breast cancer Archives - Dr Cynthia Goodman

2020-10-22T19:49:17+00:00

While every day stands for something, today is an especially important one for women. October 21st is Breast Reconstruction Awareness (BRA) Day. Plastic surgeons, their patients and their former patients everywhere celebrate the miracle of being able to make women feel whole again following breast cancer surgery. It wasn’t that long ago that women routinely lived with the results of a mastectomy using only a prosthetic bra after surgery. For women, losing a breast was like losing a limb, robbing them of a precious part of their body. One can only imagine what it was like to lose one or both breasts at the time, even though eradicating the cancer itself gave them a new lease on life. Over the past few decades we have made great strides in breast reconstruction, making breast cancer survivors feel both feminine as well as complete once again. Having studied and conducted research at one of the top cancer hospitals, MD Anderson Cancer Center, I learned the cutting edge techniques of breast reconstruction. Their depth of experience [...]

Breast cancer: awareness never limited to one month of the year

Dr. Goodman2020-10-07T13:02:56+00:00

While we use October to display pink ribbons and highlight breast cancer awareness in the U.S., those conversations should never be reserved for a particular month of the year. The Susan B. Komen Foundation estimates that by the end of 2020, in the U.S. there will be 276,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer. Add to that approximately 50,000 new cases of non-invasive breast cancer and 42,170 breast cancer deaths and it’s a reason to pay rapt attention. It cannot be stressed enough how mammograms figure prominently in helping to lower some of these numbers via early detection, since in the big scheme of things this uncomfortable but necessary ounce of prevention enables the medical community to save lives. Although men can get breast cancer, it is most common in older women. Other factors that figure prominently are (1) if you have changes in breast cancer-related genes (BRCA1 or BRCA2) (2) having started your period before age 12 or starting menopause after age 55, (3) never having given birth or being older when [...]