Breast Cancer

San Francisco, CA—Sexual dysfunction is prevalent in women with breast cancer, and is a consequence of treatment that pre- and postmenopausal women receive. As reported at the 2015 Breast Cancer Symposium, however, the safety and efficacy of available treatments remain understudied at this time.

Fertility and early menopause after cancer can pose challenging emotional and medical issues for patients and their clinicians. Survivors who become infertile because of their cancer treatment are at an increased risk for emotional distress and are often affected by unresolved grief and depression, according to Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, Medical Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.

With the increasing number of cancer survivors and their complex needs, new models of care are needed to aid patients in their transition to survivorship care. An individualized treatment summary and survivorship care plan can help patients and healthcare providers smoothly transition to survivorship care in a community-based setting.

We conducted a survey of patients who were identified from the Baystate Medical Center tumor registry who presented with breast cancer between 1997 and 2007. The women had ongoing follow-up with a medical oncologist or with a breast cancer survivorship clinic with guideline-based surveillance but no survivorship care plan (SCP) and were initially treated by the present investigators. After confirmation of study eligibility (stage I-III disease, no distant relapse, age >18 years, able to complete questionnaires, and 1-10 years since diagnosis), an invitation-to-participate letter was sent by each patient’s physician.

An Interview with Stephen C. Malamud, MD, and Susan K. Boolbol, MD, of Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital

Dr Stephen C. Malamud and Dr Susan K. Boolbol consider the clinical utility of the Breast Cancer Index^SM (BCI) as a test that separates those patients who are more likely to benefit from those who are unlikely to benefit from extended endocrine therapy.

Dr Stephen C. Malamud and Dr Susan K. Boolbol discuss the circumstances in which they would use the Breast Cancer Index^SM(BCI) to assist in determining whether to extend the adjuvant therapy of women with breast cancer beyond 5 years.

Currently, 2.9 million women in the United States are breast cancer survivors, and this number is expected to increase to 3.4 million by 2015.

Only a limited amount of research is focused on African American women with breast cancer and treatment adherence (TA). One potential barrier to TA may be a lack of knowledge and understanding of benefits for the therapies that they receive.

Wow, those meetings must be sober events.” I’ve gotten this and other similar comments regularly over the past 6½ years since I received my diagnosis of stage III breast cancer in 2007. Fortunately for me and many other women, the assumption couldn’t be less accurate.