A History Lesson

My pain is reducing, it is more of an ache than a pain (except if I twist or turn too sharply) and I am down to taking only a few medicines a day. I feel good, like I should be healed and wonder why this must continue? I wish we could just stop now and call it cured and I could get back to my life. But I know that this fight must continue, its not over yet.

The first time I asked my daughter to put burn cream on my back she asked me if I was sure she couldn’t “catch” breast cancer this way. While that may seem like a ridiculous question, it made me think of how this all must be in her adolescent mind. How incredibly overwhelming and immensely frightening. People tell her all the time that she looks just like me and I am sure she wonders, how much like me is she…is she going to follow in my footsteps and get cancer too? I pray not, my cancer does not have a genetic link, but it is certainly a valid concern.

I have been doing some research on the history of this loathsome disease and have uncovered some eye opening statistics. Worldwide, it is the most common cancer in women after skin cancer and annually claims more than 500,000 lives worldwide, over 40,000 of those in the United States. The US has the highest incidence of breast cancer, which we can attribute to our modern westernized lifestyle of high fat, low exercise. As third world countries develop and become more westernized, then so increases their incidence of breast cancer. Currently in the US, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer, so even without any family risk, my daughter certainly has cause for concern. If she were to follow in my footsteps and not only get breast cancer, but get my type of breast cancer (Triple Negative) then her odds of survival drop due to the aggressiveness and high recurrence rate of Triple Negative breast cancer. To quote Dr. Rado, this is a particularly nasty cancer. They have only been doing in depth studies of Triple Negative for about four years now, so hopefully they will discover some successful treatments as the years progress. There are some drugs in clinical trials that have shown promise in combating this despicable disease, I just hope they find them and get them approved before it is too late for me.

There is a lot of interesting history to breast cancer and I must be grateful that I did not live hundreds or thousands of years ago and develop breast cancer. It is one of the oldest known forms of cancerous tumors in humans and is documented back to ancient Egypt in 1600BC. An Egyptian physician wrote of the disease; there is no treatment. There are recorded cases of the excising of the tumor and the entire breast back to ancient times and I shudder thinking of enduring that kind of surgery over 1000 years ago. It wasn’t until the 1700’s that they started to link the breast tissue to the lymph nodes and in 1882 they began performing radical mastectomies on breast cancer patients to halt the progression of the disease. Unfortunately, this surgery often led to long term pain and debilitation for the rest of the patient’s life. However, if done before the cancer metastasized, it was the only cure.

It is estimated that throughout history, breast cancer has claimed more than 25,000,000 lives. That is a lot of lives.

Thanks to continued research, radiation treatments began over 100 years ago and chemotherapy started in the 1940s and both have made incredible strides. Coupled with surgery, they can eradicate this disease in most and stave off death for numerous years in others. I hope that the research continues unfettered and eventually, a cure is discovered. I’d like to have that hope alive for me; and for my daughter as she grows to adulthood. I tremble just thinking of her “catching” this disease. I wish it was as easy as not touching my back which has the cancer. I do wish it was that simple. In the meantime, we support research efforts and pray fervently for a cure.