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National Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Early Detection Saves Lives

Posted by Scott Harrah
October 02, 2013

MRI SCAN SAVED STAR'S LIFE: Hollywood star Christina Applegate had a double mastectomy at age 36 after her doctor insisted she get an MRI breast scan. She started a nonprofit to help fund alternative breast cancer screening methods for young women. Photo: Courtesy of RightActionforWomen.com

MRI SCAN SAVED STAR'S LIFE: Hollywood star Christina Applegate had a double mastectomy at age 36 after her doctor insisted she get an MRI breast scan. She started a nonprofit to help fund alternative breast cancer screening methods for young women. Photo: Courtesy of RightActionforWomen.com

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM), and the UMHS Pulse urges women of all ages to have routine mammograms, MRIs and genetic testing because early detection is the best way to combat the disease and increase survival rates. Because young women under 40 often do not believe they are at risk, the Pulse looks at famous females who were diagnosed in their 30s.

NBCAM: Awareness, Education & Detection Year Round

NATIONAL BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH: Promoting education & early detection in October & year round. Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.netThe National Breast Cancer Foundation’s website says National Breast Cancer Awareness Month is “an annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease. While most people are aware of breast cancer, many forget to take the steps to have a plan to detect the disease in its early stages and encourage others to do the same.”

The National Breast Cancer Awareness Month website says NBCAM is a collaborative effort of “national public service organizations, professional medical associations, and government agencies working together to promote breast cancer awareness, share information on the disease, and provide greater access to services.” A full list of websites for participating organizations follows at the end of this article.

Conceived more than 25 years ago, NBCAM promotes awareness of breast cancer issues and “recognizes that, although many great strides have been made in breast cancer awareness and treatment, there remains much to be accomplished.”

The purpose of NBCAM is “educating and empowering women to take charge of their own breast health.”

The ultimate goal of NBCAM is not just a month-long campaign. “Although October is designated as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, NBCAM is dedicated to raising awareness and educating individuals about breast cancer throughout the year,” the website says. “

USING SHOW-BIZ PRESS TO SPREAD AWARENESS: After her double mastectomy, Giuliana Rancic used media (like People magazine) to encourage women under 40 to get mammograms. Photo: Courtesy of People.com

Early Detection: Three Stars Diagnosed in Their 30s

We often hear about famous women being diagnosed with breast cancer, but it’s not just celebrities that get this disease. According to the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s website, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer every three minutes in the United States. Here is a look at three famous breast cancer survivors, diagnosed in their 30s, all of whom used their celebrity status to raise awareness for other young women.

(Photo, inset right) USING SHOW-BIZ PRESS TO SPREAD AWARENESS: After her double mastectomy, Giuliana Rancic used media (like People magazine) to encourage women under 40 to get mammograms. Photo: Courtesy of People.com

 

Christina Applegate: Mammograms Aren’t Always Enough

CHRISTINA APPLEGATE: The Hollywood star was diagnosed by an MRI scan & started Right Action for Women, a nonprofit advocating MRI scans and gene testing for breast cancer dectection. Photo: RightActionforWomen.comAnyone who remembers the 1980s knows Christina Applegate, the woman who, for 11 years, played ditsy blonde Kelly Bundy on the long-running TV sitcom “Married…with Children.” Ms. Applegate later went on to act in hit movies, the ABC sitcom “Samantha Who?” and starred on Broadway in the musical Sweet Charity (for which she received a Tony nomination). Because she is the daughter of a breast cancer survivor, she started getting annual mammograms at age 30. At age 36, after receiving an Emmy and a Golden Globe nomination for her ABC show, her doctor recommended doing more than just getting a mammogram. CNN reports on what Ms. Applegate told Oprah.com about her alarming journey.

(Photo, inset right above) CHRISTINA APPLEGATE: The Hollywood star was diagnosed by an MRI scan & started Right Action for Women, a nonprofit advocating MRI scans and gene testing for breast cancer dectection. Photo: RightActionforWomen.com

"My doctor said that the mammograms weren't enough for me because of the denseness of my breasts," she says. "He suggested that I get an MRI."

