Arizona Daily Sun | Pink 2019

ink P ARIZONA DAILY SUN

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month A SPECIAL ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT

STRONGER

Cancer Support Community Arizona offers help to all

TOGETHER Cancer Support Community Arizona

MACKENZIE CHASE AND KAITLIN OLSON

Editor’s note: A portion of this article previously ran in the Arizona Daily Sun April 11, 2019

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hey’re the three words nobody wants to hear: “You have cancer.” In that brief moment, a person’s life can drastically changes course as treatment becomes priority.

Cancer Support Community Arizona is here to make sure no one faces cancer alone. The nonprofit, a branch of national organization Cancer Support Community, has been operating out of Phoenix since 1999.

“We connect folks so they have authentic relationships that remind them they’re more than their cancer,” CSCAZ CEO Debbie DiCarlo said.

The seemingly endless flow of medical information that follows a diagnosis can be overwhelming, especially when a Google search can provide confusing and contradictory information. Part of what CSCAZ offers patients is educational sessions with experts who can translate the medical jargon they may receive from their primary care provider into layman’s terms.

CSCAZ offers all of its services free of charge, including yoga and mindfulness classes, nutrition advice, weekly support groups and more.

One of its goals this year has been to expand its presence with more services offered to patients in northern Arizona.

Sandi Perez came on board as vice president in northern Arizona in May with a decades-long background in clinical psychology and nonprofit management. For Perez, a two-time cancer survivor, CSCAZ’s mission is personal. Having first been diagnosed with stage four melanoma 15 years ago, she sought educational resources from CSCAZ during

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Cancer Support Community Arizona can be reached in northern Arizona at (928) 286-3745. A trivia night fundraiser will be held Thursday, Oct. 10, at the Museum of Northern Arizona, 3101 N. Fort Valley Rd. Visit www.cscaz.org for more information.

BEN SHANAHAN, ARIZONA DAILY SUN

Becky Halstead (left), a Flagstaff business owner and breast cancer survivor, stands alongside Jackie Montoya, a Walgreens Beauty Consultant. Halstead partnered with Walgreens for the company’s newest beauty program “Feel More Like You” earlier this year. her treatment and later volunteered with the organization while living in Phoenix.

“I understand how important our programs and services are and that made it a great and easy mission for me to embrace and work on,” she said.

Flagstaff ’s CSCAZ recently welcomed two new board members, retired medical oncologist Debbie Lindquist and Northern Arizona Radiology Clinical Director Maria Mudd.

“Having someone with a medical oncology background and somebody with a radiology background is phenomenal,” Perez said. “We’re getting specialists now in the community so people don’t have to go to Phoenix for some of the specialty [treatments], which is really nice.”

Outside of the medical realm, looking and feeling like their former selves is just as important for cancer patients

undergoing treatment. Following the success of a pilot program last year, Walgreens launched the Feel More Like You campaign this past March in 3,000 stores throughout the country — including both Flagstaff locations — after training 12,000 pharmacists and 3,000 beauty consultants.

Select employees (identifiable by a white and pink lapel pin that reads, “I can help with side effects of cancer treatments”) can now recommend products and techniques to help patients manage hair loss, dry skin and mouth, brittle nails and other physical effects that can result from cancer treatments.

Flagstaff ’s Becky Halstead experienced Feel More Like You firsthand while filming a commercial earlier this year. Halstead said she was surprised by the benefits of previously unfamiliar products like color correcting concealer and its ability to hide dry patches of skin.

“Because it’s over in the makeup

section, it seems like it would be about glamor. It’s not. It is literally about feeling normal again because, as a breast cancer patient, I can tell you that people stare. You feel weird,” she said. “We have no idea how much we take our identity by what this shell looks like.”

Halstead has owned the Halstead Allstate Insurance Agency on San Francisco Street for 16 years. She and her husband, Christopher, were KAFF radio on-air personalities in the late 1990s and now have five children.

In 2013 Halstead was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though it was treated successfully, she developed another variation of the cancer just last year and had to undergo chemotherapy all over again. She shaved her head early to beat the hair loss.

