Judy Howell's sister died of breast cancer at age 36. When Howell developed aggressive...
The Montrose resident was not surprised when the answer was yes.
Howell stood by her sister’s side through the chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. None of the treatments slowed the cancer’s progression. She knew where she wanted to go, Baylor College of Medicine. She had previously worked at the institution as senior director of development and was involved with building community relations. In fact, she had worked on the campaign that led to the creation of the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center, part of the Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center.
When he was interning in 1972, all breast cancer patients were treated basically the same — with a radical mastectomy, removing the entire breast, underarm lymph nodes and muscles in the chest wall. “Then things really started to change,” he said. “Breast cancer was recognized as a systemic disease.” The next important advancement was discovering hormone receptor-positive breast cancer cells, with estrogen or progesterone receptors or both.
For instance, the discovery of the protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 led to the development of multiple therapies to block HER2. Some patients with this HER2-positive breast cancer do not need chemotherapy at all — only the drugs that block the protein. Research is ongoing to identify which patients would benefit from which treatment, Osborne said.
No two cancers are exactly alike, he said. The various gene mutations that cause the cancer to form and grow are examined. “Modern radiation is incredibly sophisticated and very targeted,” he said, comparing the old methods to a push-button phone. “Now we have Samsungs and iPhone 14s,” he said. “It has evolved enormously and continues to improve.”“The thing I love about these doctors is they don’t tell you what to do, they ask you what you want,” Howell said.
These days lumpectomies are more sophisticated — and actually use magnetic seeds to precisely locate the tumor.“There’s the mastectomy most people imagine — the radical mastectomy,” Thompson said. “And that’s the way mastectomy once was. Nowadays, we leave most of the skin, like an envelope, which can be filled by a plastic surgeon.”
“What we’re trying to do is piece together all the team players a person needs,” Thompson said. “The patient is at the center.” The most common donor site is the abdominal wall, without disturbing the muscles. Tissues can also be taken from the thigh, back or buttocks. Blood vessels are taken from the donation site and reconnected to the breast.
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