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America's top cancer doctor diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer
America's leading cancer doctor announced she has been diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer and will need surgery.
Dr Monica Bertagnolli, the first female director of the National Cancer Institute at the NIH, revealed today that she has been diagnosed with hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
She will require an operation and potentially more treatment, but said she is 'excited' to continue in her NCI role and plans to take leave as necessary.
In a heartfelt statement on NIH's website, she said: 'It’s one thing to know about cancer as a physician, but it is another to experience it firsthand as a patient as well.'
Dr Monica Bertagnolli, 63, announced her early-stage breast cancer diagnosis today
As with many others shortly after their cancer diagnosis, she is awaiting a treatment plan — but will likely have surgery and a type of drug therapy.
Dr Bertagnolli thanked doctors treating her at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where she became the first female chief of surgical oncology in 2007 and worked for 11 years.
She hopes to contribute to ongoing research and has enrolled in a clinical trial focused on diagnosis.
She said she was grateful to have been given effective screening early enough, leaving her with a 'favorable' prognosis.
Dr Bertagnolli's cancer is the most common for someone of her age, and has a five-year survival rate of 100 percent if confined to one breast and 90 percent if it has spread to nearby lymph nodes.
She said in her statement: 'To anyone with cancer today: I am truly in this together with you.'
Dr Bertagnolli during her time as the chief of surgical oncology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where she is now receiving treatment. She was the first woman to hold the position
She added: 'As doctors, we are also human, and we are not fundamentally different from the people that we care for just because we are on the provider side of things.
'The patient experience is something that I think everyone goes through in life —although each individual’s experience is unique, especially when it comes to cancer.'
Dr Bertagnolli took the top position at the NCI on October 3, 2022, having been a cancer oncologist all her working life.
She grew up on a ranch in southwestern Wyoming and graduated from Princeton University with an engineering degree.
Dr Monica Bertagnolli (pictured left) with First Lady Jill Biden (pictured center) and Rep. Jackie Speier (pictured right) at the University of California San Francisco Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center in October this year. The Bidens’ son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world and affects more than two MILLION women a year
Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world. Each year in the US there are more than 266,000 new cases, and the disease claims the lives of 40,000 women. In the UK, it strikes 55,000 each year and kills 11,500 women. But what causes it and how can it be treated?
What is breast cancer?
Breast cancer develops from a cancerous cell which develops in the lining of a duct or lobule in one of the breasts.
When the breast cancer has spread into surrounding breast tissue it is called an 'invasive' breast cancer. Some people are diagnosed with 'carcinoma in situ', where no cancer cells have grown beyond the duct or lobule.
Most cases develop in women over the age of 50 but younger women are sometimes affected. Breast cancer can develop in men though this is rare.
Staging means how big the cancer is and whether it has spread. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and stage 4 means the cancer has spread to another part of the body.
The cancerous cells are graded from low, which means a slow growth, to high, which is fast growing. High grade cancers are more likely to come back after they have first been treated.
What causes breast cancer?
A cancerous tumor starts from one abnormal cell. The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. It is thought that something damages or alters certain genes in the cell. This makes the cell abnormal and multiply 'out of control'.
Although breast cancer can develop for no apparent reason, there are some risk factors that can increase the chance of developing breast cancer, such as genetics.
What are the symptoms of breast cancer?
The usual first symptom is a painless lump in the breast, although most breast lumps are not cancerous and are fluid filled cysts, which are benign.
The first place that breast cancer usually spreads to is the lymph nodes in the armpit. If this occurs you will develop a swelling or lump in an armpit.
How is breast cancer diagnosed?
- Initial assessment: A doctor examines the breasts and armpits. They may do tests such as a mammography, a special x-ray of the breast tissue which can indicate the possibility of tumors.
- Biopsy: A biopsy is when a small sample of tissue is removed from a part of the body. The sample is then examined under the microscope to look for abnormal cells. The sample can confirm or rule out cancer.
If you are confirmed to have breast cancer, further tests may be needed to assess if it has spread. For example, blood tests, an ultrasound scan of the liver or a chest x-ray.
How is breast cancer treated?
Treatment options which may be considered include surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone treatment. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments are used.
- Surgery: Breast-conserving surgery or the removal of the affected breast depending on the size of the tumor.
- Radiotherapy: A treatment which uses high energy beams of radiation focused on cancerous tissue. This kills cancer cells, or stops cancer cells from multiplying. It is mainly used in addition to surgery.
- Chemotherapy: A treatment of cancer by using anti-cancer drugs which kill cancer cells, or stop them from multiplying
- Hormone treatments: Some types of breast cancer are affected by the 'female' hormone estrogen, which can stimulate the cancer cells to divide and multiply. Treatments which reduce the level of these hormones, or prevent them from working, are commonly used in people with breast cancer.
How successful is treatment?
The outlook is best in those who are diagnosed when the cancer is still small, and has not spread. Surgical removal of a tumor in an early stage may then give a good chance of cure.
The routine mammography offered to women between the ages of 50 and 70 mean more breast cancers are being diagnosed and treated at an early stage.