Though double treatments were a struggle, when Halstead heard about a potential opportunity to help other cancer patients through Walgreens, she was eager to participate in the program, which fills a real need.

“During treatment, you spend so much time with people concerned about your blood pressure and your weight and all the medical sides of Please see STRONGER, Page Q3

BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

Q2 | Sunday, October 6, 2019

Questions to ask

diagnosed after you’ve been

GREEN SHOOT MEDIA

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breast cancer diagnosis is scary, and often patients don’t know what to ask when their doctor tells them what’s happening.

Although you have a cancer treatment team and you’ll have opportunities to ask questions at subsequent appointments, it can be helpful to have an idea of what you need to know as you go to follow-up appointments and meet other care providers.

Don’t be afraid to ask your doctor about their experience treating this type, getting a second opinion and any detail you don’t understand. This can help you not only get the information you need but also take some measure of control over your life during a difficult time. The American Cancer Society has lists of questions to help you.

When you’re diagnosed How big is the cancer?

Where exactly is the tumor?

Has it spread to lymph nodes or other

organs?

What stage is it? What does that mean?

Who else will be on my treatment team?

How much will this cost? What does my insurance cover? Is there a patient advocate who can help me through the financial side of this?

Facts about sugar and cancer BARBARA QUINN

The Monterey County Herald‌

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e could avoid about three of every 10 common types of cancer if we change certain diet and lifestyle habits, says the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research. A good place to start, they recommend, is to eat a nutritionally balanced diet and stay away from tobacco and excess alcohol.

What about sugar? Doesn’t that feed cancer cells? It sure does. And it feeds healthy cells as well. Even if we entirely avoided all carbohydrates (sugars and starches that break down to sugar), our bodies would use protein in an alternate recipe to make glucose (sugar) to fuel our cells. It is not true, therefore, that we can starve cancer cells if we avoid all sugar.

That is just the beginning of our confusion about sugar and cancer, according to an article by registered dietitian Karen Collins in a recent issue of Environmental Nutrition.

We know from a recent large study in France, for example, that the more “ultra-processed” foods we eat, the higher our risk is to develop cancer. Basically, these are the ones that line the shelves of most convenience stores. They are in a package, and the main ingredients are fat,

sugar and salt, and not much else.

The confusion, says Collins, is why highly processed foods loaded with sugar increase our cancer risk. Here are some facts: Too much sugar — not sugar itself — puts us at an increased risk for certain cancers, say experts. That’s because a high intake of sugar (such as when you swig down a 20-ounce soda) goes quickly into the blood stream. This prompts the pancreas to secrete a load of insulin to tame the surge of sugar in the blood. It’s the high insulin levels, not just the high sugar, that stimulates the growth of cancer cells, researchers now suggest.

Excess sugar, such as the 240 calories in that 20-ounce soda (about 16 teaspoons of added sugar), is a great vehicle for getting a load of calories into our bodies.

Extra calories are easily converted to extra love handles. And this increase in body fat does raise our risk for several types of cancer.

So why do the American Institute for Cancer Research and other experts recommend we limit foods and drinks that are loaded with added sugar? To keep our weight in check and make room for a variety of foods we know to be protective against cancer such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans.

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Special Section 1

Before and during treatment What are my options for treatment? What are the

positives and negatives of each?

How long should I expect treatment to last?

What side effects will I experience?

What treatment do you recommend/what regimen

would you do if you were diagnosed with this type of cancer?

Are clinical trials an option? Should I consider those?

Will I lose my hair? How will treatment affect my daily life?

What happens if this treatment doesn’t work?

How will we know if the treatment is working?

Are there ways to manage side effects?

What lifestyle changes should I make during treatment — a different diet or exercise regimen, for example?

If I experience depression or anxiety, what resources are available?

Surgery What type of surgery is best for me?

Should I consider a full mastectomy, even though the

cancer hasn’t spread?

How long will recovery take? How much of that will be

in the hospital versus at home?

What will happen during recovery? Will I have stitches

or staples? Will there be a drain coming out of the site?

