An Idea Born Out Of Frustration
Paul Evans and Tom Sanders accept the award
Paulette Kreté and Tom Sanders show the prize on November 7, 2019.
The development of the Early Warning Scan for breast cancer started with an idea.
An idea by Tom Sanders, which came out of sheer frustration.
His wife, Paulette Kreté,was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2019.
For 10 years, her mammogram results had shown no abnormalities.
Her particular variant of cancer is not visible on mammograms.
The fact that its possible for breast cancer not to be seen made Tom Sanders, an entrepreneur, start thinking.He believes that other techniques might have discovered that cancer variant. Techniques that are not yet common in breast cancer research.
He calls his idea the Early Warning Scan for Breast Cancer . Tom has managed to convince a number of prominent partners about his idea.
They took part in a competition for innovative and socially relevant ideas. The HiTMaT call from Holland High Tech.
Why Were New Measures Added To The Staging System
The new measures give information on the biology of the tumor that affects prognosis. Adding these measures improved staging.
For example, with breast cancer, a large tumor may have a better prognosis than a small tumor, based on biological measures. In the same way, a small tumor may have a worse prognosis than a large tumor based on these measures.
At ‘gofit’ In The Catharina Ziekenhuis
Women are offered the Gofit fitness programme so they can cope better with the effects of the chemotherapy.
They took part, in a group with five other women. This is where they got to know each other.
Just three women who were victims of the assassin, breast cancer.
Three women who had never met before. If there had been no assassin…
3 random women
3 different types of breast cancer
3 tough treatments
3 results from the treatment
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What Does It Mean To Have Stage 1 Breast Cancer
In Stage 1 breast cancer, cancer is evident, but it is contained to only the area where the first abnormal cells began to develop. The breast cancer has been detected in the early stages and can be very effectively treated.
Stage 1 can be divided into Stage 1A and Stage 1B. The difference is determined by the size of the tumor and the lymph nodes with evidence of cancer.
The Most Complete Non
An average of five years of survival on conventional treatments is a poor result, and at the same time huge side effects are experienced. Cancer is a systemic disease and needs a well-differentiated approach. Thats why Immucura combines the best non-invasive treatments.
Each of these elements has superior survival rates and no unwanted side effects:
- Cell-based Immunotherapy
Clinically proven results and 5-star patient experience: thats what distinguishes Immucuras treatments.
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Want To Learn More About Your Breast Cancer Treatment Options Were Here For You
Whether you just received your diagnosis or youre looking for new treatment options, were here to help.
If youve just been diagnosed with breast cancer, your next stop will be to meet with a nurse navigator or breast surgeon, depending on your initial diagnosis, and start building your treatment plan. We offer cancer care clinic locations across the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin, so get started by selecting a location to make an appointment at.
Screening For Breast Cancer
Women aged between 50 and 74 are invited to access free screening mammograms every two years via the BreastScreen Australia Program.
Women aged 40-49 and 75 and over are also eligible to receive free mammograms, however they do not receive an invitation to attend.
It is recommended that women with a strong family history of breast or ovarian cancer, aged between 40 and 49 or over 75 discuss options with their GP, or contact BreastScreen Australia on 13 20 50.
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Progression During Hormone Therapy
For hormone receptor-positive cancers that were being treated with hormone therapy, switching to another type of hormone therapy sometimes helps. For example, if either letrozole or anastrozole were given, using exemestane, possibly with everolimus , may be an option. Another option might be using fulvestrant or a different aromatase inhibitor, along with a CDK inhibitor. If the cancer has a PIK3CA mutation and has grown while being treated with an aromatase inhibitor, fulvestrant with alpelisib might be considered. If the cancer is no longer responding to any hormone drugs, chemotherapy immunotherapy, or PARP inhibitors might be options depending on specific features of the cancer or any gene changes that might be present.
Treatment For Stage 0 Breast Cancer
Not everyone with stage 0 breast cancer needs treatment. If tests suggest that treatment is a good idea, include:
Surgery
A lumpectomy involves removing cancerous cells from the breast. It is an option when the cells remain in one area. This is a relatively short and simple procedure, and a person should be able to go home after the surgery on the same day.
If cancerous cells appear throughout the breast, the doctor may recommend a mastectomy, which involves removing the entire breast. Plastic surgeons can rebuild the breast at the same time or a later date.
Hormone therapy
The hormone estrogen, found naturally in the body, can impact some types of breast cancer. If a person has estrogen receptor-positive or progesterone receptor-positive breast cancer, a doctor may suggest hormone treatment in addition to surgery.
In stage 1 breast cancer, the cancerous cells have invaded the surrounding breast tissue. Stage 1 breast cancer has two subcategories 1A and 1B.
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Treatment For Breast Cancer May Cause Side Effects
For information about side effects that begin during treatment for cancer, see our Side Effects page.
