The Changing Breast Cancer Landscape
The past three months have seen significant changes not only in the breast cancer arena but in science and medicine more generally.
- Barbara Brenner, one of my personal she-roes, who led the group Breast Cancer Action, died on May 10 at her home in San Francisco. She was 61.
- Angelina Jolie surprised the public with an op-ed revealing her genetic mutation on one of the so-called breast cancer genes and her subsequent decision to have preventive surgeries to reduce her future risk of breast or ovarian cancer.
- With cancer prevention at the forefront of public discussion, there was a new and overzealous push for chemoprevention drugs for women at high-risk for breast cancer but who have not been diagnosed with the disease.
- Yet a working group from the U.S. National Cancer Institute published an article citing “overdiagnosis” and “overtreatment” of some cancers. To quell the problem, they suggest a change in nomenclature, arguing that certain indolent breast, lung, prostate, and thyroid tumors should no longer be called “cancers.”
- The U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of the Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, ruled that it is illegal to hold patents on natural human genes.
The Breast Cancer Consortium actively engaged these issues on radio, in the news, and in our communities.
BCC’s Beyond Awareness Campaign is also building momentum. The Beyond Awareness Workbook and Booklet Series will be part of our campus outreach this academic year. Talks at Colgate University, Texas Tech, and University of the Pacific are already on the calendar. Two of these lectures are sponsored by Sociologists for Women in Society as part of a Distinguished Feminist Lectureship Award program. Participants in the Geography, Archaeology, Biology Research Activities Forum (GABRAF) conference at the University of North Texas also generously donated proceeds from registration fees to support BCC’s Beyond Awareness campaign. We deeply appreciate this support.
If you would like to plan a Beyond Awareness campaign or event in your community, we can help. Please email me at: gayle.sulik@breastcancerconsortium.net. In the meantime, please browse our website, book reviews, and resources. If you like what you see, please forward our newsletter to your colleagues and friends. Thank you for reading, and for helping to change the breast cancer paradigm.
Cordially,
Gayle A. Sulik, PhD (founder and executive director, Breast Cancer Consortium)