What are my options for breast reconstruction? What are the risks?

Pink

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BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

Special Section 1

Multiple options available to

TREAT CANCER

Sunday, October 6, 2019 | Q3

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GREEN SHOOT MEDIA

or the most part, breast cancer is quite treatable, but success depends on what stage the cancer is when diagnosed — the earlier, the better.

The National Cancer Institute, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, lists several options for treatment — surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and hormone or targeted therapy. Sometimes, surgery is all that’s needed; in other cases, cancer patients may need several of these types of treatment to fight the tumor.

Surg ery

Almost all people with breast cancer will require surgery.

Patients may get a lumpectomy, in which the tumor, other affected tissue and the surrounding normal tissue are removed. In the early stages of cancer, this may be sufficient.

For more advanced cancer, a total mastectomy, or removal of the entire breast that is infected with cancer, may be required. Many patients with one or both breasts removed opt for follow-up reconstructive surgery after treatment.

Breast cancer often spreads to lymph nodes first, so removing some of those nodes may be necessary. Doctors may opt to remove the first lymph node to receive drainage from a tumor, known as a sentinel lymph node, since that is where cancer is likeliest to spread.

Radiation and chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, which pumps heavy drugs into the body to slow or stop the growth of cancer cells, can be used before surgery to shrink a tumor or after surgery to kill any cancer cells still in the body.

Done before surgery, this can lessen the amount of tissue that needs to be removed. Radiation, in which X-rays are used to destroy cancer cells, can be used after surgery.

Both treatments have been shown to help people survive cancer, but can lead to serious and harmful side effects on the patient.

Hormone and targeted therapy

Both of these treatments are used after surgery with the purpose of killing any remaining cancer cells. Hormone therapy gets rid of hormones, which can cause breast cancer to grow, so reducing the production of hormones like estrogen or stopping them from feeding the cancer can help to destroy cancer cells still in the body.

Targeted therapy uses drugs to target specific cancer cells without hurting healthy cells. This can include antibodies, which deliver cancer-fighting drugs to the cancer cells instead of attacking every cell.

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it that nobody worries as much about how [your appearance] helps you emotionally to heal and feel better,” she said.

Jackie Montoya, the beauty consultant at the Route 66 Walgreens, grew up in Flagstaff, just like her children and now her grandchildren.

She said her role at Walgreens is to help anyone and everyone with whatever they need, even if it is just a friendly conversation.

Reducing expensive product

costs with coupons, massaging sample lotions into dry hands and giving makeovers have all fallen within her realm of expertise.

No matter the need, these services are always free to Walgreens customers.

Montoya has been a Walgreens employee for more than 10 years and a beauty adviser for the past year and a half; however, the Feel More Like You program brought with a learning curve and new challenges.

Like other beauty consultants throughout the country, Montoya spent two full days familiarizing

herself with the products that work best for cancer patients, as well as learning cancer-specific cosmetology techniques.

“What makes Flagstaff Flagstaff has made this partnership able to flourish much more than in some other areas,” DiCarlo said. “The direct relationships, the trust. She’s in essence that first frontline person folks come in contact with.”

Montoya said she now knows which natural, dye- and perfume-free products can be used by cancer patients. She also knows how to replicate lost hair without using a pencil, which

can be a challenge for those who have never done so before.

“Eyebrows and eyelashes are tricky. They have magnetic eyelashes, but if you have nothing to hook them to, you cannot wear magnetic eyelashes. And the eyelashes themselves, sometimes the glue irritates their eyes,” she said.

Equally as important is the empathy training consultants and pharmacists go through in order to help them build meaningful relationships with cancer patients and their caregivers.

“The patients start in the pharmacy. They don’t come in

for a makeup conversation. They come in because they want to pick up their medicine and that’s where the conversation starts is the pharmacist recognizing that drug,” store manager Mandy Brokaw said.

According to Walgreens, it is the first U.S. pharmacy to pair personalized clinical care with beauty support in an effort “to positively impact millions of Americans whose lives are affected by cancer every day.”

