Breast cancer awareness luncheon provides useful facts, insight

Breast Cancer Awareness Month is already a week in and the Cancer Center of Acadiana is looking to make sure the community knows as much about the deadly disease as possible.

This week the Center hosted a luncheon at The Town Club to provide some basic facts as well as a deeper look into breast cancer. Lafayette General Health Medical oncologist Victoria Panelli, M.D., and surgeon Max Trahan, M.D., were guest speakers.

The event also highlighted the fact that residents in the Crowley area can receive great care in Crowley itself, allowing those suffering with breast cancer to still have family and friends around during treatment.

Like so many cancers, breast cancer is a disease that does not discriminate.

“Any human being with breast tissue is at risk to have breast cancer, including myself,” said Trahan.

But, as Panelli would point out in her talk before, certain risk factors increase those chances, and being female is chief among them. In fact, women are 100 times more likely to develop breast cancer than their male counterparts, she said.

Gender and age are among the biggest risk factors in developing breast cancer, and, they are unchangeable, no matter how much surgery and such a person goes through. Statistics show that one in eight women under the age of 45 will develop breast cancer. By the time a woman turns 55, that ratio jumps to two of every three.

Genetic factors, family history/personal history, race/ethnicity are also among the unchangeable factors.

“With breast cancer, there are risk factors we can change, and there are risk factors we cannot change,” she said.

There are some risk factors that are avoidable, like drinking alcohol, being overweight or obsee and breastfeeding (though new studies suggest that breastfeeding may actually reduce the risk).

“So, can breast cancer be prevented? … I don’t know the answer,” said Panelli. “Most likely, no, because there are a lot of risk factors we cannot change. But, we have some that we can change and I think we can reduce the risk of the breast cancer.”

The key with breast cancer is early detection. Both doctors stressed things like annual mammograms, self-breast exams and clinical breast exams are important. Not only that, it is important for people to use more than one exam/screening to increase the chance for detection if there is a lump in the breast.

“It is well known that fewer women will die of the disease if diagnosed early,” said Panelli. “The most important thing is detecting the breast cancer on time. Early detection will save more lives.”

For women 40 years old or older, that entails annual mammograms and clinical breast exams; for those in their 20s and 30s, clinical breast exams are recommended every three years.

“If you feel a lump, call,” said Panelli, “always call.”

Other symptoms include pain and/or swelling in the breast area, under the arm or around the collar, skin irritation and nipple retraction and/or discharge.

Of course, just because there is a lump doesn’t mean that it is cancerous, as Trahan pointed out. For his talk, Trahan looked at some of the benign breast diseases and discussed how he deals with them before explaining what is done, from a surgery standpoint, for breast cancer patients.

Trahan spoke of diseases such as galactocele, fibrocystic disease, fibroadenoma, intraductal papillomas and phyllodes tumors to start off.

Galactocele is a retention cyst that contains milk or a milky substance and is typically located in the mammary glands. According to Trahan, it is common in pregnant woman or those who were recently pregnant, occurring six to 10 months after lactation ends.

Fibrocystic disease is an actually fairly common occurrence that affects many women. It occurs a lot in women in their second and third decades of life. The pain associated with fibrocystic breasts typically is related to hormonal influences from the menstrual cycle.

Fibroadenoma lumps are composed of fibrous and glandular tissue that are both firm and mobile. The lumps are typically painless and occur in women between their teenage years and 30s.

Intraductal papillomas can occur in any woman and are very common. When occurring near the nipples, as most do, they cause bloody discharges from a woman’s nipple. According to Trahan, they become more concerning when coming from a single duct instead of multiple ducts.

Finally, phyllodes tumors occur in women in their 60s. About 1 percent of the tumors are malignant (the tendency of becoming progressively worse) and re-occur 11-20 percent of the time.

Trahan then explained the surgical treatment options for breast cancer patients and the importance of doing whatever needs to be done as well as what will make the patient “feel like a whole woman again.”

He explained the difference between lumpectomies and mastectomies as well as when each surgical treatment is used from radical mastectomies to reconstruction.

Acadia General Hospital will host a Women’s Breast Health Lunch and Learn at noon Wednesday, Oct. 15, at The Town Club, located at 625 Crowley-Rayne Highway. The event is free, but seating is limited so please call 337-783-6480 to register.

To learn more about the services the Cancer Center of Acadiana offers, please visit http://www.lafayettegeneral.com/our_facilities/professional_centers/cancer_center_of_acadiana.aspx.