Breaking Down the Myths: How You Can be Breast Cancer Savvy
For the last few weeks, everyone has been talking about breast cancer, everyone has been wearing pink ribbons and everyone knows of someone who has been affected by breast cancer.
Dr. Joycelyn Speight, a top cancer specialist with board certifications in Radiation Oncology and Palliative Care wants to know, are you breast cancer savvy ?
What you know about Breast Cancer can help you.
Below, Dr. Joycelyn Speight’s examines the myth vs reality:
1. MYTH: Breast cancer always comes in the form of a lump.
REALITY: Only a small percentage of breast lumps turn out to be cancer. Women should also be aware of other changes in breast tissue that may be signs of cancer. These include swelling; skin irritation or dimpling; breast or nipple pain; a nipple that turns inward; redness, scalyness, or thickening of the skin of the nipple or breast or a discharge other than breast milk. Breast cancer can also spread to underarm lymph nodes and cause swelling there before a tumor in the breast is large enough to be felt.
2. MYTH: All women have a 1-in-8 chance of getting breast cancer.
Reality: The risk of developing breast cancer increases with age, though breast cancer can affect women of all ages. A woman’s chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer in her 30’s is about 1 in 233, increasing to 1 in 8 by her mid-80’s. However, at any age if you feel a lump or abnormal thickening, tenderness of swelling in your breast that persists for more than one menstrual cycle (or one month if you are past menopause), you should be evaluated by your doctor.
3. MYTH: Most breast cancer is hereditary
Reality: only 5 – 10% of diagnosed breast cancers are thought to be due to abnormal genes inherited from either parent.
4. MYTH: If you have a family history of breast cancer, you are likely to develop breast cancer, too.
REALITY: Though a family history of breast cancer is a risk factor, only about 10% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have a family history of breast cancer.
If you have a first degree relative with breast cancer (a mother, daughter, or sister), the risk of developing breast cancer is approximately double. If she was diagnosed with breast cancer at younger than 50 years of age, breast screening should start 10 years before the age of her diagnosis.
5. MYTH: The BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations are associated with a 100% risk of developing breast cancer.
REALITY: Not every woman in a family, known to have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation will inherit the mutation, and not every woman who has inherited a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation will develop breast and/or ovarian cancer. However, a woman with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation is about five times more likely to develop breast cancer, than a woman without the mutation. Importantly, people who discover they have the mutation, can proactively undertake preventative steps to reduce their risk.
6. MYTH: Undergoing a mastectomy ensures that the cancer is gone forever.
Reality: Mastectomy removes the breast tissue however, it does not guarantee that the cancer will not return. In 8 – 10% of women, cancer recurs at the surgical scar. In many cases, lumpectomy (removing the tumor) and radiation can be as effective as mastectomy in preventing breast cancer from returning. Also, in very advanced cases the original cancer may have spread.
Women who have a high risk of breast cancer and who have their breasts removed as a preventive measure, still have a small chance of developing breast cancer. Preventative mastectomy reduces a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer by an average of 90 percent.
7. MYTH: Mastectomy (removing the entire breast) gives higher survival rates than having the tumor removed (lumpectomy) and radiation therapy.
REALITY: Survival rates are equivalent following mastectomy and breast-conservation (removing only part of the breast, followed with radiation therapy), for appropriately selected patients.
8. MYTH: Breast implants can raise your cancer risk.
REALITY: Women with breast implants are at no greater risk of getting breast cancer, however standard mammograms may not work as well so additional images may be needed to examine breast tissue.
9. MYTH: Only women get breast cancer.
REALITY: Men also get breast cancer. It is estimated that each year over 2000 men are diagnosed with breast cancer and approx. 20% die. Breast cancer in men is usually detected as a hard lump in the nipple area. More men than women with breast cancer die because awareness among men is much less and they are less likely to seek treatment.
10. MYTH: Only the mother’s family history of breast cancer affects a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer.
REALITY: To understand the risk of developing breast cancer, the family history of the women with breast cancer on a woman’s father’s side of the family is just as important as on the mother’s side of the family. The family history of cancer in the men on both sides (such as early-onset prostate or colon cancer) are also important to consider when assessing risk.
About Dr.Joycelyn L. Speight
Joycelyn L. Speight, M.D., Ph.D., DABR is a board certified Radiation Oncologist and Palliative Care specialist with Dual Board Certification in Radiation Oncology and Hospice and Palliative care. She completed a 4 year Radiation Oncology residency at the University of Southern California, followed by a brachytherapy and urologic oncology fellowship at the University of California San Francisco. UCSF is recognized as one of the top 5 medical schools in the country, is home to one of the few NIH designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, offered one of the first integrative medicine and symptom management (palliative care) programs and annually ranks among the top 10 hospitals in the U.S . Upon completion of her fellowship, Dr. Speight joined the faculty at UCSF where she sub-specialized Genitourinary cancers and Women’s Health via her focus on women’s cancer.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Dr. Speight is one of three children in a family of physicians:. Her mother is a psychiatrist; father an ER, trauma physician; sister a surgeon. After graduation high school at age 16, Dr. Speight spent the next phase of her life on the East Coast. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at Harvard University, follow by a move to New York where she earned her medical degree (M.D.) and her doctorate degree (Ph.D.) in Neurobiology. Dr. Speight returned to her native California for her fellowship however, after living in Cambridge, Boston and New York for 16 years, Dr. Speight considers herself a resident of both coasts.
Dr. Speight has received numerous honors and awards, presented at national and international meetings, written book chapters and patient education materials and published over 30 articles in peer reviewed journals. Her education and training journey came full circle when she took on the role of Residency and Fellowship Program Director and Vice -Chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at UCSF. Dr. Speight was recruited away from UCSF in 2009 to join a multi-specialty group with the specific goal of helping develop an integrated cancer program with one of the two large hospital systems in the area. Dr. Speight has been voted one of the Best Doctors in America by her peers, every year since 2008
Since that experience, her goal has been to work to develop integrated cancer programs. Dr. Speight’s experiences at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCSF serve as a model to emulate but adapt to community and regional hospitals. Dr. Speight believes that cancer patients should not have to leave home to receive a commensurate level of cancer care “at home”, as would be received at an academic medical center. That mission has taken Dr. Speight to several locales, including small, rural communities.
The strength of Dr. Speight’s convictions is formidable. She tries to extend her mission beyond her physical location through her role as an expert clinical case reviewer for Best Doctors. Best Doctors performs thousands of case reviews every year for patients around the world as part of an employer-sponsored health benefit
Her personal passion is her charity foundation, “The Phenix Foundation” ,a non-profit organization with a mission of outreach to educate, promote and support survivorship and wellness for cancer patients before, during and after treatment. Her charity’s mission is to offer programs and resources that help patients maintain and regain their quality of life and promote pathways to recovery.
Like her parents, Dr. Speight’s dedication and commitment to her patients touches all aspects of her life. In addition to caring for those with cancer, Dr. Speight is passionate about caring for animals too. She has three rescue dogs that that travel with her and have delighted many of her patients in their roles as therapy dogs, visiting her patients under treatment.
Not only are her family members’ physicians, but notable African-American personalities. Dr. Speight’s father has been recognized by the Los Angeles City Council for his nearly 50 years of dedication to saving lives in South Central LA. Dr. Speight’s mother was the embodiment of “fashionista” before the term existed: in the mid-sixties she was voted one of the 10 best dressed women of color in the country by Ebony Magazine.
