Your Health's Best Defense? Early Detection Starts With Screenings

Transcript:

Jamie Forward: When it comes to breast cancer screening and screening in general, why is early detection so important?

Dr. Wendy Levin: Let me put this in perspective and share with you that survival rates in breast cancer, if they’re caught early in a localized stage, the five-year relative survival rate is virtually 99  percent. This is really astounding data, and it really gives credit to where we’ve come so far in the field.

So, early detection means that we can treat the cancer before it has a chance to spread, which significantly reduces the need for these aggressive systemic therapies like intensive chemotherapy or radical surgery. So again, very, very important for curative intent to identify cancers early. And the interval symptoms, to be able to do that, are also important to highlight. So, mammograms, again, they’re performed yearly, but they’re really just a snapshot in time. And so, women should contact their physicians immediately if they have what we call interval symptoms between annual screenings. So, that could include a new lump or a mass in the breast maybe found on a self-exam. Any localized skin changes. Sometimes you’ll see some dimpling of the skin around the breast. That suggests that there may be a mass underneath that’s a little bit deeper. Another thing to look for is nipple retraction. So, that means where the nipple is actually turning inward, which is a change from baseline for women.

And along with that, any spontaneous or bloody discharge. And then, finally just in general, any sort of persistent, unexplained changes in the skin, shape, or symmetry of the breast. All of these symptoms and signs can really help us look towards early detection for cancer, and possibly curative intent for these women.

Jamie Forward: Sure. And when you’re thinking about reaching out to say you have one of the symptoms that you just mentioned, when you’re thinking about reaching out, who do you contact first? Is it a portal message? What do you do? Call the nurse and get an appointment right away?

Dr. Wendy Levin: Yeah. Again, that’s a great question. And I think we all understand today that healthcare providers are really challenged today. As the population ages, physicians become fewer in number and less available to see patients.

So, there are also care providers that work with physicians at a very high level. So, physicians’ assistants and things like that that are highly trained. Sometimes you can’t always get in to the oncologist, but if you can get in to a physician assistant or a lower level care provider, that gets you into the system quickly. They can order the tests, and that moves things along a little bit quicker. So, I think getting educated about the healthcare system that you’re involved in and that’s covered by your insurance is actually very important.

Jamie Forward: Yeah. I think that’s such a great point because oftentimes you can reach out to your provider that you would ordinarily reach out to, and they can’t get you in for a couple of months, or weeks, or whatever that looks like. So, just maybe even reaching out to your primary care physician or getting ahold of that nurse there to help push something forward. Really being persistent, right?

Dr. Wendy Levin: Yes. Absolutely. And again, primary care provider is also very important here because they will be able to refer you to the oncologist when they have the right test done.

And so, that actually speeds the process on quite a bit. They can order screening tests. They can order the mammographies and perhaps ultrasounds so that when that patient comes to the oncologist, they’ve got all of that information there, and we can put that together quickly, and make a plan, and act quickly in order to minimize the timeframe between identification of a cancer and definitive treatment.