“It’s the power that we give each other, the caring, the love, the concern, all of that that’s so important,” Perez said.

Put yourself

FIRST. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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The first step to staying well is being proactive. That’s why the American Cancer Society recommends for women 45 and older to have regular mammograms and continue to do so at the advice of their physician.

Don’t delay scheduling your mammogram any longer.

Take a free breast cancer risk assessment online at NAHealth.com/breast-cancer-risk.

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BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

| SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2019

SPECIAL SECTION 1

IMPORTANT

FACTS ABOUT

BREAST CANCER GREEN SHOOT MEDIA

Concerned about

cancer?

Here’s what to watch for

S

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ince early diagnosis is so important in successfully treating breast cancer, people should know what signs to look for and what the screening process will be like when you go to the doctor.

Symptoms

According to the American Cancer Society, the most common symptom of breast cancer is a new lump or mass in the breast that wasn’t previously there.

A mass that is painless, hard and has irregular edges is more likely to be cancer, but malignant tumors can be soft, tender, round or painful. This means women need to know what their breasts look and feel

like, so regular self-exams are beneficial.

When you find a new lump, go to the doctor.

Other possible symptoms include swelling of the breast, skin dimpling or irritation, breast pain, nipple retraction, discharge, or the skin of the breast or nipple turning red, scaly or thick. Breast cancer also can manifest in swollen nodes in the armpit or around the collarbone.

Screenings

During your annual physical, your doctor will examine your breasts and lymph nodes for changes. This will typically be the first step even when you go in knowing something is different.

Breast tissue can change with time: women develop cysts, and menstruation

and menopause can affect tissue as well.

Your doctor also will ask you about your family history with all types of cancer, but particularly breast, uterine and ovarian cancers.

Based on the exam and discussion, further testing, such as an ultrasound, is needed.

In an ultrasound, the doctor is able to isolate the affected area and get a visual of sorts of the lump. Its size, shape, density and other factors can help her determine if this is a tumor or a cyst or just a change in fatty breast tissue.

Another screening is a mammogram, which is an X-ray that can find tumors that aren’t felt with physical exams.

These are recommended for all women 40 years old and older, but women who are at higher risk may start them earlier.

In addition to tumors, mammograms can find small calcium deposits that are a sign of breast cancer.

Did you know that breast cancer is the second most common cancer in women?

Or that men can get breast cancer?

Or that, when caught and treated early, many types of breast cancer have almost a 100 percent cure rate?

Breast cancer — which occurs when breast cells grow out of control, form a tumor and become malignant — affected more than 250,000 people in 2018, according to the National Cancer Institute. About 3.5 million women are living with breast cancer in the United States, and more than 12% of women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetimes.

The number of deaths from breast cancer is 20.6 per 100,000 women per year, while the death rate among all cancers (men and women) is 163.5 per 100,000 people.

It typically responds very well to treatment as almost nine out of 10 women treated for breast cancer are alive five years after their diagnoses. The success of treatment is heavily dependent on how early in the cancer’s development it’s diagnosed. More than 60 percent of cases are found in the early stages of cancer, before it’s metastasized to other organs, for which the treatment produces a 99 percent five-year survival rate.

Breast cancer, like all types of cancer, doesn’t have a lot of easy answers about what causes it or what people can do to lessen their chances of developing a tumor. However, researchers have identified some contributing factors.

A family history of cancer is a big one.

Women whose grandmothers, mothers or sisters had breast cancer should talk to their doctors about effective testing techniques at an earlier age than is normally recommended.

Other possible factors include having dense breast tissue, exposing breast tissue to estrogen because of late menopause, never giving birth, early menstruation or being older at the birth of a woman’s first child. Taking hormones also may contribute. Health factors like alcohol use and obesity also may contribute to cancer risk for all cancers.

We don’t know how to prevent cancer, but there are steps women can take that are thought to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

Protective factors include estrogen-only hormone therapy after a hysterectomy, healthy eating and exercise, and other lifestyle factors.

TIME CURE FOR A

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