The Role of Your Oncologist and THE FACTS

Hello my friends and listeners. I hope you tuned in to today's show. If not, remember you can go to http://www.blogtalkradio.com/auntemmy to here all past shows on-demand! This week we discussed some important topics. First, I want to provide some clarification for one of my listeners about the roles of the oncologist treating breast cancer. Please remember you can ALWAYS email and ask me for clarification or additional information. Here goes:

The first oncologist you are likely to meet is the surgical oncologist who will do a biopsy and then perform either a mastectomy or a lumpectomy.

Then you may next meet the medical oncologist who is the physician who orders and manages your drug therapy (chemotherapy), orders and reviews your blood work and  keeps in touch with the radiology oncologist who administers radiation as needed.

Think of the medical oncologist as the captain of your team. 

The Little Pink Purse of Courage is a 37 page booklet with 41 questions that you need to take with you when you first meet your medical oncologist. Some of those questions address knowing the specific type of breast cancer with which you have been diagnosed and knowing what stage it is in.   Those are hard questions to ask and The Little Pink Purse becomes your voice at the point when you are most vulnerable and don’t even know what to ask.

 I also want to put this disease in perspective for you by giving you some of the facts:

• 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year
• In  2009, an estimated 192,370 new cases of  invasive breast cancer were diagnosed in women in the U.S.
•  62,000 women will be diagnosed with non -invasive breast cancer each year
• About 90% of breast cancers are due, not to heredity, but to genetic abnormalities that happen as a result of the aging process and life in general
• 2.5 million women as of 2008 have survived breast cancer.
• Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in the U.S.

****Information from breastcancer.org and the American Cancer Society****