Shocking Discovery: You Won’t Believe What Researchers Just Found Out About Breast Cancer!

MARISA WEISS: Hi, I’m Dr. Marisa Weiss, chief medical officer for breastcancer.org, reporting here from ASCO 2023 with WebMD. I just want to tell you about an interesting study that looked at mastectomy rates in women with early stage breast cancer compared to breast preservation therapy.

And what they found is that women who had HER-2-positive breast cancers were more likely to have a mastectomy than women who had hormone receptor-positive breast cancers, or even triple-negative breast cancers. And we really don’t know why. But maybe it’s because people with HER-2-positive breast cancer worry so much that mastectomy will lead to better outcomes when, in fact, mastectomy doesn’t improve survival for most people.

So if you’re diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, regardless of subtype, keep in mind that generally about 2/3 of women undergo breast-sparing therapy, which is usually lumpectomy radiation, instead of mastectomy. And if you have HER-2 positive disease, it doesn’t mean you’ll do better with a mastectomy. So make sure you don’t let that diagnosis affect the way you think. And make sure you have all the information before making a decision about lumpectomy radiation, which is breast preservation, versus mastectomy.

MARISA WEISS: Hi, I’m Dr. Marisa Weiss, chief medical officer for breastcancer.org, reporting here from ASCO 2023 with WebMD. And I want to tell you about an important study looking at support and advice for our caregivers. Well, it turns out that about 1 in 10 adults today are caregivers for family members or loved ones with a serious illness, and cancer, of course, is one of them.

And what this study found was that for caregivers who receive support in the form of education, such as psychosocial support, coping mechanisms, problem solving, as well as individual counselling, they had a better quality of life and less depression. And we really need to keep that in mind because the people who take care of us are really important. And we have to make sure that it’s not just our health that we focus on, but also the mental health and well-being of our carers that we rely on so much.

MARISA WEISS: Hi, I’m Dr. Marisa Weiss, chief medical officer for breastcancer.org, reporting from ASCO 2023 with WebMD. There is a major study that looked at the impact of yoga on inflammation. Now, inflammation is basically the stress and strain on our cells, right at the cellular level. And you can actually measure that with various blood tests.

And emotionally, you can probably feel that from the pain, stress, and strain of life, especially when you’re going through a breast cancer diagnosis. But what this study did was compare yoga to another arm, like a placebo, effectively, to find out if yoga actually helps reduce the amount of inflammation in your body. And interestingly, this study of around 502 patients from the University of Rochester in New York found that there was a significant drop in markers of inflammation and the evidence that can be obtained from blood samples.

And to the point where we really need to ask our doctors and caregivers, OK, what can I do during and after my treatment to improve my overall health, including reducing inflammation in my body so that my body is a place safer for my cells? be operating and that I am living my life, right? And yoga was very helpful in reducing inflammation. And we know from other studies that yoga improves your mental health, your flexibility, your strength, just your ability to use your body in your daily life.

MARISA WEISS: Hi, I’m Dr. Marisa Weiss, the medical director of breastcancer.org, reporting today from ASCO 2023 with WebMD. There’s an important study that came out of the University of Oxford, which is in the United Kingdom, United Kingdom, that looked at the impact of closing the ovaries, either by removing them or using drugs to close them, in premenopausal patients who have breast cancer. . And what they found is that if you’re 45 or younger and still premenopausal with or without chemotherapy, closing the ovaries by either removing them or using drugs to keep them from working actually led to a better outcome.

And what I mean by that is a 12% absolute percentage reduction in the risk of recurrence, as well as an 8% improvement in survival. Those are significant numbers. And the treatment is significant. I mean, it’s not easy being 45 or younger and going through early menopause just to get that benefit.

So it’s always a matter of weighing the pros and cons of treatment with your doctor over time to really understand what you can do to get the best result. And many places favor drugs that shut down the ovaries because maybe shutting them down for a period of time is helpful, and you may not need to go into menopause permanently. These are all important questions to ask your doctor to find out what’s best for you, especially if you’re young, age 45 or younger, and still premenopausal after your breast cancer treatment.

MARISA WEISS: Hello. I’m Dr. Marisa Weiss, Medical Director of Breastcancer.org, reporting from ASCO 2023 with WebMD. I just want to tell you about an important study that looked at hope, like how hopeful people were about the future, and what determines hope, what you can do to improve the amount of hope you feel.

And what it showed was that if you have a better understanding of what to expect, how well you’re going to do or not, that helped make people feel more hopeful. If you have a better quality of life, are more capable of doing what you want to do when you want to do it, you will have more hope. And if you have fewer symptoms, people who had their symptoms, whether it’s treatment-related symptoms or cancer-related symptoms, managed better, felt more hopeful. That makes sense.

For those people who were more resilient or more able to cope, they had more hope. And if you’re listening to that and you’re thinking, great, thank you very much, but basically these are things that you want to learn to do better. We can all learn how to do things better and improve how we think, how we feel, including how hopeful we are.

And finally, for people who were in better financial well-being, they had more hope. So the takeaway from this is, for your own emotional well-being and how you feel about the future or your level of hope, there are things you can do to improve how you feel.