2023
BREAST CANCER
AWARENESS
SUPPORT • PREVENTION • RESOURCES
Local organizations provide valuable support to those facing breast cancer By Laurenz Busch
October welcomes the arrival of fall; the changing of the leaves; the carving of pumpkins; the slow descent into cooler weather. But, as Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it’s also a time to remember and highlight those having an impact. In town, Bozeman Health and the Cancer Support Community of Montana (CSC) provide vital support and treatment to those who’ve faced or are facing breast cancer. Together, the two provide Bozeman and Montana with a more holistic, community-based treatment and support system that reaches far into survivorship. Recently, the organizations hosted the “Walk with a Doc” event to highlight new information and provide education about what’s available for those with breast cancer.
you don’t have the support of your friends and family around you.” The CSC partners with Bozeman Health to provide those with breast cancer extra support. Originally started in 2004 as a support group, it has grown substantially. Today, the nonprofit offers support groups in a home-like setting and other help such as nutrition, exercise, and coping with treatment side effects. Franks said they help about 700 people each year. “We’re here to help you find resources to manage the cancer experience and hopefully thrive within the cancer experience and find meaning of life, quality of life” she said. “We understand that people have lots of decisions to make and we can help them them.”
Bozeman Health now hosts two surgeons once a month who offer autologous tissue flap breast reconstruction surgery — an important development for Montana and surrounding states. According to a press release from Bozeman Health, nowhere else in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and the Western Dakotas offers the surgery.
The CSC offers a way to find community and connect with people experiencing the same and provides support that allows people to get back to living life to the fullest. In October, Franks believes it is a time for the community to recognize those fighting breast cancer and to understand how important awareness can be.
The visiting surgeons are Dr. Theodore Nagel and Dr. Nabil Habash from Fort Worth, Texas, and having them close by is a milestone for Montana and for those who need it, without having travel interrupt their lives.
“Back in the day, people didn’t talk about cancer…[but] what’s important is that now people can talk about it. I think we forget that [wasn’t always the case],” Franks said. “During breast cancer awareness month, I encourage people to be willing to talk about all types of cancers and bring that awareness forward…it reminds us to come together as a community, to support each other, and wrap our heads and hearts around each other during a time that affects many of us in a deep and meaningful way.”
“People who have cancer also have a life — I think that we sometimes forget that,” Becky Franks, the Chief Executive Officer of the CSC Montana, said. “When women need to have reconstructive surgery for breast cancer it means they have to travel… many times, it can be repeated trips away, it’s expensive and that’s time you’re not working, you’re not taking care of your family, you’re not living your life,
2 | CANCER AWARENESS • OCTOBER 2023 • Bozeman Daily Chronicle
Breast cancer screening guidelines should
evolve with science
Lisa Jarvis
Bloomberg Opinion columnist
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as I was reminded over the weekend when a server offered me a special rose-colored cocktail to benefit a local cancer ward. I didn’t need that (delicious) beverage to be reminded that breast cancer is still the most common cancer among women. But it did make me think about how, despite decades of Pink Octobers, little has changed in our approach to breast cancer screening. Recommendations for how often to screen have shifted in recent years, but guidelines are still written for women at average risk. Oncologists now have so much more information on who is at risk for more aggressive cancers, or ones that strike at a younger age. So why aren’t women screened based on their individual risk? “In an aspirational world, we would like our guidelines to be really personalized or precision-based and adaptable over time,” says William Dahut, chief scientific officer of the American Cancer Society. Such guidelines would consider factors like genetics, breast density and lifestyle choices when guiding how early and how often each person is screened, and shape the interventions to lower a woman’s risk of developing cancer. A more tailored approach could both save lives and prevent low-risk women from undergoing unnecessary procedures from incidental findings. Modernizing mammography recommendations to better incorporate someone’s cancer risk might not sound like a radical proposition — after all, people happily accept a doctor’s instructions to not come back for 5 or 7 or even 10 years based on what was found in their most recent colonoscopy. But changing the paradigm in breast cancer screening turns out to be frustratingly controversial, a reality no one knows better than Laura Esserman, director of University of California San Francisco’s Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center. Since 2016, Esserman has led a
massive trial called Wisdom (for Women Informed to Screen Depending on Measures of Risk) to test the theory that a personalized approach could further reduce death rates — and also spare women unnecessary biopsies and treatment. The study is enrolling some 100,000 women, who are offered either standard or personalized screening approaches. It’s an effort that elicits emotions ranging from doubt to full-blown vitriol. Some bristle at meddling with an approach that has undeniably saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Deaths from breast cancer have fallen by 43% since 1989, an improvement attributed in large part to a combination of better drugs and better screening. But in the past decade, that decline has started to level off. While efforts to improve adherence to screening and invent better treatments could help, the field might also benefit from acknowledging the current imperfections in screening. As Esserman points out, many cancers aren’t actually caught during a routine screen. In a long-running study to test multiple treatments for aggressive forms of breast cancer, she and her colleagues found that 84% of cancers were originally detected in women too young to be captured by current guidelines, who missed a recommended mammogram, or, in the majority of cases, who were diagnosed between screens because they were experiencing symptoms. Esserman says that same pattern was found in a second iteration of the trial. “The data really point to the fact that we have to be smarter,” she says. Esserman’s trial is testing whether it could work to identify the people with the highest risk and bringing them in earlier and more often, and conversely, to allow low-risk people to come in less often. The full data are still more than a year away, but already she’s found that family history is not always a reliable predictor of someone’s genetic risk of breast cancer — a fact that suggests now inexpensive genetic tests should be widely offered.
OCTOBER
BREAST AWARENESS MONTH
Ask our expert Spa Pros about the benefits of aquatic therapy, a viable part of the rehabilitation and exercise plan for those in recovery.
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STAY ON TOP OF YOUR BREAST HEALTH Bozeman Health is proud to provide comprehensive breast care. From your annual breast exam to 3D mammography and whole breast ultrasound to breast surgery and cancer treatment, we provide personalized care and treatment for all your breast care needs.
Contact Advanced Medical Imaging at 406-414-5200 today to schedule your breast imaging appointment. For more information about our breast care program, contact our Breast Care Specialist at 406-414-5220.
Explore more at BozemanHealth.org
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Bozeman Daily Chronicle • OCTOBER 2023 • CANCER AWARENESS | 3
SUPPORTING & BUILDING AWARENESS Success. Together .
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Empowered by Knowledge Strengthened by Action Sustained by Community CancerSupportMontana.org • 406.582.1600 102 S. 11th Ave. Bozeman, MT 59715
Join us for our Bosom Buddies Support Group or another one of our 8 online support groups through Zoom.
Check out what else we offer free-of-charge like gentle yoga, education and family programs. Scan this QR code!
For more information visit CancerSupportMontana.org “At bosom buddies, I discovered my second family where our commonality is cancer, we speak the same language and our experiences are mutual. Through their support, I have found hope, empowerment and courage. I am not alone.“
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4 | CANCER AWARENESS • OCTOBER 2023 • Bozeman Daily Chronicle
YOUR LOCAL BREAST CARE CENTER Staying on top of your breast health isn’t just important during the month of October—it’s important year round. Our team of breast health specialists is here to care for you, from your annual breast exam to 3D mammography and whole breast ultrasound to breast surgery and treatment. Contact Advanced Medical Imaging at 406-414-5200 today to schedule your breast imaging appointment. For more information about our breast care program, contact our breast care patient navigator at 406-414-5220.
Explore more at BozemanHealth.org