In 2022, an estimated 287,850 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in women in the U.S., along with 51,400 new cases of non-invasive (in situ) breast cancer. A further 2,710 new cases of invasive breast cancer are expected to be diagnosed in men in 2022.
The Breast Cancer Podcast miniseries provides insights from leading medical experts, people living with the condition and breast cancer survivors to share ways to prevent, detect and treat breast cancer. Episodes provide listeners additional information and resources that can help. Each episode looks at a different aspect of breast cancer from causes and symptoms, to diagnosis and treatment, and how people with breast cancer can live their life on their terms.
This series is not a substitute for a formal medical diagnosis or treatment, and if you have questions, talk to your qualified healthcare provider. Also, don't delay treatment or ignore medical advice because of anything you hear on any podcast.
The Breast Cancer Podcast is part of Health Unmuted and created by Mission Based Media Ltd. Listen and follow this series on your favorite podcast app, and find useful links, references and more information on our website, healthunmuted.com.
[00:00:00] Even before I got the call, I knew and I turned to Eugene and I said,
[00:00:03] things are just never going to be the same. And they were.
[00:00:08] Thanks for listening to this preview of the Breast Cancer Podcast,
[00:00:12] part of the Health Unmuted Audio Library by Mission Based Media.
[00:00:15] Although breast cancer continues to affect millions of women every year,
[00:00:19] medical breakthroughs are continuing to improve treatment and outcomes.
[00:00:23] And we'll talk about all of this in the Breast Cancer mini series.
[00:00:27] In each episode, we hear from medical experts and people with lived experience to engage,
[00:00:32] educate and empower listeners. And we'd love you to be a part of getting the show out to the people
[00:00:36] and families impacted by breast cancer. To learn more about how you can be involved,
[00:00:41] visit HealthUnmuted.com or drop us a line at info at HealthUnmuted.com. Enjoy the preview.
[00:00:49] Breast Cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world.
[00:00:53] In the U.S., there's a one in eight chance of a woman developing breast cancer over the course
[00:00:58] of their lifetime. That is a somewhat deceptive statistic. Most of that cancer is toward later
[00:01:06] ages and oftentimes is not very aggressive and fairly easily managed.
[00:01:12] But sometimes it's not.
[00:01:14] I unfortunately lost my sister to metastatic triple negative breast cancer six months
[00:01:20] before my diagnosis. And my sister and I had lost our mother to breast cancer when we were
[00:01:27] both in graduate school. We're both relatively young, 25 years old.
[00:01:31] So why do some people develop breast cancer and others don't? We dive into that in episode one.
[00:01:37] Being female and age, those are by far the strongest risk factors.
[00:01:43] Beyond that, risk factors fall into two main categories.
[00:01:46] The first is overall exposure to hormones and changing hormones.
[00:01:51] So we know that younger women is when she starts her period and the longer she continues to have
[00:01:55] a period, those two things are associated with breast cancer risk.
[00:02:00] The second category is genetic risk.
[00:02:03] There are some inherited genes that strongly increase the risk of breast cancer.
[00:02:09] Of course it's not just women who are at risk of breast cancer.
[00:02:13] I got really numb. I don't really remember a lot of what happened that day.
[00:02:18] About 1% of breast cancer cases are diagnosed in men and actor Kenneth Nelson is one of them.
[00:02:24] I didn't really know what it was going to look like for me, especially being a male.
[00:02:28] If people know that more men can get it, that could probably save lives.
[00:02:33] There are several treatment options for breast cancer and we discuss them in episodes two and
[00:02:38] three. So every chemo session I would go and I get this whole full makeover so that when I looked
[00:02:47] in the mirror, I didn't get sad because all of the side effects that comes with chemo.
[00:02:53] Marina also did a several week course of chemotherapy before undergoing a mastectomy.
[00:02:58] They put some spacers in order to put an implant later on and my doctor, he was
[00:03:04] very sad at me leading a normal life. I said, I don't care it can be an implant,
[00:03:09] it just doesn't matter, I just want to have my life back and he said you're 37 years old.
[00:03:13] You are going to care. You wanted to look natural, you want to look good.
[00:03:18] And throughout the series, we'll hear from survivors about their experiences
[00:03:22] and what they wish other people knew about breast cancer.
[00:03:26] What advice would you give to someone who's just been diagnosed?
[00:03:30] I think that it's really important to decide how you want to go through your cancer journey.
[00:03:37] There's no right or wrong way. A very famous person called me when they heard that I had been
[00:03:43] diagnosed and they told me to go get into bed and pull the covers over my head
[00:03:49] and don't come out for six months. I was the opposite. I started a charity,
[00:03:54] the Comedy Cures Foundation came out guns blazing and I just wanted to help as many people as possible.