“Nowadays, with certain types of breast cancer, people more often get medical therapy before surgery."
Breast Cancer
"Until I had cancer myself, I never understood how gestures like visiting, bringing food, offering to shop, and asking friends how you could help them really made a difference while they are going through treatment."
Jenna Wier was no stranger to breast imaging when she walked into her appointment at Roswell Park Hematology Oncology Northtowns in the fall of 2021.
“I never said I’m a survivor. I beat the disease.”
Feeling a lump in the skin of the breast is scary, but before you jump down the rabbit hole of what this could mean, there are a few important symptoms and risk factors to recognize first.
“People generally get a combination of local treatments that directly affect the breast such as surgery and radiation, as well as systemic therapy, or medical treatments that affect the whole body.”
"I want as many days and as many hockey games as I can get.”
If cancer runs in a family, there may be an inherited factor that increases the risk of younger generations in that family developing cancer.
"I told Dr. Ozturk that she had given me one of the best birthday gifts ever: a totally new self-image,” Sheila says. “It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this good about my body.”
While it’s understandable for a woman to be concerned that she has breast cancer after feeling pain in that area, it’s unlikely that pain is an indicator of the condition.
There is confusion regarding baseline mammograms and what some women have been told by their primary care doctors.
“I was feeling fine when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Had I not gotten my annual mammogram, the breast cancer could have possibly spread. Early detection is key. Invest in yourself and in your health,” Sharon says.