Some treatments for breast cancer may cause side effects that continue or appear months or years after treatment has ended. These are called late effects.
Late effects of radiation therapy are not common, but may include:
- Inflammation of the lung after radiation therapy to the breast, especially when chemotherapy is given at the same time.
- Arm lymphedema, especially when radiation therapy is given after lymph node dissection. For more information, see Lymphedema.
- In women younger than 45 years who receive radiation therapy to the chest wall after mastectomy, there may be a higher risk of developing breast cancer in the other breast.
Late effects of chemotherapy depend on the drugs used, but may include:
Late effects of targeted therapy with trastuzumab, lapatinib, or pertuzumab may include:
- Heart problems such as heart failure.
Stage 2 Breast Cancer Treatment
Stage 2 breast cancers are typically treated with multiple types of therapies to kill as much of the cancer as possible and lower the risk of it recurring These therapies include:
- Surgery to remove the primary tumor
- Surgery to remove or biopsy lymph nodes
- Other therapies based on the characteristics of the tumor
For stage 2 breast cancer, surgery may involve either breast-conserving surgery or a total mastectomy, which removes the entire breast and related structures. Many patients decide to have breast reconstruction surgery during or after a mastectomy to maintain the look of symmetry between the breasts.
Your doctor will test your lymph nodes for cancer, likely during the same surgery. Lymph node testing may be performed with a sentinel lymph node biopsy or an axial lymph node dissection. A sentinel lymph node is the first lymph node where the cancer is likely to spread. An axial lymph node dissection removes a greater number of lymph nodes and may be needed if a biopsy shows signs of cancer spread.
Many patients with stage 2 breast cancer have radiation therapy, especially those who have breast-conserving surgery. If testing on the removed lymph nodes finds signs of cancer, those undergoing mastectomy will also require radiation therapy.
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Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Neoadjuvant Her2
With neoadjuvant chemotherapy, all the chemotherapy to treat the breast cancer is usually given before surgery . If the tumor doesnt get smaller with the first combination of chemotherapy drugs, other combinations can be tried.
If your tumor is HER2-positive, you may get neoadjuvant trastuzumab and neoadjuvant pertuzumab , but not at the same time as the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin .
If your tumor is estrogen receptor-negative, progesterone receptor-negative and HER2-negative with a high risk of recurrence, you may get neoadjuvant pembrolizumab . Pembrolizumab is an immunotherapy drug.
The Use Of Certain Medicines And Other Factors Decrease The Risk Of Breast Cancer
Anything that decreases your chance of getting a disease is called a protective factor.
Protective factors for breast cancer include the following:
- Taking any of the following:
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What Is Stage 1a Breast Cancer
“Stage 1 indicates that it is the earliest stage of breast cancer,” Mouabbi said. At this stage, the tumor is less than 2 centimeters in size and, most likely, has not spread to the lymph nodes.
To find out how far the cancer has spread, during surgery, the surgeon will “sample a few of the lymph nodes” with a procedure called a sentinel lymph node biopsy, Zeidman explained.
Using this procedure, the surgeon injects a radiotracer compound into the breast that will “travel to the lymph nodes and provide a roadmap,” he said. “It’ll show me, if cancer were to spread to the lymph nodes, which would be the first few lymph nodes that it would spread to.”
From there, doctors will remove and biopsy those lymph nodes to determine whether or not “tiny clusters of cells” have accumulated there, Zeidman said.
If the cancer hasnt spread to the lymph nodes, it will be considered stage 1A. But if a small amount has spread to one of the lymph nodes, the cancer is considered stage 1B, Mouabbi said.
Crucially, stage 1A and stage 1B cancers are treated generally the same way, Zeidman said.
M Categories For Breast Cancer
M followed by a 0 or 1 indicates whether the cancer has spread to distant organs — for example, the lungs, liver, or bones.
M0: No distant spread is found on x-rays or by physical exam.
cM0: Small numbers of cancer cells are found in blood or bone marrow , or tiny areas of cancer spread are found in lymph nodes away from the underarm, collarbone, or internal mammary areas.
M1: Cancer has spread to distant organs as seen on imaging tests or by physical exam, and/or a biopsy of one of these areas proves cancer has spread and is larger than 0.2mm.
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How Quickly Do Breast Cancer Tumors Grow
Breast cancer cells are mutated cells they dont grow the way healthy cells do. Instead, they grow at different rates than other cells in the body. Different types of cancers also grow at different rates. That makes predicting how quickly a breast cancer tumor will grow difficult.
Most breast cancer tumors have been growing for several years before theyre found. The cells will need to divide as many as 30 times before the tumor is detectable. With each division taking 1 to 2 months, a tumor could be growing 2 to 5 years before its found.
But there are things a healthcare professional can do to determine if the cancerous tumor is growing quickly. Some tumor gradings will include information that indicates how likely the tumor is to grow and spread.
