KANSAN FOR THE CURE
Fifty percent of ad revenue for today’s pink paper is going to benefit local breast cancer research groups.
THURSDAY, OCT. 27, 2016 | VOLUME 132 ISSUE 20
Quality breast cancer care difficult for Native American women to find HAILEY DIXON @_Hailey_Dixon
Ten years ago, Sarah Deer was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. “I was only 33 at the time," Deer said, "so extremely young for that level of breast cancer.” Deer, a visiting law professor and University alumna, is part of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma. After discovering that she had breast cancer, she had five major surgeries and two minor surgeries. She also underwent chemotherapy for six months. She was "sidelined" for over a year, she said. “My life was not really the same during that first year, particularly," Deer said. "But my second year, I was trying to put it back together.” Deer is now cancer-free. But throughout the process and during her diagnosis, she had access to quality medical help. However, she said this is not always the case with Native American women. In 2009, the AHRQ National Healthcare Disparity annual report found that Native Americans and Alaskan Natives received worse care for about 30 percent of quality measures and had worse access to care than white people. “Most Native American women that experience cancer do not have top healthcare,” Deer said. Deer said she thinks the
Associated Press Women pose with breast cancer awareness signs. The ETC hosted a showing of the film “Pink Ribbons, INC.,” on Oct. 19.
‘Pinkwashing’ subject of Oct. 19 film screening HAILEY DIXON @_Hailey_Dixon
Baxter Schanze/KANSAN Sarah Deer is a visiting law professor from Mitchell Hamline School of Law. She is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma and a breast cancer survivor.
problem is a result of limited access to health facilities. “Our communities are so isolated and spread out that you may have to drive two and a half hours to a doctor appointment,” she said. “And the only way to address that is more access to treatment facilities.” First Nations Student Association president Landri James, who is a member of the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation and the Kickapoo Nation, agreed with Deer that there could be better services on reservations to address health problems. There is a clinic on the Prairie Band Potawatomi reservation, which James is a part of, but she said if something was serious, the patient would be forced to go elsewhere. According to the Amer-
ican Indian Humanitarian Foundation, individuals that live on the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation, which is located in South Dakota, have to travel approximately 120 miles to get to a mid-sized community, Rapid City. There are many Native American communities who face those same difficulties. James said additional programs, like those that teach women to perform self-breast examinations, would improve breast cancer awareness in Native American communities. If a health problem was so severe, clinics on reservations may not be able to have the tools to help the patient if they are in critical condition, James said. Improving the clinics and facilities on reservations is key to having better health
for Natives. “It’s really important for people to become educated about these issues on their own and show concern with their elected representatives,” she said. “In the case of Native women, it is important to notify elected representatives that congress needs to make these changes.” Deer said she wants everyone, not just Native people, to get involved in the effort to improve access to healthcare. “The problem is there's not enough Native people to make political change," Deer said. "We really need non-Indians to understand the issues and make changes so [Native Americans] do not suffer this level of disparity." — Edited by Christian Hardy
In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, The Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity hosted a showing of the film “Pink Ribbons, INC.,” to shed light on the commercialization of breast cancer awareness. The documentary, screened on Oct. 19, dealt with companies sellling pink ribbon products and how, sometimes, little of the money raised goes toward the cause. “I think that my first thoughts [after watching the film] were that it pushed me into an uncomfortable place to evaluate my own behaviors,” Annie McBride, assistant director for the center, said. “I was frustrated and angry for the companies letting me down.” The film also discussed “pinkwashing,” when a corporation sells a pink ribbon product in support of breast cancer, but still sells items that are correlated with, or can lead to, breast cancer. “Pinkwashing is when a company manufactures products that increase breast cancer, yet are also raising
money for the fight against breast cancer,” said Megan Williams, ETC program coordinator. However, McBride said she wants people to know not all pink products are bad. “I don’t want people to take away that breast cancer awareness is bad,” McBride said. “And that people who donate or participate in walks are bad. I think the philanthropy and the spirit of the American people to make change is amazing. How do we move from awareness to action?” Williams also emphasized action. “I think that the first thing is that awareness is really important to have before action,” Williams said. “So in order to act in a way that can make the most impact, it’s best to become aware about whatever topic you are trying to change.” Williams also said if individuals want to make a difference in fighting breast cancer, there are many options. “Actions would be a letter-writing campaign, [or] boycotting a specific type of product that has carcinogens, yet has a pink ribbon on it,” she said.
Breast cancer is unpreventable, but early detection can help CHANDLER BOESE @Chandler_Boese
While breast cancer is a disease that affects mostly older women, risk factors that increase a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer often come in their younger years. One out of every eight women will develop breast cancer at some point during her life, according to the Susan G. Komen foundation’s website, and fewer than five percent of those breast cancer cases occur in women under 40. Despite its tendency to appear in older women, breast cancer still leads to more deaths than any other cancer in women 20-54. For this reason, the two biggest risk factors for breast cancer are completely unavoidable: being a woman and getting
older. Julie Anno, the lead technician at Lawrence Memorial Hospital’s Breast Center, said yearly mammograms are the best thing women over 40 can do to combat breast cancer. “There’s really nothing you can do to stop from getting breast cancer, but getting mammograms can help with early detection, which means it’s easier to treat,” she said. “And a mammogram can detect breast cancer at its earliest stage, which MRIs and CT (scans) can’t do.” For women with serious risk factors outside of age and sex, though earlier mammograms are encouraged and even paid for by most insurance companies, Anno said. A family history of breast cancer is often influential enough to require
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early mammograms. “Breast cancer can be passed down genetically, so women with a family history are usually able to start mammograms as young as 35,” she said. According to breastcancer.org, having one immediate relative who has had breast cancer doubles a woman’s chance of getting breast cancer. Having two immediate relatives makes a woman five times as likely. Those factors are the most significant, Anno said, but others can signal that a woman has a predisposition to breast cancer, including hormone use, childbearing age and the
start of menstruation. The longer a woman uses hormones, which include many birth control drugs, the more progesterone and estrogen she is encouraging her body to produce, which can
eventually lead to cancer, Anno said. “If you can try to avoid taking birth control for long periods of time during your life, it might slightly decrease your chances of getting breast cancer,” Anno said. Having children after the age of 30 or starting menstruation after the age of 12 can also put women in more danger of developing breast cancer. Most of the risk factors are unavoidable, so there’s very little women can do except to be aware of them, Anno said. “Doing self-examinations of your breasts to check for irreg-
ularities can be good even at a young age,” she said. “And, of course, getting CT (scans), MRIs and mammograms as you get older is the most important thing.” — Edited by Christian Hardy
Illustration by Gracie Williams
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