By Matt Miller | SDUN Reporter
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, celebrated every October with its signature pink ribbons, is in its 25th year of “Awareness, Education, and Empowerment.”
Awareness starts with facts. One in eight women in the United States will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society.
Like all cancer cases, breast cancer develops as a result of a mutated cell that replicates itself. This mutated cell can be benign (not harmful to your health) or malignant (potentially harmful to your health).
Breast cancer is categorized into stages ranging from 0 to 4 and helps doctors and patients calibrate risks and treatments. Stage 0 indicates that cancer cells remain inside the breast duct but have not invaded adjacent breast tissue. Stage 4 breast cancer is not only in the breast tissue but has also metastasized, meaning moved to other parts of the body.
Mission Hills resident Jessica Volkman is in a rare genealogical population that has an 80 percent chance of developing breast cancer.
Volkman’s inherited rarity comes in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, referred to as the human caretaker genes. The BRCA gene (pronounced “bracka”) is found in many cells in the body, including breast cells, and produces a protein responsible for repairing cellular DNA. If the gene is compromised, cells are not repaired properly and cancer risks are dramatically elevated.
Volkman, a carrier of the mutated BRCA gene, was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in May. She visited her doctor for a routine screening to determine a baseline diagnosis of breast tissue health. The baseline acts as a snapshot of tissue health and is used as a relativity point for future visits. At only 33 years old, Volkman’s screening was considered premature.
“Typically they start the screening at 40,” she explained. With her family history, Volkman said, screening is never too early. Having witnessed an aunt die from breast cancer and having helped her sister deal with the diagnosis just months before her own, Volkman was braced for the worst. Both were carriers of the mutated BRCA gene.
“I walked in knowing something was really wrong,” she said.
Six chemotherapy sessions later, along with breast removal surgery, breast reconstruction surgery and a series of cancer-preventative drug cocktails, Volkman remains positive.
“I just know I will get through it,” she said.
Research, improved medications and early detection have helped reduce the number of breast cancer cases by 2 percent per year from 1998 to 2007, according to the American Cancer Society.
Leslie Gambrell, a coach for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure, said a monthly self-breast exam and a yearly mammogram go a long way in early detection.
Every year, thousands of people walk 60 miles over three days as part of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure fundraising walk. Cancer patients, survivors, coaches, supporters and volunteers walk to create awareness and raise money to fund research for breast cancer prevention and treatment.
“I really like the phrase 60 miles,” said Volkman, who is raising money to be a sponsored participant in this year’s San Diego walk on Nov. 18-20. “I can do that… I am not a scientist and cannot cure this disease but I can be a part of something that can.”
In 2010, Komen made grants to more than 1,900 community organizations totaling more than $93 million. The money provided breast cancer education materials and information to 2.2 million people. Over 275,000 clinical breast exams were provided and 351, 000 potentially life-saving mammograms were funded.
Looking forward to starting a family in a few years, Volkman contemplates survival. “The doctors measure survival in two to five year increments,” she said. “I measure it one day at a time.”