It was a smart move. “They found some funky things going on [in one breast]," she says.

A biopsy was performed, and then the actress went though a long, anxiety-filled wait.

Ms. Applegate kept working and promoting “Samantha Who?” One week later, the doctor called. "[The doctor said], 'It came back positive,'" she says. "Right now I'm sitting here shaking remembering that moment."

The good news was the cancer was only in her left breast and had been caught at an early stage. She went to an oncologist and had a lumpectomy. A biopsy was performed on her lymph nodes to see if the cancer had spread. Ms. Applegate was told she would need six weeks of radiation instead of chemotherapy.

The bad news was she took a test for the BRCA gene (commonly called the “breast cancer gene”) and it came back positive.

"That sort of changed everything for me," she says. "Radiation was something temporary, and it wasn't addressing the issue of this coming back or the chance of it coming back in my left breast. I sort of had to kind of weigh all my options at that point."

MRI SCANS ALSO SAVE LIVES: Christina Applegate's breast cancer was detected by an MRI scan because her doctor said her breasts were 'too dense' for a mammogram. Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.netThe actress was given a grueling choice: Get radiation treatment and keep testing for the rest of her life, or have a double mastectomy. She had seen what her mother went through, so she chose the latter.

"It came on really fast,” she says of her decision. “It was one of those things that I woke up and it felt so right. It just seemed like, 'I don't want to have to deal with this again. I don't want to keep putting that stuff in my body. I just want to be done with this.' and I was just going to let them go."

(Photo, inset right) MRI SCANS ALSO SAVE LIVES: Christina Applegate's breast cancer was detected by an MRI scan because her doctor said her breasts were 'too dense' for a mammogram. Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It was not an easy choice. She remembers the horror of her mother’s mastectomy. “[Her surgery] was in the '70s, and they didn't do a very good job back then," she says. "So in my own mind I'm thinking, 'My God, I'm going to be butchered, and it's going to be horrible.’ “

Ms. Applegate had the mastectomy in July 2008 and eventually opted for breast reconstruction surgery. To date, she is cancer free.

Ms. Applegate realized shortly after her diagnosis that she could use her story to educate other young women about breast cancer screening. "Not many people know that that happens to women my age or women in their 20s," she says. "This is my opportunity now to go out and fight as hard as I can for early detection."

Ms. Applegate points out that early detection may not come from a mammogram. She continues to fight “for women to have access to MRIs and genetic testing, which many insurance companies won't pay for.”

She founded Right Action for Women, a “charitable foundation dedicated to breast cancer screening for women, and focused on the type of MRI scan that saved her life.” Visit the foundation’s website at http://rightactionforwomen.org/

Kylie Minogue’s Advice: Get a Second Opinion

KYLIE MINOGUE'S WARNING TO WOMEN: 'Because someone is in a white coat & using big medical instruments doesn’t necessarily mean they are right,' says the Australian singer of being misdiagnosed initially & why she got a second opinion & learned she had breast cancer & needed a partial mastectomy. Photo: EnjoyFrance.comAustralian icon Kylie Minogue has been making pop music since she was a teenager and recently signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Jay Z’s Roc Nation record label, with a new album scheduled to drop in the USA in 2014. The first single, “Skirt,” reached the top of the Billboard U.S. club chart this summer. Last year, she headlined Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace, but just a few years ago, she wasn’t sure she would be alive to enjoy all this success.

(Photo, inset right) KYLIE MINOGUE'S WARNING TO WOMEN: 'Because someone is in a white coat & using big medical instruments doesn’t necessarily mean they are right,' says the Australian singer of being misdiagnosed initially & why she got a second opinion & learned she had breast cancer & needed a partial mastectomy. Photo: EnjoyFrance.com

In 2005, when she was just 36, during a world concert tour, Ms. Minogue went for a routine mammogram. Doctors told her she was fine, but the star knew something wasn’t right. A week later, she found a lump in her breast. She went and got a second and third opinion and a biopsy revealed she indeed had breast cancer.

