AROUND TOWN
TAKING ON BREAST CANCER WITH PRECISION
WRITTEN BY JULIE BURTON / PHOTO BY UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS HEALTH SYSTEM
There are approximately 7 billion humans on earth, and no two are exactly alike. We’re impossible to replicate. Even identical twins don’t have the same fingerprints.
T
his may shine a clue on how cancer works. Cancer is as singular as humans are. The University of Kansas Cancer Center holds a stunning statistic. It’s one that can’t be matched in the Kansas City area. “If you look at the whole gamut of cancer, the average outcome for being treated at an NCI center has a 25 percent increase in survival at the end of one year,” says Dr. Roy
Jensen, Director of the University of Kansas Cancer Center. NCI stands for National Cancer Institute, and the University of Kansas Cancer Center is the only NCI center in the Kansas City area. The National Cancer Institute started in 1971. At the time, doctors didn’t know how complex cancer was. In fact, doctors believed cancer was caused by viruses. But cancer is not caused by viruses. It’s not
even one disease or dozens of diseases. “Cancer is literally hundreds of diseases and, in some respect, every tumor has some unique aspect about it,” Dr. Jensen explains. “Because it’s an enormously complex disease, this means experts from a wide variety of fields need to come together to attack the problem. That’s what NCI centers do—organize this whole multidisciplinary effort around cancer.” According to the NCI, the most common type of cancer in the United States is breast cancer. Dr. Jamie Wagner, D.O., is a breast surgical oncologist, division chief of Breast Surgery and the Department of Surgery, and the director of the Breast Program at the University of Kansas Cancer Center. Early detection is key at The University of Kansas Cancer Center. The top breast cancer doctors in the country know the intricacies of how cancer works, but there is one thing they don’t know—you. You have the intuition when something is wrong. “We call it the mommy gut,” Dr. Wagner says. “Be comfortable with what you know about your body. Only you will be able to detect when something is not right for you when you self-check your breasts. And don’t be scared to get a second opinion.”
Pictured: The University of Kansas Cancer Center
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SIMPLYkc MAGAZINE
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OCTOBER 2020
