Testing It Up

Breast cancer is more commonly regarded as a woman’s disease, but it can certainly strike any gender, albeit at a smaller rate. This makes the experience of Mike Story certainly unique.

Mike Story is Executive Vice President of Advantage Home Telehealth, Inc., a medical-device company. His wife, Kelly, was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 46, as shared in a feature by CBS News. Mike supported Kelly throughout her more than two-year battle with breast cancer, which included accompanying her for treatments at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI).

A year after Kelly’s death, the RPCI website shares that Mike received a shocking diagnosis: he, too, has breast cancer, the disease that claimed the life of his beloved wife, and the disease has metastasized to his bones.

Now, Mike Story is once again visiting RPCI, this time as a patient. His Roswell Park care team, which includes his late wife’s oncologist, Dr. Tracey O’Connor, has put together a treatment plan for Mike. Mike shared: “There’s a whole lot that’s gone on in the last few years. There’s a lot that comes at you… It’s life. You deal with it and you get through it.”

Mike and Kelly have a 20-year old daughter, Carly, who is in her third year at Canisius College. Father and daughter shared their story with CBS’ The Early Show, and both expressed commitment to spreading awareness about the disease, and supporting efforts towards fighting it. Just this June, Carly participated as co-captain for a team during the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.

As part of the observance of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and its clinical care partner, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, is coming out with a series of tip sheets regarding various breast cancer-related topics, according to a news release. The first tip sheet in the series is provided by Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Hutchinson Center’s Prevention Center, a member of the Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, and author of “Breast Fitness” (St. Martin’s Press).

Dr. McTiernan shared the following tips towards preventing breast cancer:

1. Avoid obesity.
2. Maintain a healthy diet.
3. Be physically active.
4. Limit your alcohol intake to no more than one drink per day.
5. Avoid hormone replacement therapy.
6. Talk to your doctor about estrogen-blocking drugs.
7. Do not smoke.
8. Breast feed your babies for as long as you can.
9. Get involved in research studies.
10. Be physically fit and support breast cancer research at the same time.

This is but the first of four tip sheets in the series, which will touch on other breast cancer concerns, such as breast cancer screening and treatment. There will be one tip sheet that will be released each Friday in October. Other tip sheets will be as follows:

Oct. 8 – “10 Tips for Breast Cancer Screening and Early Detection” by Constance Lehman, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Breast Imaging and Medical Director of Radiology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance

Oct. 15 – “10 Tips for Breast Cancer Patients During Treatment” by Julie Gralow, M.D., Director of Breast Medical Oncology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and co-author of “Breast Fitness” (St. Martin’s Press).

Oct. 22 – “10 Tips for Breast Cancer Survivors” by Karen Syrjala, Ph.D., Director of Biobehavioral Sciences and co-Director of the Survivorship Program at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

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The month of October is winding down, but it was not too late for the Obama administration to do its part to raise breast cancer awareness. The First Lady was in the center of it all, donning a pink ribbon on her lapel to indicate her being one with the rest of womankind in the battle against breast cancer.

The event was held on Friday morning at the First Lady’s Garden (the East Garden) in the White House. In attendance were breast cancer survivors and breast cancer awareness advocates, as well as members of Congress as well as Jill Biden, the wife of the vice-president.

Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Biden together make an ideal team in as far as breast cancer awareness is concerned. Mrs. Obama, after all, used to be a hospital administrator in Chicago. Mrs. Biden has a personal experience with breast cancer as some of her close friends were diagnosed with the disease. This led to her organizing a breast cancer education program in Delaware, according to a feature by the Associated Press.

While the First Lady spoke at length regarding women and breast cancer, perhaps more important are words from someone who knows first hand what it is like. Speaking at the event was breast cancer survivor Joni Lownsdale of Rockford, Illinois, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2002. She has since undergone treatment for her tumor and has been given a clean bill of health, with her doctor telling her that she had a 94 percent chance of remaining cancer-free.

Despite that fact, however, Lownsdale recounts how her bout with cancer has become a stigma of sorts in as far as getting health insurance is concerned; her remarks placed her right smack in the middle of the Obama administration’s push for health reforms.

Mrs. Obama pointed out how the health care reforms that the President is advocating will assist in preventing insurers from denying health insurance coverage to people with pre-existing conditions like Lownsdale, as well as require coverage for early disease detection procedures such as mammograms.

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