People.com reveals what the singer told TV talk show hostess Ellen DeGeneres.

“I was misdiagnosed initially,” Ms. Minogue says. "So my message to all of you and everyone at home is, because someone is in a white coat and using big medical instruments doesn't necessarily mean they are right.”

Minogue, who had a lumpectomy, a partial mastectomy and radiation and chemotherapy, became an inspiration to many women, performing in concerts across Europe and Australia while looking gaunt from the cancer treatments.

She has been cancer-free for many years now, and has used her story to promote breast cancer awareness both in the USA (for the American Cancer Society) and worldwide. She has been awarded an honorary doctorate degree from a British university, an Order of the British Empire from the royal family, and France’s highest honor, the Order of Arts and Lettres, all for her music career and breast cancer activism. In May 2013, she received the "Courage Award" at the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Women’s Cancer Research Fund Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

Ms. Minogue, best known in America for her hit “Can’t Get You Out of My Head,” has simple but lifesaving advice for young women who don’t feel right after being given the “all clear” from a doctor.

"If you have any doubt, go back again,” she says.

E! Star Giuliana Rancic: Going Public Helps Others

GIULIANA RANCIC: The E! News star was diagnosed at age 36 & went public with news of her double mastectomy to encourage women under 40 to get tested for breast cancer. Photo: E! NewsLike Kylie Minogue, E ! News anchor and weekly “Fashion Police” panelist Giuliana Rancic was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 36. In October 2011, Ms. Rancic, who is married to husband Bill (from TV’s “The Apprentice”),was about to have a third in vitro fertilization attempt to get pregnant when her fertility doctor insisted she have a mammogram. The results were positive for breast carcinoma. After a lumpectomy failed to rid Ms. Rancic of all cancer cells, she decided to have a double mastectomy.

(Photo, inset right) GIULIANA RANCIC: The E! News star was diagnosed at age 36 & went public with news of her double mastectomy to encourage women under 40 to get tested for breast cancer. Photo: E! News

After her mastectomy, Giuliana and Bill Rancic were all over the media, doing the talk-show circuit. US Weekly reveals why Ms. Rancic was so public about her breast cancer battle.

“In helping other women, you end up helping yourself," Ms. Rancic says. "You end up being able to validate one of the most painful times in your life by realizing that maybe all the pain and the fear and the tears were worth it."

In 2012, fellow breast cancer survivor Kylie Minogue was a guest on E’s “Fashion Police.” She and Ms. Rancic told Joan Rivers why they had to go public to educate young women about early breast cancer detection at any age.

E! Online chronicles how, on the show, both women bonded over their personal stories.

"I was 36 years old, so it was kind of crazy, but obviously you want a silver lining from that gloom and doom, from that thunder cloud," Ms. Minogue said to Rivers. "I've had lots of letters and people coming up to me in the street, basically saying, 'You've saved my life.' What can you say about that?"

"I know you've had that as well," Minogue added, turning to Ms. Rancic.

Giuliana gave credit to the Aussie star for paving the way for going public about breast cancer.

"I was diagnosed the same age as you, 36, last year," Ms. Rancic said. "When you get diagnosed, you don't know what to do…you Google.

I went online and I read your story, and it gave me the strength to go public as well. Your story helped me and I thought, huh, my story could help someone else."

Ms. Minogue added, "It's so real, I don't know how you can not tell the story. I understand some people want to go through all that quietly, but for me it was not possible."

 

(Top photo) NATIONAL BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH: Promoting education & early detection in October & year round. Image: Stock


About UMHS:

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Posted by Scott Harrah

Scott is Director of Digital Content & Alumni Communications Liaison at UMHS and editor of the UMHS Endeavour blog. When he's not writing about UMHS students, faculty, events, public health, alumni and UMHS research, he writes and edits Broadway theater reviews for a website he publishes in New York City, StageZine.com.

Topics: Medicine and Health

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