This information is usually gathered with a biopsy. In this medical procedure, a professional will remove a tissue sample from the affected area. That tissue will be sent to a lab where a specialist will review it.
Cancerous cells that are highly aggressive will look very different from normal, healthy cells. The greater the difference between the two types of cells, the higher the chances the cancer is aggressive. But cancer cells that look more like the other cells may be less aggressive.
If the biopsy suggests the cancer is likely to spread, youll be monitored closely for metastases. Cancer cells can spread via the lymph system, bloodstream, or directly into nearby tissues and organs.
What Makes Immucuras Cell Based Immunotherapy So Special
Cell based Immunotherapy can be the last hope for many cancer patients. Its effectiveness depends on the strength of the patients immune system. And of course, we dont simply assume that the cancer patients immune system is strong. We have found a way to make the immune system more receptive and smarter. Seriously ill patients can then also benefit from immunotherapy with dendritic cells.Dr. Ramon Simon-Lopez
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What Is The Survival Outlook For Breast Cancer
According to the National Cancer Institute , the percentage of patients surviving five years after diagnosis is:
- 99 percent for breast cancer that is still local to the breast
- 86 percent for breast cancer that has spread just outside the breast
- 29 percent for breast cancer that has spread to more distant parts of the body
The NCI also lists the five-year survival rate for breast cancer overall as 90.6 percent for women and 83 percent for men.
Stage 1 Breast Cancer: Treatment And Prognosis
Breast cancer is classified into different stages ranging from 0 to 4. Staging is based on the tumors size and whether tumor cells have spread to other parts of the body. Determining your cancers stage can help your doctor determine your prognosis and the best treatment options.
The TNM staging system which stands for tumor, node, and metastasis is generally used for breast cancer staging. The system stages tumors based on:
- Tumor How large is the primary tumor?
- Node Are there cancer cells in lymph nodes?
- Metastasis Has the cancer metastasized, or spread, to other parts of the body?
Each letter is assigned a number, often with a letter following it. A lower number corresponds to early stage breast cancer, and a higher number indicates more advanced breast cancer.
Other information is also used to better understand the stage of the cancer. This can include:
- Hormone receptor status Whether the cancer contains estrogen receptors or progesterone receptors, proteins that respond to hormones in the body
- Tumor grade A measure of how abnormal the cancer cells look compared to normal cells
- HER2 status Whether the cancer has high levels of a protein called HER2
- Oncotype DX score Results of a genetic test used to predict if a cancer might progress to a more serious form of cancer
Following breast cancer diagnosis, a doctor will determine the most effective treatment based on the cancers stage.
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Treatment Of Locoregional Recurrent Breast Cancer
For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.
Treatment of locoregional recurrentbreast cancer , may include the following:
- Targeted therapy .
- A clinical trial of a new treatment.
For information about treatment options for breast cancer that has spread to parts of the body outside the breast, chest wall, or nearby lymph nodes, see the Treatment of Metastatic Breast Cancer section.
Use our clinical trial search to find NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are accepting patients. You can search for trials based on the type of cancer, the age of the patient, and where the trials are being done. General information about clinical trials is also available.
Checking The Lymph Nodes
The usual treatment is surgery to remove the cancer. Before your surgery you have an ultrasound scan to check the lymph nodes in the armpit close to the breast. This is to see if they contain cancer cells. If breast cancer spreads, it usually first spreads to the lymph nodes close to the breast.
Depending on the results of your scan you might have:
- a sentinel lymph node biopsy during your breast cancer operation
- surgery to remove your lymph nodes
You may have other treatments after surgery.
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What Is Cancer Staging
Staging is a way of describing how extensive the breast cancer is, including the size of the tumor, whether it has spread to lymph nodes, whether it has spread to distant parts of the body, and what its biomarkers are.
Staging can be done either before or after a patient undergoes surgery. Staging done before surgery is called the clinical stage, and staging done after surgery is called the pathologic stage. Doctors use diagnostic tests to find out the cancer’s stage, so staging may not be complete until all of the tests are finished. Knowing the stage helps the doctor recommend the best kind of treatment and can help predict a patient’s prognosis, which is the chance of recovery. There are different stage descriptions for different types of cancer.
This page provides detailed information about the system used to find the stage of breast cancer and the stage groups for breast cancer, such as stage IIA or stage IV.
Survival Rates Of Stage 1 And Stage 2 Breast Cancer
According to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the earlier breast cancer is first diagnosed, the better the outcome. The survival rates of people diagnosed with breast cancer have also improved over time due to earlier detection and improvements in treatment. Most people with early stage breast cancer can be treated successfully.
You may wish to discuss your prognosis and treatment options with your doctors. However, it is not possible to predict the exact course of your cancer and how long you will live. The length of survival can vary from person to person. Factors that influence this include:
- Response to treatment
- The type of breast cancer that you have
- The rate of tumour growth
- Other factors such as your age, medical history and overall health.
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