 and a half when I got diagnosed back in March of 2014, and starting kindergarten in 2017 would fall past median survival for me. Thinking about her having to start school without...
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In July 2015, Medivizor introduced us to a project being conducted by the Broad Institute in conjunction with Dana Farber Cancer Institute called The Metastatic Breast Cancer Project or MBC Project. In October of 2015, after two years of work involving patient input and partnership, the MBC Project website went live. One of the reasons why this project is...
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An Unstoppable Force Lauren knew that we all have a common, overarching goal….We all want to live. More importantly, we all want each other to live. Scientists offer science. People with similar presentations compare notes. And always with great affection and love. What may have started as a simple support group is becoming an unstoppable force,...
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“Based on our 20 years’ experience working with families with cancer-predisposing mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, it is time to offer genetic screening of these genes to every woman, at about age 30, in the course of routine medical care.” A recommendation to screen all women, around age 30, for BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations? “many women with...
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In November 2013, Medivizor started a campaign of Thanks, donating funds to four organizations that do amazing amounts of good for people with breast, colon, prostate cancers and diabetes. One of those organizations was METAvivor. METAvivor’s Mission METAvivor’s mission is: METAvivor exists to sustain hope for those living with metastatic breast...
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Why do patients blog? Why do they reveal personal information and medical experiences on the Internet? 1) To Share Information Annette McKinnon, author of ‘Here’s Your Gold Watch, Rheutired,’ started her blog “to inform people about things I learned that seem obvious to me now, but were hard to learn.” Carolyn Thomas, author of “My Heart...
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In Memoriam: Lisa Boncheck Adams “…I search for powers to rise above, get out, fly away… The words of disease become words my brain gravitates to. The ebb and flow of cancer, Of life. And so too, Inevitably, Of death….” –Lisa Boncheck Adams Yesterday a woman of great courage died. Lisa Boncheck Adams chronicled her experiences of...
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Looking for research on metastatic breast cancer? This can be a problem. It was precisely for this reason that Dian (CJ) Corneliussen-James started a non-profit called METAvivor. “It was out of outrage,” she says. For those who don’t know, people who have Stage IV (4) cancer have metastatic disease. Metastases means the spread of a cancer from...
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